Man vs. Skwerrel

Because the kids are in the yard constantly, I mostly garden organically and steer clear of pesticides. But measures had to be taken against the squirrel, who is re-foresting our backyard with oaks.

Now this is mostly my fault, because I mulched the paths with the two big bags of oak debris in the first place, creating an annex to the All-U-Can-Eat buffet I was already running at the bird feeders. Acorns+ raised beds full of soft dirt+ squirrel instincts= the New Forest.

I don't mind plucking seedling trees out of the paths. In fact, his dedication to his job would be adorable, except that his wallowing around in the beds was causing havoc, so I bought a bottle of some sort of Repel-All at Lowe's. O and I tore up some muslin strips, tied them to short bamboo stakes and sprayed them with the solution.
And we may have been a little over-enthusiastic,

Because my yard STINKS.
But we expect that to fade with time.

Plant a Garden, Light a Candle

Forget diamonds-guess who's getting a compost bin, handmade, for Mother's Day? That'll neaten up the yard a bit.

You would not believe how many people are vegetable gardening now. Trav's old Boy Scout Master's wife, with whom I had a long, enjoyable talk at Boy Scout Food Drive. She's even growing berries.

My next-door neighbor, who put in one raised bed last year, like me and my four, and is doing another this year. Just herbs and flowers- but she's composting.

The lady around the corner on Devon, who's container gardening in her side yard.

The nice young couple two doors down from us, that Sis met through PTA. They have matching-aged kids, and the little girl came to play with O at our house. Then they all came down to look at my set-up in the evening. One of the lizards, the one with the short tail, appeared, to the delight of the little boys.

And those are just the ones I know about. I'm sure there are many, many more.

As next-door neighbor said: "I just want some beauty in my back yard."

The rest of us want the veggies- but we also want a usable skill. And though gardening is NOT a hobby in which you're in control- hah!- at least you feel like you're doing something useful. A couple of hours' work in the plot leaves you tired, but comfortably so- unlike a few hours in front of the computer, contemplating the current situation.

From the B'ob:

In your day-to-day life , you must refrain from activities that advance the infrahuman tide of ugliness, barbarism and falsehood in our endarkened world.

And when you refrain, you must put something else in that place. Not everyone can choose the garden. But we can all choose something. Bless you in your choice.

Snippets

I have the Oliver! photos, but don't want to post them until certain people have seen the show.

Target and Davy had tickets for Sunday, along with Sissy, Ni and friends. I had a frank talk with him at family dinner: "Look, sweetheart, if you're just going to this to be polite to the mom, it's really not necessary. I won't be offended and I can re-sell the tickets." Which I knew would be an important point, since one of his former careers was being a ticket-scalper in Chicago.
"No, no- I really do want to go. I was in Oliver! in like fifth grade. I got beat out for Oliver by a kid whose name was Oliver, but I was a gang member and know all the songs."
Well, okay, then.

Bubs found some of Ni's deadly magnet-n-rod toys, which I took home and threw away. Apropos of that, Marge told the story of how, when she was an R.A. for Governor's School at Hendrix, which is like summer play-college for high school students, one of the young men decided it would be a good idea to insert his testicles between two super strong magnets from the physics lab. It took a trip to the ER to remove them, after six hours or so. Good times.

I had just figured out how to operate the ice/water controls on the Yarb's new fridge and was getting some crushed ice when Bubs walked by.
'That's enough, Mimi" he decreed.

While decluttering the house after neglecting it for weeks, I found an American Scholar on the bedroom bookcase. I read an article on two author's correspondence and part of the critical article that followed. The next day, while browsing near the Dickens section at H-P Books, I found a slim volume by the same author on books and reading- a combination common-place book and book list. Synchronicity demanded that I buy it, along with an Annie Dillard and The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. Now I have to buy a lot of other new books, as well, as recommended by Mr. Dirda.
These buying sprees go in cycles- one idea trips another and off I go on Amazon and ABE, tracking down the pertinent texts.

Before that, I went to the Tea Party Gov't. Health Care protest at our representative's office in Irving. After the protest, we were invited in for some refreshments and had a long and informative talk with some of his aides.
What I wish? That in groups like the above, we could all just agree that indeed, we all think very decidely about whatever subject and just leave it at that. There's no prize for hating socialism, or Obama, or abortion or anything else more than everyone else present. Really. Conserve the energy and use it more constructively, I say.
This reminds me of why I was never a very good 'Traditional' Catholic- just couldn't get into the competitive angst.

