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Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Hair cut
I've been growing out my hair for the last three and a half years. I was going to cut it last summer, but then now-husband proposed, and I wanted long hair for the wedding. So I left it to continue growing. And boy did it grow!
(And it's even curled and waterfall braided here; so long!)
I finally chopped it off a few weeks ago!
Hellooooo new hair cut!
Definitely cut off 14 inches, definitely did not cry for once! I was so excited as my hair lady cut through it all!
As soon as I'm brave enough to venture to the post office (probably my least favorite place to go EVER), I will be donating it to Locks for Love! This will be my third time donating, and it's super exciting =)
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Box covers
I've mentioned before that I have a problem with squirrels tearing up my garden. Well, now that it's fall, this problem is getting even worse. I came home from work on Tuesday to find that the boxes with lettuce and arugula seeds, and little snow pea plants were TOTALLY DUG UP. There were holes everywhere, and more than one snow pea plant was throw askew. Those squirrels make me so angry!
Today is the day we begin to remedy the problem. Covers for the boxes!
We built a square frame from some cheapy wood from Home Depot.
Done frame! 56"x56"
Husband's dad bought us a roll of chicken wire. (How sweet!)
The dog was supervising, and barking at strangers, squirrels, and cats. Good Dog!
Done! (There aren't any pics in between because it's hard to take photos while making the frame =])
It's kinda lumpy, but that's chicken wire for ya. I'm sure we can make a nicer one. For now, this one is functional, and will keep those stupid squirrels out!
There's only one made so far; it took a lot longer that we thought it would, plus we're out of wood... The covered box has snow peas and lettuces.
Baby lettuces!
Snow peas are getting tall =]
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Presents in the Mail
My new seeds arrived!!!!
I mentioned in a previous post that I ordered seeds from Heirloom Solutions. Three and a half weeks later...
Ta Da!
I can't plant the broccoli yet, but the carrots and greens will go in this weekend. I am SO excited, especially since the greens will grow super fast and will tide me over until my carrots and snow peas are ready to harvest. Yay!
Here are some more photos of my growing things:
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Fall produce update
Last week I planted snow peas and carrots. AND EVERYTHING'S SPROUTING!!!!!!
I'm so stinkin' proud of these guys. Yesterday I came home at some point to find 3 freaking holes in this box. We have squirrels EVERYWHERE in my neighborhood. Usually they are pretty harmless; mostly they like to tease the dog (the fence is literally 3 inches too tall for the dog - who is apparently part pogo stick.....). However, our landlords warned us that the little rodents might try to dig up our pretty little peas. And they have....
Fortunately one of the holes was NEXT to the peas and they just threw dirt over the little plants. I was able to brush the dirt back where it belonged. But another hole pulled up a sprout! The nerve of those fat furry things! The sprout had no visible damage (thank goodness), and I put him back in his little hole and covered him up nicely.
We have no many neighborhood cats that you'd think they would keep the squirrel population down... The little old lady across the street puts out TONS of birdseed that draws both pigeons and squirrels alike to our block. But I think the problem really lies in that she also puts out food for the neighborhood cats... thus negating the need to the kitties to perform their squirrel hunting duties. I really don't think the squirrels even fear the cats. Although for a while there was this REALLY mangy squirrel running around that looked like he'd seen the wrong end of several cat fights...
Anyway, the peas are happy and healthy =)
AND MY CARROTS ARE SPROUTING!!! Everything I've read online said that it takes, on average, up to 3 weeks for carrots to sprout, so I was planning on patiently waiting until next weekend before I would check them every day. Not the case here! I have about 5 itty bitty bitty little carrot fronds popping through the dirt! I know that I will eventually have to thin them out; the seeds were SO TINY that I couldn't really sprinkle them out very well. No worries though.
I'm so happy to be a little gardener <3
Snow Pea sprouts - day 7
SP - day 9
I'm so stinkin' proud of these guys. Yesterday I came home at some point to find 3 freaking holes in this box. We have squirrels EVERYWHERE in my neighborhood. Usually they are pretty harmless; mostly they like to tease the dog (the fence is literally 3 inches too tall for the dog - who is apparently part pogo stick.....). However, our landlords warned us that the little rodents might try to dig up our pretty little peas. And they have....
