Good Bye Bees and Other Randomness

Bees are gone! Strangely, we do not know where they went! My neighbours had not heard back from the beekeeper they contacted, but when we got home from work this evening, the nest was gone. Looks like it was cut from the hedge, and very carefully at that. There is barely a sign it was there!

As it turns out, Niagara Region is experiencing a severe shortage of bees! An article posted to the local news lately, tells of the bees disappearing from the wild, possibly due to the fruit crop sprays. I can't help but feel it somewhat disheartening and a little ironic even... the fruit and grape growers depend on the bees to pollinate their crops but the sprays they use are killing the bees. While I am certainly a proponent of conventional agriculture (vs organic), I must admit fruit requires A LOT of spray to prevent the diseases and pests the sacrifice that 'perfect' looking peach. I have seen so many 'misty' fields driving to work in the summers, I will not eat any fruit now before it is washed. But I digress...

Back to the bees. I can only assume they have gone to one of these bio secure hives to hopefully thrive as well or better than they were in my hedge.

On another note, I became one step closer to being a crazy cat lady today. I bought collars for my cats. GASP.. yes, I hate admitting it actually. However, since I have started letting them outside regularly, I think it's a necessity. I worried all weekend, after not being able to find Fergie Satuday morning, I left him outside and drove up north. What is someone stole my precious cat ??! Seriously - he's the well behaved one! Now, when they go for a stroll through the neighbourhood, everyone will know where they belong!

Plants to Use and Plants to Avoid for a Cat Garden

This is another gardening post. Of late, I hope my readers enjoy gardening, or at least hearing about my experiences, because that seems to be all I have been writing about! What can I say? I like being outdoors. When you live in town, you are kind of limited to your yard or the park, and I don't know about you, but the seats on the swing set are much smaller now than they used to be!

As my rock garden has started to progress (I pulled/killed the weeds, turned the soil and dumped the rocks in a pile tonight), I have been looking up ideas for plants to add. Particularly, plants that my cats will enjoy. While there is the obvious - cat grass (which is really oats) and can nip (or cat mint), I have discovered a few more that appear popular. Alyssium, Heather and Creeping Rosemary have all been suggested, via About.com. Luckily, most are also pretty hardy, so they should grow well in the boggy, shaded corner I'm converting.

While doing some investigation, I thought it might be wise to also check out the toxic plants before I head to the nursery for my purchases. There is a great photo gallery here that shows some common, toxic plants. I guess I'll be avoiding ivy, which was originally in my 'rock garden' plan to cover the fence. I would prefer to avoid dealing with my pets' upset tummies, comas or death!

The Real Owners of This House

Check out who has made the chair by the window their new home! They sleep on this chair everyday!! I am not confident that they use the back of it yet to be able to lay down and watch birds, but I am happy that they have found a new bed that is not mine!

If I ever get back to finishing my office (and locate some budget to do so), it is now my intention to make a great spot for them next to the screen door. There are piles of birds, rabbits and other critters in my back yard, and Fergie and Penn

y will spend the whole day in front of the door watching. 

The cat grass that I planted for them has also reached the length where they can ravage it, and they wasted no time investigating the basket when I set it out.

Ahhhh.. little monsters, but they can be so cute sometimes!

Shower Door Repair

I finally fixed my shower door last night! It's only been loose for about a year and falling off/off its hinges for 3 months. I had good intentions two months ago to fix the door.


I even made two trips to Home Depot, the first resulted in me leaving with a large plastic bag of replacement parts and the second confirmed that the part I needed was, indeed, not included in the bag of parts. There are only 2 moving components on my shower door, and they are the same component consisting of three parts. I swear the part I needed was the only one missing in the bag of hardware. MEXX Canada's Aftermarket Customer Support informed me its "factory installed" and they sent me the part I needed.

On a somewhat unrelated note - I also learned that the parts bag I recieved was the installation parts for a brand new shower. I have a feeling that Home Depot "warranties" several of these installation bundles....

So these are the parts I needed. They arrived over a month ago, so at 10 o'clock last night, I decided it was finally time to install them. It was also only a matter of time before my pet monsters discovered they could push the door in and wreck havoc in my shower.














I went to the trouble to get a stubby-handled screwdriver from my neighbour, but upon closer examination with her and later when I set to work, I realized that it would be much more efficient just to take the door off.



Holy nasty soak bathroom scum!





Anyway, here is the part I needed to replace. 2 screws - three of them were broken, one on the bottom, two on the top. Easy -peasy. Hanging the door again proved to be a little more challenging and might have been easier with an extra set of hands, but I managed.









