Garden & Landscaping Preparations

It’s almost time to begin sowing those seeds, ladies! Weeks before the planting season, I request my favorite seed catalogue from “Gurney’s” and pore over it as some women do shoe advertisements.

Visions of green beans, spinach and tomatoes are dancing in my head.

I even make an excel spreadsheet of what I hope to buy, determine the planting date, harvest date and if it’s better to buy the full plant or the seeds.
It gets pretty technical, but I love a good excel spreadsheet-reminds me of my accounting days….awe…

I narrow down my needs vs. wants using a system of highlighting, page marking and price comparison shopping. Tomatoes are the most difficult thing for me to narrow down. I could plant every variety that Oklahoma allows and still not have enough.

The tabs at the top are rearranged and my poor Biceps has to hear about the latest string bean that sounds interesting over and over.

This year, I’m going to plant a cover crop. I thought I would use a winter rye-but have decided to go with a clover. A cover crop is helpful to prevent erosion over the winter/spring season and also provides green manure for next year’s garden.

Also, this year we are going to finally landscape the naked front of our house. I would love to have an almond tree, several types of grasses, lavender, and two large oak trees out front.

It would look something like this if a second grader got ahold of markers and my computer screen.
Now, to just get Biceps on board with all of this. I think a romantic dinner, a massage and a discussion of seedlings, plants and trees are in his future….

Cats on the Counter, Training Help?

Dear Readers:
I need your help in the cat training department. It may seem surprising to tell you these kittens aren’t perfect. And yes, they are so cute it’s hard to believe they don’t obey my every command. In fact, their cuteness is the only thing keeping them around sometimes-to be honest.

Max gets a kick out of knocking the mannequin heads off of the fireplace mantel. Bianca has literally figured out how to turn on the kitchen sink faucet and sets up camp in the sink to drink to her little heart’s content. (She has a dish of fresh water each day, but this apparently isn’t good enough.)

This is how our discipline began with the tender kittens: A firm “NO” and a finger wag.
This did absolutely nothing.

Second came the squirt bottle. Initially, they didn’t like it and would run for the hills. But, then they got used to being hosed and held their ground as I sprayed them directly in the face during their naughty escapade.

We have since upgraded to an air horn. It’s ear splitting and I hate to use it-mostly because it deafens me and I know the neighbors can hear it. (I’m sure they just chalk it up to “those weird Greimans”.)
I think the cats are getting used to this, too.

For example, I have been sick for the last few days. The house was suddenly too quiet. I forced myself out of bed to find Max lounging on the kitchen counter and he was watching Bianca licking water from the faucet. They saw me-air horn and all, but went right on with what they were doing. I honked the air horn and both kittens scattered off into the living room-but were right back in position maybe 5 minutes later.

So, dear readers: how do you train your cat? I need some suggestions before I go crazy.

Gross Things-Volume 3

I certainly hope you have enjoyed getting to know the disgusting and gross things found in my home with “Gross Things-Volume 1” & “Volume 2”. I have decided to allow you see things I wouldn’t normally even want Biceps to see. But, with a new vulnerable lease on life, you are getting to see me, dirt and all.

My favorite rubberband had been missing for awhile. I got this from a fancy salon and it held my hair perfectly in ponytail fashion.
Today however, it was found while I was making the bed-shoved underneath the box spring.

Let me enlarge this for you.

Yep. Gross.

This has been today’s “Gross Things-Volume 3”.

Gross Things-Volume 2

I started off with Gross Things-Volume 1, destroying all notions of me being a perfect housekeeper. Today, I am going to share something even more gross, just to really hit home my point.

The peculiar odor of burning rubber hit my nostril-just one of them-the other one was plugged up, while vacuuming.

I flipped over my ancient Kirby vacuum cleaner while it was still running. The beater bar wasn’t moving.

It was in lock-down mode due to this disgusting mixture of my hair, cat hair and dust.

After about thirty minutes armed with two screwdrivers and needle nose pliers, this was removed from the beater bar and the belt.

 

I cut open my hands with the dang screwdriver and the vacuum cleaner still isn’t working.
This is gross and I took a picture of it just for you. I hope you have enjoyed knowing that life around here isn’t always rosebuds and glitter. This has been today’s installment of “Gross Things-Volume 2”.