Fortunately one of the holes was NEXT to the peas and they just threw dirt over the little plants. I was able to brush the dirt back where it belonged. But another hole pulled up a sprout! The nerve of those fat furry things! The sprout had no visible damage (thank goodness), and I put him back in his little hole and covered him up nicely.
We have no many neighborhood cats that you'd think they would keep the squirrel population down... The little old lady across the street puts out TONS of birdseed that draws both pigeons and squirrels alike to our block. But I think the problem really lies in that she also puts out food for the neighborhood cats... thus negating the need to the kitties to perform their squirrel hunting duties. I really don't think the squirrels even fear the cats. Although for a while there was this REALLY mangy squirrel running around that looked like he'd seen the wrong end of several cat fights...
Anyway, the peas are happy and healthy =)
Carrots - day 9
AND MY CARROTS ARE SPROUTING!!! Everything I've read online said that it takes, on average, up to 3 weeks for carrots to sprout, so I was planning on patiently waiting until next weekend before I would check them every day. Not the case here! I have about 5 itty bitty bitty little carrot fronds popping through the dirt! I know that I will eventually have to thin them out; the seeds were SO TINY that I couldn't really sprinkle them out very well. No worries though.
I'm so happy to be a little gardener <3
Sunday, September 2, 2012
The Most Amazing Photographer
Meet Laurel.
I met Laurel when we were little high school frosh. Since then we have been on many adventures, both big and small, and mostly involving ice cream or Jamba Juice.
Once upon a time, back in high school, Laurel picked up her mom's little point-and-shoot camera. It was then that she discovered her love of photography, and then that she freaking blew my mind with her natural eye for it. And I mean "blew my mind" as in every photo I looked at made my jaw drop. And she hadn't even started using Photoshop yet.
At the time Laurel was mostly taking pictures of flowers and random things. I remember when she bought her first "big girl" camera and lens. She got it just in time for senior prom. She was living with my family and me, and boy was she excited about this thing. She mastered it in about two seconds, and took some awesome prom pics.
Since then, Laurel has learned and mastered Photoshop and cameras galore. She does editing work for a photo company, and has just recently really started up her own business, Laurel Marie Photography.
She does weddings,
engagements,
extreme sports,
pets,
products;
you name it and she'll photograph it for you!
If you live in the Northern California area, or possibly SoCal, and need photos, you really should consider her! She is so professional and fun to work with, not to mention an amazing photographer and photo editor. Check out her website at http://laurelmariephotography.com/ or check out her facebook page. I really hope this blog helps her business out, so please let her know if you hear about her from this page.
Autumn crops
I can never say enough of how much I just LOVE to garden. I love to dig, and I love to plant, and I love to watch my green things grow!
Today Mr. Amazing and I went on a short shopping trip to Lowes. The main reason was that we needed some wood dowels to stick in the porch windows. The screens all have holes, and the stupid giant cat we have likes to shove the window open with his face and escape. We've lived in this house for a year and half, and it took until today to fix our problem! Husband cut the dowels to size, and now all our porch windows are open about two inches. YAY!
This might seem trivial to you, so I'll give you a little perspective: NONE of the windows in our house open, except for the porch ones... So we get very little fresh air, only through the front door screen. The windows are all super old, single pane, crank open windows. They are all either sealed shut from years of paint, or the crank handles are broken. Super duper sucky. But now we have fresh air! Woohoo!
Anyway, I'm digressing here; back to the garden and Lowes.
I also bought a bag of 100 bulbs of daffodils for $20! There are many things that exist in the little cloud of "my favorite things", and shopping deals are a major favorite thing. I bought some African violets that were done blooming, and so were only $1 a piece. Hubby picked out a soaker hose. I've never seen one, or I've forgotten. It's basically a hose that's made of a material that lets water leak through everywhere; it's the ultimate drip line! So now the garden bed that's right in front of our house is getting watered.
We dug up a thin strip of lawn that lines the sidewalk and I planted most of the bulbs. I'd say about 70 (maybe? I didn't count). I can't wait to see all those bright yellow flowers in spring!!! I'll probably plant the rest in front of the house, where we have our new drip line.