De-cluttering the garden, as well, but that goes on the other blog. What I've decided is that though I've enjoyed the last few years costuming the musical, I'd really rather garden and mess with the children. Both activites have their own vitality and I love them both, but for right now, I lean more towards the introverted and contemplative. The times seem to require that, somehow.

Snippets

What I've been doing instead of writing here:

Gardening

Building stuff for the garden

and spinning. This is only about half of the output now. It's not exactly out of control, but has the potential to become so.

Just spent what might be my dumbest $8 ever on eBay, buying a fleece. It was advertised as 'washed', but when we opened the box, we learned that 'washed' doesn't mean 'odorless'. It's a lovely creamy white color, but smells distincly 'sheepish'. Nor is it carded, so I'm off to the Petco for some dog slicker brushes to deal with it.

Ro came in to hang about the bedroom door.
"I'm worried, Mom. B's mother thinks Barack Obama might be the anti-Christ. She's been seeing all these numerological signs that he is- something to do with 444. She's seeing it everywhere."

"Darling, you do know that numerology is complete bullshit, right?"

"Yes, but you know her. She seems so certain that if you listen to her long enough..."

"Okay- I think he's a biblical chastisement, but he's not suave enough to be the anti-Christ. Alright?"

"But he swayed a lot of people."

"Many of whom just thought it would be cool to elect the first black President and are now going 'Holy Moley- what just happened here?' So- stop worrying, at least about the anti-Christ part."

"Okay."

"And please don't pay any serious attention to B's mom."

Reading a wonderful web of interconnected works- from Schumacher's "Guide for the Perplexed" to Vincent McNab's "Flee to the Fields" to Schall's "The Order of Things". Sane people for crazy times.

I also picked up a copy of Magnificat magazine for May. The offices are not as long or full as the ones in Shorter Christian Prayer, but they involve less flipping around and manipulation of markers, which I can understand being appealing. It also includes all the Mass readings, meditations and bios of various saints. I can see why it is so very popular.

The Yarbroughs have been attending Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and love it. They have learned so much that has helped them understand how they deal with money and how they can change that for the better. They have Fan Target in their sights, now.

She just finished a wonderful knitted baby blanket for the new daughter of some of Davy's friends. He is on tour with a show now, but it's coming to Dallas for one night, so she and the Yarbs will get to see him then. We'll be babysitting, so they can attend.

"History is the river, real life is what happens on the banks."

Snippets

'Fan Target's' boyfriend is in town for 2 weeks, so we had Family Dinner on Saturday. She wanted to share the tradition of Marshall's Bar-B-Que with him, so we picked up a couple of family packs. And we ate off the Fort Worth Centennial plates I inherited from my grandmother and which are only used for family and honored guests.

While Sissy, Miss O and I cleaned up the kitchen before game playing and dessert, Marge and Davy fed Morgan Jane her dinner. "Let's just stuff her under our shirts and make a break for it", he said.

They are going to Arkansas this week, so he can meet college friends and see her school. She is a little apprehensive about this because strange things happen on trips to AR, but maybe if he's there, nothing odd will occur.

There is much progress on the toilet-training front, but people have threatened to quit reading if we don't quit writing about poop.

I finished my spinning lessons and have ordered a wheel of my own. Not the Cadillac design, more of a Hyundai, but with the potential for add-on's. I would be going through spin withdrawal, but I have to wind (and/or untangle) all the skeins I've made so far and wind them into balls, which keeps me busy. And I want to catch up on the sewing and clear my decks, to be able to spin guilt-free when it arrives.

Ro has gone to Austin to see the boyfriend in his roomates's movie at South by Southwest. It must be a sign of the times- everyone now has a movie that they edited in their bedroom, instead of a novel. She made them a cake, decorated to look like a wheel of Swiss cheese, a gigantic kitchen-wrecking project, but very cute. It seems the film is about a goat named Artois and goat cheese. As far as I can tell.

She got free show photos from "Rumors" because she was nice to the photographer, who appreciated it. She is 'jus' adorable' as the Tiny Cop. The other actor is about three times her size- no wonder they get a nice laugh.

Turning the back yard into my little mini-farm is one of the smartest things I've done lately. It's practical, it's exercise, it's soothing manual labor, it's meditative and prayerful and it's good stewardship.
Alas, many of the groups you turn to for advice, products, philosophy or fellowship are fanatic ecologists. Even the Catholic Bishops Conference for Rural Living has drunk the 'climate change' kool-aid. So, the winnowing of useful knowlege from hysteria is time-consuming, but worth it.