When we take walks, I often count the number of deer we see which has sometimes been in the low 40’s! Other times around a dozen. Anyway, sometimes I lose count and just quit. Well, not anymore! Rob gifted me a clicker-counter, so now I just keep that in my hand and every time I see a deer, I click it, with no interruption in our conversation! SO slick.
I made another surprise purchase recently…Rhonda the Robo-Vac! It dawned on me that we have two puppies and a sprawling one-story space with no thick rugs. Time to try a robotic vacuum! Rhonda has met or exceeded expectations. Interesting that she seems to work in a random fashion, so does some repetition, but over a 2-hour span will get a lot of work done. The dogs are very interested in her, but so far have not pawed at her. Stony generally avoids her, while Woody stays engaged and agitated by her. We’ll see how it goes. Oh and the inspiration for her name is a song “Help Me Rhonda”.
We hired landscaper to move and smooth out the pile of dirt that previous homeowners created when they dug space for the pool. The big impetus was that a tree was being “suffocated” by the dirt pile and clearly dying. The exciting part was that Rob covered the area with grass seed and already, within a matter of days, it has grown way up! We were concerned as we saw the chickens were eating the grass, and the seeds were getting washed into dense collections. The grass growth was an encouraging sign because…
…we planted some vegetables in two of the raised beds! Neither of us has much experience, but Rob tilled the existing soil and poured some new planting soil on top. (We had already gotten rid of the weeds in the beds). We planted mostly seeds since the store didn’t have a lot of young plants, but anyway we are trying: onions, leeks, three types of carrots, and some collards/chard that are baby plants. We are starting eggplant and jalapeño inside. We haven’t yet planted beet seeds. The only hassle is once again the drip irrigation, which always has leaks or other malfunctions. For now we may use the sprinkler.
We will be planting fruit trees and actually we already have a little pre-existing peach tree in the back. It is barely alive, has not had regular watering since we only recently learned what it was, it has been chewed on by the dogs and also when we left gate open recently for 20 minutes, deer ate a bunch of its leaves. So if this tree survives, it will be a miracle. And the landscaper also informed us that we have several persimmon trees in the yard. One even had a ripe fruit. After some investigation, I realized that this is a TEXAS persimmon tree which is not at all like the persimmons we have seen in the grocery (and that I’ve seen in CA). These are much smaller, but still edible.
Well the other hassle is keeping out the dogs and chickens. We decided to dismantle the fencing that was around the front flowerbeds and surround the vegetable garden instead. So now the dogs could ransack the front flowerbeds again (Woody loves to dig and they both eat plants all the time- like any plant. Often they bite on the potted agave plant which has SPINES. no problem). As we worked on planting vegetables, Rob spotted a scorpion which was cool (also slightly concerning—gloves required!) and out front when I was weeding I saw a couple of the cutest baby lizards.
The front flowerbeds I’m starting to de-weed since I can access them now that fencing is down. One incredibly satisfying moment occurred yesterday, when I decided to tackle a particularly relentless weed (again). For months I have kept an upside-down cardboard box over it (after pulling out all I could). But even so, it always grows a bit, albeit feebly (theoretically it should die as it gets no light but weeds are like that). So yesterday, I pulled the bits of new growth and started to yank at the bulbous chunk of roots. With the weight of my entire body. A little bit of give. I found some single strands and pulled them out. Then, with a series of full-body pulls, I GOT THE WHOLE GIGANTIC ROOT CLUSTER!
I also finally found the perfect time to drive the remote-control fire engine down the driveway when a herd of deer were peacefully hanging out in our yard. So I started it down the driveway, but it was getting stuck in cement cracks so I had to keep going up and nudging it through. Deer stayed in place. As the fire engine got real close, they all stood still and watched it. And then, one ran off, and then a whole bunch ran off. And that was it. Haha, not real surprising. I just was dying to do that.
Dogs have new stuff too. We got Woody a “slow” food bowl which significantly slows down his meal. I think he had thrown up a couple of times outside (we suspect since he eats WAY TOO FAST). In fact, we found them recently digging down under the deck in order to get to a couple of kibbles that one of the dog had thrown up in between the deck planks. I’m not kidding. So ya, now, Stony actually finishes his meal before Woody! Woody seems to almost enjoy the challenge of urging the kibbles out of their hiding spots.
We also ordered harnesses for the dogs. We now are trying little walks on the street. Those go OK, although they are still terribly frightened if a car goes by. We also are attaching harnesses to the seat belt, which is very difficult to do as they dogs are never in the right place and constantly moving, etc. Also, twice already Stony has randomly stepped on the seat belt release button, thereby undermining the whole setup. TOTAL CHAOS.
We’ve talked to the neighbors about our dogs socializing with theirs, but I suspect that may be awhile as they just, in the last week or two, adopted a second dog and they are having trouble getting their two dogs to get along. So clearly they don’t need more chaos right now (along with two little kids).
The other dog hassle we have is putting them to bed. Stony is fine but Woody doesn’t want to go in his kennel. And if Rob prods him (I’m always in bed before Rob so he has to do this part), then Woody will act all weird and resist and pee all over. Just a huge pain in the butt. Tonight we may just encourage them to use the kennel but leave them the option to stay out of it. Kennels left open. Hopefully they will choose to sleep all night but who knows.
Oh and one more new thing. I’m in a local facebook group, The Broody Bunch, of chicken owners and they were talking about mealworm kits and so now I’m in the group Dripping Worms (owner located in Dripping Springs) which is concerning mealworm kits- sold for $25 and discussions on how to maintain. I went from “just curious” to a new mealworm kit owner in a matter of days. I’m a little confused about all the steps to keep them alive, but they basically live in a small plastic box with airholes and about an inch or two of wheat bran/corn meal. And a hunk of carrot on top. The beetles lay eggs which become larva (mealworms) which turn into pupa which turn into beetles. Eventually, once I have a bunch, I can feed the very nutritious mealworms to my chickens and also I can pour the waste onto my garden for fertilizer. But I need to wait weeks or months before I can use the mealworms. Meanwhile, though, I can remove any dead beetles/worms and feed to chickens. This morning I found a few dead beetles which Cole ate right up. I don’t think there’s much maintenance except at some point I have to filter out the bottom junk and replace with new substrate.
Most common words and phrases in the house: “Woody!!”, “Down!”, “In or Out?”, “Don’t chase the chickens!”, “Good Boy”. Below are a few other pics.