(Bulbs are hiding here!)
Yesterday we pulled out the squash plants and dug up the boxes that had the squash and watermelon. Today we added a half bag of compost-y poopy stuff to each box and mixed it all up.
In one of the boxes I planted three rows of snow pea seeds. And in another box (this box has never had anything planted in it yet) I planted two and a half rows of carrots. I'm so excited for more yummy veggies! We have to wait a few months to actually eat any of it, which makes me sad, but I love watching them grow.
(Clockwise: front box is currently empty; left box has my peppers, orka, and eggplant; back one has 2.5 rows of carrots; right box has 3 rows of snow peas)
Sunday, August 26, 2012
My Goldfish
I have 8 goldfish, and 1 mini plecostomus (sucker fish). They are all of the fancy variety, with chubby tummies and pretty tails. I'll eventually put some pictures up on this post.
Tank 1 is a 60 gallon tank that Mr. Higbee used as part of his proposal scheme (more on that later). Four of my fishies live there:
Goldie - Goldie is a Ryukin fancy tail, gold colored, Petco goldfish. She's a girl in my head (none of my goldies have hit sexual maturity, so I've neve been able to sex them). She's a very pretty pale gold, doesn't have a very big hump, and has the longest, prettiest tail and fins of all my goldies. When we bought her, we had also purchased Bif, who had a mustache, but he succumbed to a bacterial virus before his medicine could really kick in. Both are named after fish from Phineas and Ferb. Anyway, she's pretty mellow with no real quirks; she just chills and looks pretty.
(All of our other fishies are from local fish store Reef Connections. The staff there are wonderful, and one of them lives across the street from Mr. Higbee's parents. He has AWESOME fish. )
Kyle - Kyle is also a Ryukin. He's mostly white, with a red patch on his head that goes up his back until his dorsal fin. Kyle is HUGE, but lately has slowed growing. He like to do back flips and barrel rolls and play int he bubbles. He's named after Kyle from South Park.
Butters - Also named after a character from South Park, Butters is Ranchu with almost no head growth. He's mostly matte white, with a flew shiny scales here and there, and an orange patch on his "shoulders". Butters is a bit slow. I have two vases in the tank for decoration, and he likes to chill out in the bottom one. But sometimes that causes him to miss meal time. Like this morning, Mr. Higbee fed the fishies, and Butters was chillin' in his vase, and didn't even notice that the other fish were swarming the surface. He's special.
The Wee Baby Seamus - Named after Archer's son Seamus from Archer, the wee baby Seamus is yet another Ryukin. When we bought him he was SO teensy tiny, like thumbnail tiny. We were in an Archer kick, and the name just came to me. This kid grew like okra, FAST. We have had him for half the time that we've had Kyle, and he's bigger than Kyle! He's a pretty dark red, with a white chin and throat, and his tail is white with orange stripes. The wee baby Seamus likes to eat bubbles, and spit water at the tank lid. When you try to feed him, he spits so much water in his excitement!
Tank 2 (30 gallons - Craigslist for $40!)
Clyde - Clyde is a really pretty black and orange Ranchu. He doesn't have much head growth, but I have high hopes! When Bonnie is in his tank (more on her in a bit), the two are very aggressive players. They swim everywhere all the time, and constantly push each other around.
Sucker fish - Sucker fish LOVES to eat. Other than that he's a pretty typical pleco who hides and chills.
Tank 3 (30 gallons - Reef Connections kit)
Token - Named for Token from South Park. Token is a Black Moore (telescope). He's a soft black matte, with a really nice tail. Unfortunately he has quite the hare lip. The top lip is literally folded back into his mouth at the weird angle. He used to like in tank 1, but since his eyes make it hard to find food, and his mouth makes it hard to eat food, I had to put him in a different tank to ensure that he ate enough food. He's grown a lot since his move. I will eventually get him a buddy who also has vision issues so that he won't be lonely, but will still have a fighting chance for food.
Quarantine tank (20 gallons - friends found it for free and said I could have, then other friend re-sealed it for me). I currently have 2 fishies in quarantine.
