Owl Decoy

Oh, hey there! Meet our new garden addition. As I mentioned in my last post, chipmunks have been using our garden as their own personal nut repository. So I got this guy in hopes that he would scare the bejeezus out of those little guys so I don't have to resort to drastic measures. Just look at those crazy eyes, and his head moves too!

But the big question is, does it actually work? I think it's still too early to tell. We haven't had an ideal set up yet. The first day we got him, the chipmunks still went to town on our beds, but I don't think we placed the decoy in a good spot. He was sitting on our porch and sort of lower down than I think is normal for owls?  So, I'm going to put him up on a pole to, you know, simulate real owl life. The past few days, I've been putting him in more prominent spots around the garden and it seems to help the beds that are in direct line of the owl's sight. Hopefully, having him up in the air will help.

Scare tactics aside, Quil seems to like him and moves him around the garden for the fun of it. So we've got that going for us.

xo,
c.

Chipmunks and the Garden

Nature, you know? The vast wonders of her majestic beauty, punctuated by the biggest pains in my ass. First it was the deer, then the birds (yes, that's bird crap in our lettuce bed but I've made peace with the birds, for the time being), and now chipmunks.

The birds at least have some purpose, other than pooping everywhere. They eat the bad bugs that eat our veggies. But chipmunks, what good are they? Cute, for sure. And whenever Quil sees a chipmunk running around in the backyard, he says the chipmunk is on his way "to eat pasta with grandmother." Which he totally made up himself and is almost reason alone to pardon the creatures. But still, they are driving me crazy. They keep digging in our garden beds to hide their little nut stashes and in the process uproot any plants nearby their chosen spot. Holes like this in our potato bin:

And last night, one of those little brats knocked over one of my succulent pots on our porch and broke it. I just planted some flower seeds in another pot on our porch and they keep digging in that as well. I'm not even sure if the flowers will grow now since they've been disturbed so many times.

So, I did a quick little search and found that putting up a big fake owl in your garden is a common thing to do to freak those chipmunks right out. Now, that sounds all sorts of crazy. But I'm willing to try it. And I googled it and there are such things in existence for this exact purpose. I might just go all out and make my yard look like this:

There are some people on the web who say no amount of fake-owling will keep the pests out, but I'm going to give it a try since it's cheap and requires a minimal amount of effort. Nothing worse than spending a ton of money and time on something that doesn't work. I will let you know how it goes.

Wish me luck!
c.

For the Love of Plants

I've been doing a little bit of research into low-light houseplants.

After buying a handful of succulents over the past year, I'm realizing that we just don't have enough light to really get them to thrive. I have a few that are doing okay, but they are stretching and getting leggy due to the lack of light, even in our south-facing window (due to two beautiful, but huge, maple trees.)

Here's a photo of part of my current succulent collection that I moved out onto the porch for more sun. See how long and leggy that middle one is? And you can see the Echeveria at the top, how the center is stretching. Poor guys.

I came across this great post on Martha Stewart (of course) on how to measure what type of light you have and what plants are appropriate for your light levels. I don't think I'm going to do the entire light test with the camera that they suggest, but it did give me some ideas for plants to look out for. Here are two of my favorites:

Crested Leopard Plant (Farfugium Japonicum 'Crispatum')

Source: marthastewart.com via Crystal on Pinterest

Prayer plant (Maranta leuconeura)

Source: marthastewart.com via Crystal on Pinterest

I don't know what I'm going to do with all these succulents come fall - right now they are on the porch which gets a bit more sun, but come winter they will have to come back indoors. I looked into using plant grow lights, but those have a tendency to be an eyesore. We still have a grow light hanging in our kitchen from our seed starts and it just screams "illegal activity" to me. But it may be my only choice if I want to keep them.

Anyone have any low-light houseplant they like and recommend?

Garden 2013 Update - Deer Fencing and Raised Beds

What's new on the homestead? Harvested some ramps from a friends property (pictured above - ramps as far as the eye can see), garden is underway, pond stocking is in progress, potatoes are sprouted, the reclaimed wood for the compost bin is nail free, a couple more raised beds have been built, and deer fence is almost up. Now, we just need the weather to cooperate! It's been up and down the past couple weeks and I guess that's why we have "last frost dates" - but man, am I itching to just get going with the warm weather already!

Today we started putting up the new deer fencing that was my gift to myself last year when I got a bonus at work. Who buys deer fence with their bonus? I do. It's that important to me. With our past experience, it's just not worth it to garden in our area if you don't have either a dog or a deer fence. We don't want a dog, so we went with the fence. I'm really, really hoping this does the trick because I love having a garden but the stress of the deer almost makes it not worth it.

I wish I had more pictures for you from the past few weeks, but I'm too lazy to upload them right now.

So here is a picture of one of our raised beds before we installed it last fall. You can see the basic construction in this photo. The outside rails are attached to four posts that will go into the ground so the bottom board sits flush on the ground.

After installing them, we put a layer of black weed blocking fabric, followed by a few layers of cardboard, a layer of leaves, a layer of alpaca manure, then another layer of leaves. This then sat for the past six months to kill the weeds and grass and also create the nutrient rich base for a layer of composted soil that went on top last week. If you can do this in the fall, it will save you a lot of work come spring (and summer, since it will save you lots of time weeding.)

