Big time yardening

For the last two days chances were high you'd find me in the backyard. The weather was really beautiful and inside it was still chilly, so really, what is the best thing to do? Yes, taking care of mother nature. - Well, she's able to take care of herself pretty well I guess, but providing her with a little space and profiting by extending "my garden" goes hand in hand.

First I removed our little water hole (a plastic box that Sisto and me had put in the ground last summer to rescue a couple of tadpoles we had found in a shrinking roadside puddle) - a pledge to remove it because of the mosquitos was out by my mother in law for a little while now.

Then I took care of the compost bin. The compost wasn't good, it was gooey and had a lot of larvae, but just a few worms. I don't know why. The last time I turned it it was the same. Only the first time did it smell good. But since it wasn't completely broken I put it back then. So I never really got my own compost into the ground.

This time I didn't wanted to put it back in the bin. So I used some of it as organic matter to fill that big hole in the ground. Worm cantina. When I went through the dirt I found two nicely sprouted avocado pits. I saved them, planting one next to the dead tree in the yard, so it cannot be mowed over. 

Mowing is a big time problem here. Just a day after we talked about the wild blue flowers in our front lawn looking so nice because it hadn't been mowed for a while, the guy who does it came around and I was too late to ask him to spare the spot. 

Only one small spot still held blossoming wilderness. The space around that former water hole. A couple stones plus the dug out dirt from the hole separate it a little, making it hard to mow. 

I had already planted a couple of garlic cloves that had sprouted over there. Some of them were lucky, others got shorter. To protect them and some to be planted sweet potatoes I made a little brick outlining. Then I wrote what I had planted - garlic, sweet potato and  one of the earlier found avocado pits - onto palm leave stems and made it even more clear: this is a no mowing zone! Flowers saved. Bees welcome. 

Today I further transplanted two kale plants and a couple of the small lettuces of which I still keep a lot in empty salad shells. A work in progress...

 

You're not tired yet? Here's more: Protecting my mallows after the mower had cut of the biggest of them with a little wall. Dug out the stones for that wall between some palm tree roots behind our room. Sowed amaranth and flax, some in the back some in the front. Finally, I guess, that was it...

No more GG puppies!

It's almost four. I've been working on our taxes and finishing them up a minute ago. So nice to know we'll get some money back, and even nicer to have the relieve of finished business!

Georgia had her spay surgery last wednesday. It was a horrible day because she had to wait in a little crate the whole day long for the surgery to take place. There was an emergency and instead of having us come in later we had her in around 9 in the morning. When we called to pick her up around four pm they told us they just started. Later, when she finally had woken up (with us waiting in front of the clinic because they also said we could pick her up at 5.30) she was shaking and almost fell over when she saw us coming to pick her up. In the car she was still so dizzy she had to fight to not fall over. Georgia was so happy when she was home: Immediately recognized her pillow, lay down and needed love and attention. She kept us awake for a couple of hours whining every time we would stop petting her. Then maybe an hour after I had tried out a homeopathic cure she finally fell asleep until the next morning.

Now she is already a lot better. Though pretty whiny. Three days ago she started to get into our closet which was really weird. I don't know if I already told you that she had gained some weight (some people feed her sausages and table scraps unfortunately) and her tits had grown in the last month, after we finally had them shrinking from when she was nursing. So when she was getting into the closet we thought about all this freshly and are pretty sure now that girl is false pregnant. And eventually the spay just triggered it. It's kind of cute and funny that she always wants to go into the closet though it's not a healthy state of mind I'm sure. Also I'm afraid of her getting sick when she's laying on the cold wood all the time so I put some towels and a blanket for her inside. I started giving her some homeopathy to help her off that believe and it looks like it might help. Hope she gets better soon!

Did you ever have a dog or cat that was false pregnant? How long did it last?

Witnessing both her and John after that surgery made us hope we wouldn't have to go through this again. We'll see. Right now she doesn't lick her wound which was our biggest fear and we're actually quite surprised by the fact that she doesn't. But maybe it hasn't yet started. But all this whining is challenging enough. John came back after surgery, was just a bit unbalanced (ok, he had already had a couple of hours to wake up, when we picked him up at four) but then just came home, lay down and slept the rest of the day. No whining. Neutering I guess is less invasive but it also shows the different personalities. At least now it's done. She cannot have more puppies, won't be in heat any more and will also have a much lower risk for several diseases when she gets older.

What's your experience with a freshly spayed or neutered animal?

Happy February...

and have a nice sunday everybody, even if life doesn't always treat you the way you deserve!

I told you.. our first calendula.