So it's all fixed again! No more wet bathroom floors or fumbling around with the door!
As a bonus, it's also clean. The nasty bathroom scum that I found when I took the door off was enough to turn my stomach just a little! Thank goodness for Comet!















On another note, I moved my living room around last night. Penny and Fergie had become accustomed to lying on the back of my parents' couch to watch the birds out the window, and I didn't have anywhere in my house that allowed them this luxary. It looks goofy, but hopefully they will find the chair in the window a decent substitute until I get the office finished. Then they will be able to lay in front of the screen door and watch the birds in my back yard.

Does your pet or pets have a favourite lounge area in your home?

My Thumb is Itching to be Green!

Last night with my Brownie unit, we planted seeds. Beans in a clear, plastic cup, so they could see how they grow, and Marigold seeds in egg cartons. I decided to soak the soil this time, rather than the egg cartons, to ensure that they didn't dry out too fast, and hopefully prevent them from molding. There is a lot more pressure for the plants to thrive and grow when you're dealing with 7 and 8 year old girls, rather than my own pride!

Prepping for the activity, I was going through children's activity websites and even got a few books from the library. Wow! Talk about great ideas! I am itching for the warm weather to return for good so I can get started on my garden! My plants will be ready before I know it also! Look how tall they are already!

Tip for next time - beans and peas can be planted directly into the garden. There is no need to start them indoors. I knew this, after helping my mom plant her garden for years and years, so why did I decide to start them indoors? I have no idea. I will have to transplant them soon, however, so perhaps a small container garden will bear some veggies until the soil warms up?! 

I also planted 'cat grass' yesterday, which is nothing more than oats. I had hoped I could score some free seed from my parents' farm or the feed mill, but seeing the seed packet for $1.69 the other day, I decided the convenience was worth it and purchased the packet. The grass should be up in only 5 days, and I suspect that by day 15 ,it will be ready to set out for Fergie and Penny. Now maybe they will leave the rest of my plants alone!

Welcome Home! Surprise!

Some surprises are really nice when you come home after a week of travelling. My new Pampered Chef Planner, for example, arrived this week while I was away. Now, I feel like an official consultant, and besides, who doesn't like having mail and packages arrive at your house that don't require you to fork over your hard-earned cash?!

This small excitement was quickly replaced however, by minor discust and frustration as I walked further into the house and my nose caught a whiff of what I knew was not a new air freshener. Sure enough, Penny and Fergie, my two darling cats, had left a large mess in my office that I was faced with cleaning up at 1 am.

At some point, they must have managed to close the kitchen door and lock themselves out of the basement. The very important litter box is, of course, in the basement! Random accident or planned revenge for leaving them alone two weeks in a row? I wouldn't put the latter past them at all!

Savvy Homegirl - 1, Cats - 0

Okay, that is probably not an accurate score. My cats typically win. Always, really. I think I have outsmarted them for now, however.

One of my co-workers loves this story. I came home from 2 weeks of travelling in the fall, and I arrived back at my house late at night. Throwing my bags onto my floor and crawling into bed, I noticed the rooted-up plant in the corner but thought little of it. I must have left my door open, and Penny and Fergie spent the week terrorizing my bedroom.

Only hours later, I was awoke by a loud bang in the basement. Certainly nothing that was normal. Still not fully awake, I ignored it, only to roll over and see a little, furry head poke up from my cold air vent. A few more tries, and Penny pushed the vent cover aside and climbed up out of the vent!!

Since this day, I have been forced to keep my pet monsters out of the basement. I had yet to find the vent they were getting in through, although I knew that they patrolled the rafters of my basement regularly.

But no more! This weekend, after realizing that no open crevice was safe from their nimble limbs, I raided Dollarama's pantyhose section, and I went to work closing all the open duct work. It is not the most attractive handiwork, but for now, it seems to be keeping my rascal cats out of the vents.

Now I will wait to see how long it takes them to realize that they can claw right through the barrier. For now though, the score is even!

Meet my Roommates

These are my roommates - Fergie and Penny Lane.

I realize some of you are grinning in humour, smirking even perhaps - single woman with cats. Very original, fitting even? My friends have assured me, however, that I am not 'crazy' until I have at least 3. So I am still safe. (No offence to anyone with 3+ feline friends).

The lives of these former barn kittens are both cruel and fabulous; no longer free to roam as barn cats, yet disgustingly pampered and spoiled as residents of my home.

So spoiled in fact, they have staked claim to my office chair, living room furniture, and bed, which has left me with a great and embarrassing dilemma. Cat hair everywhere! I have become the #1 buyer of lint rollers, because washing my throws and sheets does not remove the hair.

Can anyone suggest some solutions to keep my sheets and blankets hair free?