Okay, so I know some of you are wondering why we used pine when it's going to be outside and will eventually rot. Ideally, cedar would be the wood of choice since it's naturally rot resistant. But Cedar is many dollars. We figured if we can get a few years out of these beds before they rot, it will have been worth the price we paid for the wood. I think down the line, we're open to trying different things. We just don't have the money for cedar ones at this point. One bed can run upwards of $200 - which is double what we paid to make ALL our beds.

We also didn't seal the wood. And the reason being, we don't want any toxic materials touching the soil that will be growing the food we'll be eating. This is also the reason we didn't use pressure treated wood, which again is rot resistant but also treated with chemicals. Here is Quil helping Andrew with the beds last fall. And by helping I mean, running around like a maniac. I just got him during a moment of stillness in this shot.

I will post more current photos of our progress soon, I promise!

xo,
c.

Life of Parents: A Balancing Act

Ever since Ellis arrived, it's been non-stop craziness. Not in a bad way. Just really, really busy. Andrew and I always wonder what we did with all our free time before we had kids. We were productive, for sure. But, I can't even fathom that much free time anymore. My perception of free time has forever been altered. If I can offer any advice to any person who doesn't have kids yet (and plans on having them in the future), it would be: Don't waste time. We did a lot before we had kids. We traveled, we played music, we built things, we renovated a house. Many of these things we still do now, but with much less frequency and a lot less spontaneity, and I STILL feel like we didn't take advantage of our kid-free days!

Becoming a parent has been one of the most fulfilling and joyful experiences I've had thus far in life. And I wouldn't want to be this busy for anything other than my two babies and Andrew. It's just a fact that our lives are busier now that we are a family of four.

How does a family balance work, keep the house under control, spend time with the kiddos, not to mention the spouse, and still do things that make one feel whole (for me, that means gardening, crafts, making stuff and having eternal side projects)? It's a challenge, to say the least. But somehow with the million things that have to be done everyday, we manage.

I admit that we have a unique situation; a situation that in recent years probably became less unique due to the recession. I'm a working Mama and Andrew is a stay-at-home Papa. It was an arrangement that we would have never imagined, but has turned out to be a true blessing. Andrew is an, honest-to-goodness, domestic genius. He somehow manages to take care of the kids, take care of our home, cook, clean, do laundry, grocery shop, check the mail, take out the garbage and compost, mail our packages, pay our bills, bake bread on a regular basis, and still do freelance work on the side. I don't know how he does it! I work 40+ hours a week as Creative Director at a start-up, and can barely manage regular bathing. Also, a one-income household is no joke in this day and age. So, there are a lot of things that we go without because of this choice we made. But having one of us home to help keep our lives intact is well worth the monetary sacrifices we make.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about specific things we have found that help balance work and life. This is what I came up with:

1. Sharing the load
Neither of us is above doing anything that helps keep our family sane and happy. Andrew may not work a traditional 9-5, but he does so much at home that I don't have to worry about working at the office AND at home. But I also realize that Andrew has a tough job too, so I try to keep my mess to a minimum and give him a break from the kids as often as I can.

2. Not owning a television
We haven't owned a TV in years. Not because we don't like television or think it's evil or something. There are lots of television shows that we enjoy. We just prefer to watch TV shows when a series is over and we can get every season on DVD (Six Feet Under box set, yes please!) There are just a lot of other things we would rather be doing than watching TV.

*One note for the sake of transparency, we do have multiple computers AND a movie projector for watching Netflix or DVDs. Andrew watches documentaries and movies at night before bed on an iPad and Q loves watching movies and Yo Gabba Gabba. Also, Andrew loves sports. So, we aren't completely screen-free. I watch hardly anything at all, but I also sit in front of a computer all day at work and the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit in front of another one.

3. The hours between 6am to 8am and  9pm to Midnight
These are the only hours we have to ourselves to do the things we need/want to do, without relying on each other to watch the kids. AKA the time to get stuff done (AKA showering.)

4. Accepting that our free time is limited for the next few years
This was a hard one for me. After Andrew telling me this over and over, and me being in denial, it finally sunk in after Ellis was born. Time has sped up double time these past 7 months and this made me see that Quil and Ellis will only be babies for such a short period of time! It makes me and Andrew both a little misty eyed to think that they are growing up so fast, and this makes it a much easier to devote every waking minute to them. Because we know we only have so much time with them before they grow up and don't need us like they do now. Also, whenever I complain about not having time to do "stuff I want to do," Andrew reminds me "that's what retirement's for." Thanks, honey :P

5. Waking up early
This is just par for the parenting course. We don't even set an alarm anymore. It's amazing how much you can get done before 9am.

6. Talk to one another
We struggle with this one still, and it's probably the most important. We lean heavily on one another and the last thing we want is for any resentment to build up between us. Sometimes our lives can get so chaotic that it's like we are in the same room but we can't see each other. And that's never good. It can lead to feeling unappreciated and overwhelmed, with each person feeling like they are going it alone. Sometimes, we just have to step back and breath and remind each other that we're a team.

7. Give up control
If we're going to expect each other to make decisions for the family, we have to trust each others judgement and not try to control everything. This was another thing that was hard for me because I'm a slight control freak and I like to do things my way (who doesn't?!) But just like Andrew wouldn't come to my work and tell me how to do my job, I'm not going to come home and complain about how he does things, even if he doesn't do things the way I would do them. He has our family's best interest in mind, and that's good enough for me.

How do you guys keep balance in your family life? We always welcome new ideas and suggestions because we don't have it all figured out! Does anyone really?

xo,
c.

P.S. Here is a great series that ran on A Cup of Jo on work/family life balance.