Bonnie - Bonnie is a Ranchu, and is a pretty mix of orange and white. Not much head growth yet, but she has many more years to live. She is in quarantine because earlier this summer I had major water quality issues - nitrate levels were totally out of hand. I was doing 10-20% water changes every day, and using Nitraban, and still the levels wouldn't come down. Bonnie started looking REALLY bad. Her fins were totally shredded up, and she was really listless. So into quarantine she went! She's much better now, but I still haven't moved her back in with Clyde.
Nameless - Nameless is a Ryukin that was bought to keep the quarantine tank up and running. At the time we weren't sure what to name him, and we weren't sure if he would survive, so we waited to name him. He was nicknamed Nameless for the time being, and it's now stuck. He was super tiny at purchase, but is now almost ping pong ball size. His fins were also affected in the nitrate fiasco, so he's still enjoying the salt bath with Bonnie. But he's definitely much better.
Tank 1 is a 60 gallon tank that Mr. Higbee used as part of his proposal scheme (more on that later). Four of my fishies live there:
Goldie - Goldie is a Ryukin fancy tail, gold colored, Petco goldfish. She's a girl in my head (none of my goldies have hit sexual maturity, so I've neve been able to sex them). She's a very pretty pale gold, doesn't have a very big hump, and has the longest, prettiest tail and fins of all my goldies. When we bought her, we had also purchased Bif, who had a mustache, but he succumbed to a bacterial virus before his medicine could really kick in. Both are named after fish from Phineas and Ferb. Anyway, she's pretty mellow with no real quirks; she just chills and looks pretty.
(All of our other fishies are from local fish store Reef Connections. The staff there are wonderful, and one of them lives across the street from Mr. Higbee's parents. He has AWESOME fish. )
Kyle - Kyle is also a Ryukin. He's mostly white, with a red patch on his head that goes up his back until his dorsal fin. Kyle is HUGE, but lately has slowed growing. He like to do back flips and barrel rolls and play int he bubbles. He's named after Kyle from South Park.
Butters - Also named after a character from South Park, Butters is Ranchu with almost no head growth. He's mostly matte white, with a flew shiny scales here and there, and an orange patch on his "shoulders". Butters is a bit slow. I have two vases in the tank for decoration, and he likes to chill out in the bottom one. But sometimes that causes him to miss meal time. Like this morning, Mr. Higbee fed the fishies, and Butters was chillin' in his vase, and didn't even notice that the other fish were swarming the surface. He's special.
The Wee Baby Seamus - Named after Archer's son Seamus from Archer, the wee baby Seamus is yet another Ryukin. When we bought him he was SO teensy tiny, like thumbnail tiny. We were in an Archer kick, and the name just came to me. This kid grew like okra, FAST. We have had him for half the time that we've had Kyle, and he's bigger than Kyle! He's a pretty dark red, with a white chin and throat, and his tail is white with orange stripes. The wee baby Seamus likes to eat bubbles, and spit water at the tank lid. When you try to feed him, he spits so much water in his excitement!
Tank 2 (30 gallons - Craigslist for $40!)
Clyde - Clyde is a really pretty black and orange Ranchu. He doesn't have much head growth, but I have high hopes! When Bonnie is in his tank (more on her in a bit), the two are very aggressive players. They swim everywhere all the time, and constantly push each other around.
Sucker fish - Sucker fish LOVES to eat. Other than that he's a pretty typical pleco who hides and chills.
Tank 3 (30 gallons - Reef Connections kit)
Token - Named for Token from South Park. Token is a Black Moore (telescope). He's a soft black matte, with a really nice tail. Unfortunately he has quite the hare lip. The top lip is literally folded back into his mouth at the weird angle. He used to like in tank 1, but since his eyes make it hard to find food, and his mouth makes it hard to eat food, I had to put him in a different tank to ensure that he ate enough food. He's grown a lot since his move. I will eventually get him a buddy who also has vision issues so that he won't be lonely, but will still have a fighting chance for food.
Quarantine tank (20 gallons - friends found it for free and said I could have, then other friend re-sealed it for me). I currently have 2 fishies in quarantine.
