Garden Time

One of the things I looked forward to in this new house was the possibility of a garden. The majority of the yard is slated for a native/wildflower sort of scheme (though I'll have to make sure and avoid anything with feathery/stickery seeds. They felt up in Cyrus' fur like crazy). But I picked the least clayey (it's a real word), sunniest part of the yard for a veggie garden.

In preparation for starting work on this section, I've been doing what I always do before I start a new project...

Check out people's blogs. And put about 30 library books on hold. This made me realize how lucky I am, gardenwise. I know, I live in California where you're supposed to be able to stick a stick in the ground and it'll grow. I am not sure I'll be able to garden that well, but I'm referring more to seasons. Granted, the summer is pretty hard to growing things. But while most of the garden bloggers are bemoaning the inactivity of January, February and March, gazing at their brand new seed catalogs or new seed packets in impatience, I can start up with anything that says "Plant as soon as the ground can be worked" or "Sow 2-4 weeks before your estimated last frost date". (By the way, did any of this matter a month ago? No. Welcome to my hobby-gathering.)

So, I did receive some of my seeds a few weeks ago. But I've been waiting for a fence to protect the veggie patch from the furry tornado that is the dogs. Matt took care of that today (Yay, Babe!), but unfortunately that was after the following pictures were taken. I'll post that next time. But I can sow my peas (Sugar Sprint Snap Peas), the free carrots (Nantes, we'll have to see if they can take the clay), the Broccoli Raab, the Bok Choi (for Matt) and the radishes.

Hopefully I don't kill everything. I did already plant some sprouting garlic that volunteered in my pantry. It's doing well. The greens are about 8 inches tall after 3 or 4 weeks. The dogs knocked one over, so in the picture, they are protected by the lawn chair.

Anyway, here is what I'm working with, as of the end of January. This is a poorly stitched together "panorama" of the vegetable patch area. Notice that the dogs (Sasha) has pitched in by digging holes for some drought-garden-friendly buried watering jars. Good dog, Sasha.

Here are my foes. The round, scalloped-leafed weeds are commonly called mallows and aparently a sign that your garden has rich soil (I think that's what I read on the internet, anyway). The clover lookalike is actually goatshead/puncture vine. Evil. Mallows, who cares. Puncture vine must be eradicated. Have you seen Cyrus' feathering?

These, I'm not so sure about. I think the lighter ones are...um... those plants whose seedheads look like little swords (and little kids make scissors out of them) and the dried seeds have the little tails that wind around and around into a corkscrew by themselves. You can tell I know this one from childhood. Other adults I've asked don't even have a glimmer of recognition in their eyes when I mention this. Where did they grow up?

And the ultimate nemesis: the cutworm. They are everywhere in my yard. Every weed I pull up has some of these guys curled up around its roots.

Happy Moments

My mom seems to think that having 3 dogs and 2 cats and a snake is unbelievably complicated and a drain on time and energy.

Right now, I'm busy with a lot of things, including working full time and deep in two master's classes online.

All these crazy animals help keep me sane. Sure, it takes time to walk them, play with them, feed them, and clean up after them. But there is only so much time I can spend on "work" things. Judging by my previous two semesters, I am probably not spending any more "free" time doing non-work, non-chore things. When I reach a certain stress threshold, I check out and do something like read or watch a movie. Pet-time has taken the place of much of my reading or other elective activities. Walking the dogs is much more refreshing than watching an episode of Kare Kano. Sure, neither activity gets the bathroom cleaned right now, but cleaning the bathroom doesn't leave me feeling happy and recharged, the way a good 10 or 15 minutes of tug and fetch with Sasha does. The Zoo gives us a full and happy house. I wouldn't trade that for a spotless floor or even a magically-emptying dishwasher.

Here are some happy moments from this weekend, despite working on two school assignments and some house projects. (You can bet I wouldn't be posting pictures of a clean kitchen counter, even if I had one)

Sasha test-drives the new dog house, under construction. She seems to approve.

I love this shot. True, she is still round as a bullet, but this pic makes her look speedy. She accompanied us to Home Depot for dog-house-building supplies. It must have been Take Your Dog to Your Local Hardware Store Day, since she was one of three pooches there.

Cyrus borrow's Sasha's collar (he can do that, now that I walk the big dogs separately, to work on pulling issues). I think he looks snappy in it. Matt says he looks girly (he already has enough people saying, She's pretty! because of those lovely blond locks framing his face). It's hard to get walking-the-dog pictures of their faces... there's too many interesting smells! (In contrast, almost all of the at home shots are face shots. Never know, I might be getting ready to feed them something at any moment, right?)

New to the Zoo

I believe one dog is too few and is destined to be lonely, especially when few families can make it on one income. Matt feels the same about cats. Although Quincy gets along great with the dogs (he frequently pounces on Mya or Cyrus to initiate play), there are stretches of time where the dogs are outside and Quincy is left by himself. Plus, let's be honest, Matt wanted two cats to begin with. So, without further ado, we welcome...

Moira.

