CaptainOrange

I found this super industrious guy wandering about recently. He hauled this caterpillar up and down blades of grass in my lawn for half the morning. I must find some way to encourage this behaviour. Could solve all my pest problems.

I'm sick and tired. Literally. Sick with a cold, aches and nasty cough. Tired both because of said cold and because of my battle with garden pests. Chemicals would certainly make the job easier, but hand-to-hand seems so much more honourable. 16 on one leaf was the most I encountered. Smaller than these. At this time of year, caterpillars are our main foe. They particularly like our red current bush and Wendy's columbine. Last year they drove us to despair by consuming many baby bean plants and our beautifully maturing broccoli. I sent the girls in as a first line of defense. The insect hordes were as stars in the sky. Innumerable. Leora and Anwyn plucked as many as possible off the leaves, arms weary with exhaustion, and drowned them in a bucket of water. Hundreds from one bush. Then I sprayed the leaves to try and dislodge and discourage any too crafty to be caught. This morning I went out and counted another 150 or so plunging them to a watery death. Thank goodness I...

I'm putting these frost/sunrise images here because I love them, and want to share them, but don't want to do a post just for them. Suck it up. Onward... Our family was involved in a research project over the fall and winter that was looking into what barriers existed with regards to sustainability and general environmentally efficacious behaviour in Saskatoon families. We were prodded by a wonderful university student and subjected to meetings with her and other families that she was interviewing. We were asked to set personal and family goals, given some money and asked to journal the process. All in all, it was a terrific process that we all benefited from. Our part in the project is over, but one of the after effects is that those of us in the project were interested in staying in contact and chose to set up a blog to which everyone could contribute. It is my hope that we will continue to inspire each other and introduce one another to ideas to which we might have ...

Even when what's old is new I'm still behind the times. I watched a news piece on CBC a couple of years ago which talked about how clothes lines (and the installation there of) were booming. When we moved into our current house--8 years ago, for those counting--there was some existing infrastructure for having a clothes line, but it was incomplete and with me running the dayhome at the time it didn't seem like the most attractive idea on the planet. I took the pulleys and used them on the play structure so the kids could haul water, bricks and their lunches up to the top of the fort. only the finest materials Yesterday, with some deck screws, concrete, an auger, a little new lumber and the existing pulleys--stolen back from the fort--I built the family a state of the art clothes dryer. I just need to paint some fancy alpha-numeric. I'm thinking of "Z-3000" or something to jazz it up. Location, location... It's highly customized, as you can see. Thi...

I'm driving myself mad. It's kijiji's fault really -- too much free stuff. Add that to my very flexible schedule and you have an exhausting combination. On the right are the straw bales that I brought from out of town to mulch the garden with. I didn't want to make two trips, so I wound up with waaay too much. Should have taken Wendy's advice there :( I've also been hauling a lot of rocks which are getting put to use for some nice front yard landscaping. Many are still in "storage" until I have time to do some more sod removal. All this might be somewhat diverting if I weren't continuing to attempt all the new food production things that I've learned recently. Casualties are mounting. Yesterday I killed millions of bacteria when I messed up making yogurt. When will the insanity end? Wendy told me to stop doing extra shit and start behaving like a human being towards my children. Do you think she is trying to tell me something?

My grandiose exercise plans were brought to a screaming halt by a weird injury that I suffered in both elbows. I´m not exactly sure what precipitated the painful swelling. Could be over training... Could be an imminent battle with arthritis. I don´t really know, but it has been discouraging. After a month of nagging twinges and stabbing pain, I decided that my third round of Strep Throat was long overdue. I initially blamed my nephew, but further observation has indicated that it is ¨going around.¨ So far I have made sure that Wendy got her share. I am expectantly watching the girls. Naturally, in my pre-injured state, I was ambitious and the weather good. This overzealousness has lead to far too much time spent covering various plants in my yard to prevent freezing during this recent clinic of good old Saskatchewan weather. I have some pictures that I have been wanting to share and lots of good posting ideas, but my main computer -- the one I do all my major typing and graphic...

Once again I thought spring was certainly here this time. I was wrong of course. Below minus 20 before the windchill on March 17th is depressing. Never-the-less, a scant two days ago, it was marvelous and sunny. Wen and I got a bit edgy and decided to do some seeding in the greenhouse. It was between minus 5 and minus 3 outdoors, but in my little haven the temperature (at waist height) was 24 degrees celsius, in the shade. The sunny parts were making me sweat as I did a little caulking that I had neglegted in the fall. I seriously considered trying to put up a hammock in there and spend the day reading. It really is a bit early to plant and when I do, it will still involve a lot of transporting things back to the house for the non-sun hours. Currently the temperature will still rapidly drop below freezing inside the greenhouse if the sun isn't shining pretty hard. Later that day, Leora and Anwyn wen't to Liz's to help with some party preparations for Anthony's birthday ...

I woke up at 6:20am on Sunday. Leora wanted to get a head start her mother's day prep and Anwyn was just not waking up. "...so then I had to pinch her awake," was Leora's explanation for the noise that brought me upstairs in a rush. After comforting Anwyn for a bit, we began our labours. This year was great. The girls are getting big enough that my task was confined to advice and clean-up. The pancakes, sauces, flowers and presents were all managed with only the most minimal input from me. Washing dishes was another matter entirely... A little later, it was time to deal with my own mother. We went to Calories for brunch and had a really great time. I can't really speak for Mom, though. We did an excellent job of not discussing video games, but there was an air of discontent about and much of the conversation was dedicated to the woes of the education system and how teachers (not so subtly) act as corporate filters to sort people into their future jobs rather than ...