Gone Feral In Idaho

I think I'm finally out of the worst of the grief funk from losing Sadie. I still miss her a ton, but my heart has finally accepted that she is gone. I actually got off my hindquarters and rode my bike to work and back three days in a row. That is a first in months. I also learned today that Lucy made friends with a female German shepherd dog today and the spent most of the day palling around. We weren't sure how long it would take for her to warm up to a girl. Still no word on the house and I welcome a weekend without house stuff. Oh, and I got the July schedule figured out without having to screw anybody over covering 24/7 with four vacations and a vacancy. We are all going to have to pull through until we get that spot filled. House hunting is not as fun as I thought it would be. There are lots of disappointments out there. A break for the weekend is fine with both of us. This is nothing what my haunter freind Dave has gone through, but wow. Grief really does a number on...

I like to have this on rotation for working out in the garage on the haunt on cool autumn nights. I always think of Pumpkinrot's Neighbors when I hear this piece.

So the mister and I are house hunting. We don't want a huge mortgage, a decedent 3 bed 2 bath home with a larger lot for gardening. There is very little in Boise that meets our criteria. We finally thought we might have found "the one" and had our inspection done yesterday. Kyle and the inspector spent 3+ hours going over the place with a fine toothed comb. They were in the crawlspace a really long time and finally emerged with photos of their findings. Now note that the seller had said that there were no known water leaks or damage to the home, none. The boys found otherwise. Here's a puddle of water on top of the vapor barrier with 3 inches of mud underneath. We are both less than thrilled that the seller outright lied on her disclosure. There were muddy footprints all over down there indicating that she had to have known there were people coming and going from the hatch in the guestroom covered in mud. Here's more died mud on the ducting that someone duc...

 Walter Pagels dwarf water lily Volunteer Moulin Rouge sunflower blazing in the evening sun

Thanks to Amber Conger , the Idaho Botanical Garden, the Red Light Variety Show and more, Boise gets to have a really entertaining garden party with belly dancers, family friendly numbers by The Red Light Variety Show, food, drink, and style. This was the third year of the event and I went loaded up with a bunch of camera gear and the company of Kyle. When we got there the party was in full swing and the entertainment was about to begin. There was a large crane set up with the aerialist's silk. Katie Ponozzo of the Red Light Variety Show kicked off the evening. I found a spot on the edge of the circle and found that my 90mm macro was perfect for the spot. I had the sun to my back and blue sky above the silk. Really, all I had to do was point the camera at Katie and if I didn't cut her arms or legs out of the frame, pretty much everything came back spectacular.   She's a powerhouse of a performer, I've never seen such a talented performer so up close. I grew up ...

Five years ago we started to try gardening. We had a large yard and decided to think outside the box and plant vegetables everywhere. I went to the local nursery and asked if tomatoes would grow in a flower bed (yes, I understand how goofy that sounds now). They told me I could if it got enough sun and I proudly exclaimed that we were going to make really good use of the yard and skip flowers and only grow edibles. Thank goodness the people at Edwards taught me that flowers attract beneficial insects into the garden and ignoring them might not be the best idea. I left with two small flowering perennials that day.  The thing we've learned over the past several years is that flowers attract a lot of good insects, but water is AMAZING for honeybees. Last year I was  worried to have 5-6 honey bees drinking regularly . This season is so dry we have at least 20 at a time. I've gotten used to them and we've had no problems. We do need to teach Lucy to not bother them as she...

I am trying to patiently wait for Kyle to finish mowing so I can get this tank set up. More photos to follow. It is early in the season. We have 5 fish left, floating water lettuce, dwarf pink generic water lily- divided into two plants, Walter Pagels white water lily divided into two plants, Black Taro, Pink Cana, underwater water sprite and two other oxygenators. Corkscrew rush needs to be re potted before putting into the lower tank. Obviously the planters need grasses to help shade and add movement with summer breezes. This is about 250 gallons of stock tank pond in all. I can't wait to find our new home and move this setup in a garden room corner. We got two Black Moor goldfish that are currently hiding in crannies in the sheep tank. I repotted the Corkscrew Rush, Black Colossus, and a pink Canna in plain clay kitty litter and covered that with aquarium gravel. This was my first time using kitty litter and I'm quite pleased.