Who can resist that face? Moira came to us from the Manteca Animal Shelter. I don't know how they do it, but they manage to lower the adoption fee on animals that have been spayed or neutered. I know the procedure is an expense for the city/county just like it is to us regular citizens, but I think that is a wonderful way of encouraging ownership of altered animals. We need more programs like this, less of the "mandatory spay/neuter" type.

Anyway, Moira, a.k.a Sugar Bell, had been previously adopted by a woman who apparently had not run the idea past her husband. When he got home, he made her take the cat back to the pound. Although there is a delay on owner surrendered pets before they can be adopted out again, the lady at the shelter allowed us to take Moira home. As corny as her name was, it totally fit her personality... this kitten is pure sweet. I think the shelter employee was just happy to see her go to a good home. So were we.

What does Quincy think of all this? I think he likes her. They're getting to know each other slowly. Cats, y'know. She's a little older than him, but only by a matter of a week or two. Matt reports that he has actually seen them playing together. I haven't yet, but it's mostly because the dogs follow me around, and they get all excited when the cats get excited and Moira's still a little shy about dogs coming over to sniff her. (She's a trooper, though. She stands her ground very calmly, then walks away. Totally opposite of Quincy's paw-to-the-face method, but still effective.)

The most unexpected thing? Take a look at this! Are they going to be friends? Or is Mya just keeping an eye on the new interloper? I like to think friends.

On a side note... Look! It's a real garden! Actual flowers that I planted myself! So pretty... (Some of my standards are woefully low...)

And let's not forget the home orchard. Isn't it a thing of beauty? These will be the best four mandarin oranges in the world. I just know it.

A New Page

Well, the house appraisal is done. Whew! One more step that we can check off our list. Since we had everything neatened up for the appraiser, I took some pictures. Look how far everything's come!

Living room from the left side.

From the right side...

Kitchen/Dining Room

And some fun stuff. A rare video of Mya and Cyrus playing tug-o'-war. My favorite part? When he pulls it away from her, he stops and holds it still, like, "Oh, grab back on. Got a good hold? Okay!" The growling is all Mya.

So, we did get a second cat for Quincy (and Matt). She's great, too - she'll get her own post a little later. But I wanted to highlight the fabulousness of Q-Ball, the Tailless Wonder. This cat has cajones and I'm so happy he ended up with us. He and Cyrus are great together.

New Arrival at the Animal House

Our newest member of the Zoo Family is Quincy. My cousin Keren found Quincy as a wee black puffball. He was around 4 or 5 weeks old and clearly abused (he had burned off whiskers and we suspect that his tail may have been pulled off rather than naturally manx). Even so, he has a lovely, friendly and brave disposition. My cousin kept him for us around 2 months while we prepped the new house, since we couldn't have a cat in the rental. She raised him well and her tiny chihuahua, Sugar, was Quincy's best buddy. They tousled and chased and Sugar taught Quincy a little about dogs. Now, an older Quincy has joined us. Here he is exploring his new digs.

From the beginning, he had little fear of (although a healthy respect for) the dogs, despite the fact that Cyrus, at least, is an order of magnitude larger than Sugar. We found that this bravery extends equally to a willingness to, say, attack feet carelessly left unattended at the edge of the bed. I hear that's a cat thing.

Here is a video of Quincy and the dogs. He will actually sometimes play with Cyrus (he likes to bat Cyrus' fringed ears), but he persists in swatting Mya. This is because Mya is determined to try and bite him at every opportunity. She's like the dog from Bunnicula, determined that our house is being overrun by the spawn of evil and she's the only one who can defend us...

New Exhibits

So close to being done! Our living room is shaping up nicely, with only a few more feet of tile left to go (compared with the 1000 square feet we started with). It's going to be the most beautiful remodel ever. Says me.

Surprisingly peaceful scene...all three dogs napping together. Emily is deigning to share space with the other two. She's usually much more standoffish, since she was an only dog for so long. Mya and Cyrus, on the other hand, love to snuggle.

We heard that lovely Layla was visiting Jim and Linda for the weekend. Since she and Cyrus hit it off so well at the dog show, we brought him over to visit. Here, all four siblings are in the puppies' kennel (Rider, of the black- and fluffiness, wisely escapes the heat by laying on top of his dog house and refusing to get involved). Cyrus' familiarity with sharp turns and tight spaces gives him the advantage... All the puppies from this litter are just wonderful.

Coming right along

Unfortunately, I didn't think to take "before" pictures, but I did save the photos from the original listing website. Here some are for comparison.

We are about halfway done laying the tile in the living room. The tile is completed everywhere else (although the hallway and living room still have to be grouted and sealed).

Mighty man Matt in a heroic pose, since I didn't have a good comparable picture to the one above. But here, you can see the new pain as well as the color we are painting the doors. The previous post has a good picture of the tile we're putting in the living room.

The floor is done in all the bedrooms. You can also see the decorative thresholds that Matt designed.

Blah in the old picture! Especially the chocolate brown baseboards.

Ignore the clutter. I really like our paint colors.

Yucky brown in the kitchen! Looks much nicer now.