Bonnie - Bonnie is a Ranchu, and is a pretty mix of orange and white. Not much head growth yet, but she has many more years to live. She is in quarantine because earlier this summer I had major water quality issues - nitrate levels were totally out of hand. I was doing 10-20% water changes every day, and using Nitraban, and still the levels wouldn't come down. Bonnie started looking REALLY bad. Her fins were totally shredded up, and she was really listless. So into quarantine she went! She's much better now, but I still haven't moved her back in with Clyde.
Nameless - Nameless is a Ryukin that was bought to keep the quarantine tank up and running. At the time we weren't sure what to name him, and we weren't sure if he would survive, so we waited to name him. He was nicknamed Nameless for the time being, and it's now stuck. He was super tiny at purchase, but is now almost ping pong ball size. His fins were also affected in the nitrate fiasco, so he's still enjoying the salt bath with Bonnie. But he's definitely much better.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
About me
My name is Lisa, and I am many things! Half Japanese, goldfish enthusiast, Eskie mom, wife, the list goes on. A general home body, I like hanging out with the husband, Mr. Amazing, and my furchild, r'eskie Chloe. Gardening is teaching me to eat my veggies more often, and working in a high school office is teaching me patience, and keeps me laughing.
I hope that I can get this blog going in a direction that incorporates my pets (and others'!), gardening, crafts, and my work.
I like books, Star Wars AND Star Trek, Pokemon, and omg David Tennant. If you don't know David Tennant then you don't know superawesomesexyamazingfunny in one gorgeous package; stop reading my blog, and go watch Dr. Who. Now. Please.
Anyway, I hope you like my little blog.
And here's my Chloe!
Summer garden
This year Mr. Amazing and I planted our first garden. Earlier this summer our wonderful landlords had built me four 4x4x1 raised garden boxes and filled them with wonderful dirt and compost. We bought started plants at Home Depot (or Lowes, I can't remember); Chinese eggplant, okra, bell peppers, yellow squash, and at the begging of Mr. Amazing, yellow watermelon. While I don't like eating veggies quite so much, I love to grow things. My green thumb is new and exciting!
We've had so many veggies this summer. We ate so much squash that I thought I'd turn into one. And I learned a great way to cook eggplant: slice it up really thin and lay it out on a baking tray. Drizzle with EVOO and sprinkle on garlic salt. I also like to sprinkle Chico Spice vegetarian spice on it, too. Broil in the oven for 3 or 4 minutes, flip them over, and then broil another 3-4 minutes. Then eat them all up! It tastes like cheese to me, and I adore cheese.
I gave all the okra away. I can't stand the gross stuff! My mother, on the other hand, ADORES okra. I grew it for her, and I am extremely pleased with how it turned out. It's a very sturdy plant, grows very quickly, and produces SO much. I will forever use it to shelter other plants. They started out as little two inch sprouts, and are now almost 4 feet tall, with stalks almost an inch in diameter.
The bell peppers are finally taking off. The poor things are getting too much sun. Turns out they need more shade than "full sun". They are still getting some burned patches, but are trying really hard!
NONE of our watermelon turned out well. Turns out, once they start producing, you really aren't supposed to water them very much.... So that was a big fat disappointment, but we live and learn, and have many more years of growing to figure it out (plus the internet is helpful). We tore out the watermelon plants today. The vines had taken over so much of the yard, so the grass of super overgrown. Mr. Amazing did some mowing, and now everything is nice and neat again.
We need to dig up the dirt and get it ready for its fall crop. I have seed packets for carrots and snow peas. The brand (Seeds of Change) say USDA Organic; I hope they grow well! I worry about GMO products, and am always suspicious when I buy plants and seeds. I just bought some seeds online from Heirloom Solutions: Parisian carrots, wild arugula, mixed lettuces, and broccoli. I'm super excited to plant and grow more food.
I plan on slowly changing the way I eat, and slowly changing the quality of the food I eat. Growing my own food is my second step. (Step 1 was switching to only buying and eating farm fresh eggs - free range, no hormones or steroids, and locally laid! Chris's eggs were my "gateway eggs".)
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