It's been pretty busy around here, in a very frustrating way. It's summer vacation and the kids are around in full force. It's hard because I have found that in order to fill my "bucket" so to speak, I need unreasonable amounts of alone time on a day to day basis. Unreasonable when you have 3 children and a husband..and a father, all packed into a small house and it is summer vacation. Not so unreasonable during the school year.
I am just putting my head down and getting through the next 29 days until the first day of school.
But really, it hasn't been all THAT bad. I'm just whiney.
Here are some things that I have been up to:
G has been doing a bit of beekeeping with me. She loves it.
Here's a few of the bees:
Uncapped honey!
They are doing pretty well. I had to treat them for varroa mites this past week. I'm going into the hive at the end of this week so I can see how everything went. Then I have to consider my honey harvesting options. It's looking like I may actually get a little this year. It's about time those bitches started earning their keep.
Kidding..I actually like my bees better than my dog.
Dumbass dog..
I also have been doing battle with a family of groundhogs at my community garden. Here is what my greens bed usually looks like in July:
Kale in the middle looks nice, huh?
Here's what it looked like this July:
The Devil's Marmot and it's son the Antichrist, is what I dubbed them.
I put out at least 2 pounds of Cayenne pepper to repel them, which works until it rains. Then it all depends on who gets to the garden first. The Hogs live on the property so I usually lost that relay.
The Devil's Marmot would crap in one of the beds:
I told the kids, when we found this, that it looks like Mr Hanky, The Christmas Poo. I offered to bring it home in a box, where we could put googly eyes and a hat on it. The kids were disgusted at me for the suggestion, but still went home to watch that episode of South Park, just because. (DO NOT, I say, DO NOT mention to my husband that I let my kids watch that 1, and only 1, episode of South Park. I will get in trouble. And then I will find you, you big tattle-tale. Then I will open that can of whoop-ass)
I told my husband about the Mr Hanky poo. He also got disgusted and said in his snotty "Cindy is acting infantile" voice, "I don't know what that means." and walked away with me yelling, "Fine! Next time I'll just go and get myself a husband who appreciates my poop humor!"
B hates my poop humor. I have this wonderful magnet, given to me by a dear, (and appreciative) friend that says "Ask me about my explosive diarrhea" I put it in my car window, but B keeps taking it down. The kids warned me that he threatened to throw it out, so I have to be very careful and remember to take it down before he uses the car.
So moving on..The Groundhogs.
I bought a Havahart trap. It was time. Especially after the little fuckers started to pull out the fencing to break into the gardens. It had just gone too far. I got the trap. Then I picked up G from Vacation Bible School (don't get me started on that..)and told her that it was a birthday present. I was hoping to capture a look of disappointment on her face:
The evident delight on her face just proves that she is indeed, my daughter. She got mad at me when I told her that it actually wasn't for her. She punched me and I had to placate her with an early birthday present.
So within 2 days we caught 2 young Hogs. Here is one of them:
Little scourge has no business looking so damn cute. I released him somewhere perfectly..legal.
The next day we caught the other one. We released that one too. I didn't get pictures, nor any of the mother possum and babies that we caught the next night. Did I mention the baby raccoon a friend and I had to haul out of the dumpster the week before? It's in the middle of the city, but it's like friggin Wild Kingdom over there.
So we had a quiet week and a half. Then the mother of them all, the Devil's Marmot herself, made an appearance yesterday. So I am hog hunting yet again.
My garden is bouncing back nicely though. I am happy and grateful for that.
This is getting very long winded. I'm going to leave with just one last little snippet and then try really hard to come back on later this week. No promises. I'm starting Camp NanoWriMo for the August session tomorrow and will really try to put down 50,000 words. It's more practical in August as happily, the kids will be in camp a lot more this month. Thank God..
So Horst went on holiday. All by himself. He took a plane to Chicago to visit my brother and his family. We considered hiring an escort to help him, but then decided to go with the sink, swim or -get strip searched by Homeland Security because you did something or said something silly to make people think you are a terrorist- approach.
Happily, he made it there and back. My brother, M didn't kill him. Usually, B or I are there as buffers for my brother. We try to lead the conversation so that Horst doesn't say or do anything to embarrass everyone. M, living in Chicago, doesn't get as much practice as we do. Here are the texts that my brother sent to me during my Dad's visit.
##Awkward conversation 1-Dad's battle with Columbia DVD Club
## At K's parent's house for dinner-God help me.
## I'm hoping that H (M's 2 year old son)will dominate the conversation
## I'm already sweating and nothing has happened yet
## Discussion about Munich-painful (Both Horst and K's Dad, my brother's wife, are from Germany)
## Discussion about Geese at Raytheon-god help me
## Work story about a bad breakfast-help
## Dad talking about food shows
## He is killing me
## Nana ordering everything on a pizza?! What the f is he talking about?
## I feel like I am in a time warp-every minute feels like and hour
## Talking about the job-more pain
I texted to ask if they left dinner a little later on he replied
## Yes-amen
The next day he texted to tell me
## Dad-is now caught up in H's favorite show-Mickey Mouse clubhouse
I texted to ask if Dad was talking to the TV, to which he responded:
## Yup
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