New House Updates

Oh, the blessing of knowing men with "skills." In this case, tile-laying skills. Thank you, thank you, to Dad and Aaron for all their hard work (and Mom and Matt for helping clean grout lines, grout, keep up a steady supply of clean water and tile, etc. Don't think I sat back and twiddled my thumbs, I helped clean and grout in the back rooms, until I wore out my knees crouching on the floors). Anyway, the bedrooms are nearly all finished, with a little bit of tile left to lay in the master closet, thanks to the hard work of my dad. Yay, Dad!

Aaron came over yesterday to help start the living room. Between the two of them, they laid more than 100 sq ft of tile in one go. Rock on! The smaller, 12" tiles seem to go faster than the 16" we picked for the bedrooms. It looks gorgeous.

Props also to Matt for the idea for the inlaid white/charcaol border in the living room.

This is early in the afternoon, not long after Aaron arrived.

This is much later in the evening, but still before Dad finished the last of the bucket of Mastik/thinset and we decided to call it a night. There is even more tile set than this picture shows. All I can say is, wow. Also, much better than any stinkin' laminate!

Lovely, ain't it? No dog pictures this time. They had to hang out outside to avoid messing up the tile. Thankfully, Mya is blasee about fireworks (the neighbors were having a huge block party, with occasional mortars going up) if her person is relatively near, Emily can't hear them any more, and Cyrus was willing to be convinced that fireworks were no big deal after I sat out and held him in my lap for a while, whilst Emy and Mya wandered around and ignored the loud noises. Good dogs, all!

Progress

All our free time lately has been going into working on the new house to bring it up to a livable state. Fortunately, the fence is secure and I've been able to bring Cyrus and Mya with me pretty much everytime I go out there to work (Emily loves to have the house to herself...it's nice to nap without the smaller/younger dogs bouncing around all over the place). Most of the painting is done, which makes the place look 100% better right away. Dad's laid the tile in one of the spare bedrooms and is almost done with the tile in the master. In the above picture, Cyrus is supervising our work. He's also contemplating the camoflage opportunities presented by our color choice.

This week, of course, we have mostly been concentrating on the new house. We have most of the interior painted and are well on the way to starting the tile (that will be tomorrow). Of course, I'm trying to shoe-horn in some time to work with Cyrus, who has his debut show in Lompoc at the end of July. Hopefully, we will be in the new house by then. Luckily, he looks just as cute there as anywhere else. As you can see.

Housework just wears those dogs out...

Although, you can see Mya is too dedicated to take her eyes off of Mom, even when she's resting. I think she would rule in agility. Even if she never gets the chance, she is a wonderful dog.

Cyrus earns his keep by helping us dig trenches. Just in case we wanted to lay PVC for sprinklers right here, diagonally across the yard... He makes a perfectly straight trench, about three inches wide. Just wide enough to fit his nose in it. Or a sprinkler line.

New House, New Pictures, New etc.

The new house is an exciting and inspiring thing. Not just to us, but also to our dogs. With Mya's help, Cyrus was willing to settle down and ride sensibly in the car for the very first time, on the way to work at the house. (Working done by me...cuteness and running around was handled by the dogs.)

Cyrus surveys the backyard and is unimpressed. "Hey, where's the grass and stuff?"

I had my first hint of my future wildflower garden when we first looked at the house, thanks to an adventurous California poppy growing in the desert of the front yard. Now I see that I am well on my way to the wildlife garden I had hoped for...sorry for the poor quality shot from my camera phone. However, if you look closely and heed the enlarged corner, you will spot the Swallowtail butterfly, alighting briefly on the gravel.

Just for fun, this is a slightly younger Cyrus, exploring the bathtub at our current house. I love it that he's not hydrophobic.

Finally, what could be better about a new house than chasing Mya? With no furniture, she has nowhere to hide. Also, the empty house has a lovely echo which transforms play growls into the Voice of the Hell Hound! Exciting stuff. Almost as exciting as whatever sounds keep coming through that open window...

Random Images

Cyrus has finally been getting into the car by himself. Well, twice. He doesn't really like the car, and even now he's not willing to get into it every time by himself. We still have to lift him up and put him in. Even so, the last time I took him to visit Jim and Linda, he rode in the passenger seat by himself (as opposed to draped over my lap) and didn't fuss or mess. Progress. He's the first dog I've ever had who didn't like the car. Mya, as you see below, loves the car.

I think someone is either coursing rabbits or running Jumpers and Weaves in his sleep...

This is my first official wildflower at our new house. It was growing all by itself in the desolation that is the front yard after more than a month of no watering. Way to go, poppy! Soon your brethren will surround you.

Bonus video 1: Cyrus and Mya playing a few weeks ago. If you notice, he is actually quite gentle with her. Toward the end, she spots me taping them, and Cyrus flips her ear with his nose to get her going again. Too cute.

Bonus video 2: These are grizzlies my grandma and I saw in Alaska September of last year. Too cool! It's a bit jumpy because I was filming in 8x zoom from a school bus.