It's Spring

Spring sprung! And I've already fallen behind on my plans for this year! By now, I was supposed to have

1. 1 chicken coop
2. 5 chickens
3. 6 raised garden beds teeming with peas and tomatoes and lettuce

What I actually have as of this weekend:

1. 1,320 square feet of sanded and stained wood for raised beds (includes front and back for those of you counting).  
2. 8 dying pea plants ready to go into said raised beds
3. 4 wilting tomato plants waiting to go into raised beds
4. 30 seed pots of basil, dill, and tomatoes that never sprouted or got eaten by birds/bugs/squirrels/feral cats/opossums (opossi?)
5. 10 beautiful Italian cypress trees for privacy along the back wall

My coop was, I thought, being built but it turns out I hired a scam artist who flew the proverbial coop, and while I am unbelievably disappointed, I have found another person to do the building and I am supposed to be meeting with him tomorrow.

My schedule for this week is:
Tuesday: meet with new contractor, lay down the weed barrier and hopefully move the soil into the beds
Wednesday: it's supposed to rain :)
Thursday: Finish moving soil and move still living seedlings into the new beds
Friday: Move compost piles into their new home

Hopefully I'll have a new post next week to update y'all on how this went and some before and after photos!

Oh, P.S., the loquats are just beginning to get ripe so next week is going to be the beginning of canning season!

Rush Limbaugh, sluts and my health

I really wanted to stay away from politics on my new blog. I wanted to write about the wonderful time I have out in the garden, the road to chicken keeping and my little suburban farm life, but it's gotten personal. I have decided to write an open letter to Rush Limbaugh, Patricia Heaton and all of the other nutbags who believe that Viagra, Cialis, Levitra and for that matter, metformin, adriomycin and penicillin should be covered by one's insurance, but not birth control pills.

To Whom it May Concern:

I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). It is a syndrome which causes, among many other interesting and unpleasant things, infertility, hyperandrogenemia, hirsutism, obesity, amenorrhea, and acne.

You might say, well, I know you and I don't see these things in you.  You know why? Because for the last 15 years, despite not having a rats chance in a lion's den of getting pregnant, I have been on birth control pills.

My insurance, through my employer, covers my medications. I am grateful for that, as my medications that would have cost me $6,000 have cost me about $1,500 in co-pays. Which, by the way, is a lot of money for people who aren't Patricia Heaton and Rush Limbaugh.

I don't like having PCOS.  I don't like having to take medication every day.  It is not something I asked for. But even if I did ask for it, even if I signed up on the dotted line that said "I want PCOS and all of the side effects." I should be entitled to the medications that treat this disease.

Having said all of that, let's talk about sluts. Women who have sex with multiple men, or one man and has decided they don't want babies, or women who have slightly more sex than you do with slightly more partners than you have, also deserve to take this medication and you, sirs and madams, do not get to choose why they take the medicine.  If a doctor prescribes it, no matter what the reason, they get to take it and insurance companies have a moral, yes, moral contract to provide ANY approved medication that a doctor prescribes. My employer and my insurance company have no right to decide willy nilly that a prescription that my doctor prescribes, whether because I'm having tons of potentially baby-making sex every day, four times a day or because I start growing giant cystic tumors on my ovaries.  That is a decision made in the privacy of my doctor's office. 

I honestly never thought I'd be writing about my PCOS. I hate having it with every bone in my body. It screws with my life in ways that are uncomfortable, unpleasant and sometimes even dangerous, but I have it and I am grateful that science has granted me the opportunity to take medications to help treat the symptoms. I don't need anyone crawling into my medical charts, much less my underwear to determine what I should and should not be taking and neither does any other woman.  Period.

Bawk bawk b-kaw!

So, this weekend I found him.

The contractor that will make the coop of my dreams. My mid-century poulet chalet! My Coop deVille! My Cluckingham Palace! My chick and mortar home!

I am so freaking excited.

Here are some of the inspirational photos I sent him:

Someone built this for their kids. Without any previous building experience (from Atomic Ranch)

Love this cover. I want to live in it...

If there were going to be smaller birds in my life, I would want this bird house!

Right colors, right amount of kitsch, perfect slopes!

This may be hanging on the front door! By one of my favorite Etsy artists, Jenn Ski

So the chooks are getting closer and closer. I've got a list of the things I will need before living, breathing animals are in the coop like feeders, waterers, feed, treat balls and a good pair of muck boots.

One of the best parts of having chooks, is that they LOVE bugs. I am looking forward to a summer with far fewer earwigs than last summer where they were freakin' me out by the dozens. Also, they will decimate a lawn, which is perfect as we are eliminating our back lawn in favor of raised beds and decomposed granite paths. So no Roundup for us! We'll just have our pets do it!

The work should start on March 1st and I'll post plenty of photos of the construction as it progresses!

Happy 2012 to ya!

Hey hos! Happy New Year!

What up with you?

Me? I'm getting shit D-O-N-E.

It's been a pretty productive season following Hallowe'en. Here's my quick wrap up of the Fall of 2011:

• I cleaned up Hallowe'en, which took for-fucking-ever (about a week). It was a big Hallowe'en.
• I severely f'ed up my foot, which I am working on fixing.  Did you know they have little tiny blood pressure cuffs for your toes? They are so cute!!! Next time I'll take photos.
• Hired someone to replace me and am training him, slowly, but surely.
• I started my new job which is going very well. I am enjoying the anticipation of really getting the program off the ground.
• A very quiet Thanksgiving with the in-laws
• Lots and lots of crocheting for holiday gifts
• And the last three weeks have been a slew of parties for Hanukkah, Christmas, my 41st birthday and the New Year

Whew! In all of that, I have been getting a ton accomplished. The crocheting, yes, but also quite a lot of cleaning out of excess stuff.

Sometimes I feel like I don't get as much accomplished as I could because I have more than I need. For example: I have supplies for crafts from now until the next millennium. While I like having these supplies, sometimes they distract me from the things I really want to be doing. It's almost paralyzing to have so many choices! So, to focus a bit, I am slowly giving away or selling the things that seem excessive. I can still have 10 pairs of scissors if I really need them, because I use them all, but perhaps, since I've never done anything with the needlefelting kit, I could lose that. And the drop spindle. And the Big Ass Book of Crafts (which is super cute, but I've never used anything in it!).

So I've been getting rid of about 10 things a day for the last week. It's been pretty restorative. Whether it's a magazine, a marble or something much larger, it seems not only manageable but it also doesn't seem forced. If I only get to 8 in one day, that's fine. Perhaps I'll get 12 the next day.

Why am I getting rid of all of this stuff? What does simplifying do for me?
I feel freer the less stuff I have. It's true. I used to take these vacations in the Grand Canyon and I would rent a cabin that had a bed, a desk, two chairs and two lamps.  I always left my 4 days there feeling like I could live like that forever.  Of course, that's a little extreme, but if I romanticize living simply, there's obviously something to that.

Also, it gets me to a place where I am more focused on my current love, which is the little Bluestocking Farm. This has been a super cold start to winter (except this week which has been over 80 degrees F EVERY DAY!). The cold bit a bunch of my herbs, especially my chives which had previously been doing pretty well. So now I'm planning the spring garden, which will be here and ready for planting before I know it.

Anyone know of a good Southern California spring planting guide? I'd like to get this year right!

4 days til Hallowe'en!!!!! No, really this time...or is it 3?

Whatever. It's getting close and I have about a billion and 30 things to do before the big night. Adding up days is not one of them.

But, sparking from the sick pit that is my brains (braaaaaaiiiinnnnnnsssss), here is our front yard as it stood yesterday.

 

It's so pretty.  And at night, sooper spooky!  Notice the mass murder that occurred inside the house.  Lemme tell you, when the sun sets and shines in the windows, it's a total gorefest in there!

This is one of the 5 new tombstones for this year's Senior Prom themed Hallowe'en.  Poor Parker, touched down in heaven on the day before his 16th birthday.  Wonder what happened there???

People cannot pass our house without stopping to gawk.  LOVE IT!!!

I'm having a blast this year!

4 days til Hallowe'en!!!!!

Holy Hallowe'en Batman!!!  How did it suddenly get this close!!!!!

Actually, I've been out back building up a storm...

Did you know I had brick columns in my front yard?  Neither did my neighbors until last night! This is the first photo.  There will be more coming tonight and tomorrow. 

18 Days until Hallowe'en - Updates

Candlery 

I'm about 50% finished with the candles - those should be finished tomorrow night. Last year I made my candles out of toilet paper and paper towel rolls.  They were awesome but they definitely did not hold up.  This year I'm making them out of PVC pipe.  More expensive, less recycling, but at least I'm not wasting a pack of glue sticks every year. These should last for a couple of years at least, and next year I'm definitely going to be reusing them.

I got the idea from Dave Lowe and then Ghoul Friday, two of my favorite Hallowe'enie bloggers. 

Major glitch.  

I special ordered some materials at Home Depot for my cemetery columns and they called me at 8 p.m. last night to let me know that they wouldn't be able to get them in.  Aaargh!!!  I must say, this does put a crimp in my activities.

I love my Home Depot.  Pretty much every time I go in there, they are helpful and friendly and have what I need. This time, they failed me. 

Grrr, I say. Grr. 

Costumery

People keep asking me what I'm going to be this year, but I'm not telling.  It's an '80s theme, so one can start there. The Mr. and I are, as usual, going as a pair.  The year before last we were Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett.  Hmmm. Who might we be???

I hope to have photos of the columns in progress and the completed candles this weekend.  Stay tuned.