The Isle Du'Vall

So it's been on the news and if you live in this state you're already more than familiar with what's been going on. But if you're not from around here, I'll re-cap briefly:
During the middle to end of December, western Washington got dumped on with snow. (We personally had just about 3 feet at the Ferretnick homestead)
Then it kind of slacked off and started to melt, only to have the temps rise and the rain to come pouring in, which has now caused major flooding thoughout the west side of the Cascades.

See this picture?
It's the main road I take EVERY day to and from work which was covered with water the last couple of days. Looks like I'll be taking an alternate route for a while now.


So enough of that.
What you really want to know is... how have I managed to face the fury of nature's wrath and survive?

Well, for starters; yesterday I called into work and said I wasn't going to make it in. All three roads into and out of town were submerged, and until that cleared I couldn't go anywhere.
Then I parked my butt at my computer and updated my Facebook page. (Troubling times call for instant sharing, you know)
After that went to the couch where I watched "Rocky & Bullwinkle" on DVD for a bit as I ate Lucky Charms for breakfast.

That was pretty much my entire day until around 2:00 p.m. when I decided to brave the elements and drive into town to visit my friends and play with my niece and nephew.

I haven't seen them since before Christmas (and that's actually quite a long time for me to have not seen them).
My niece showed me her Princess Barbies that she got for Christmas then we played a game.
The game was fun but her attention was soon lost on playing it after the first round.

Then I had the idea of making sock puppets with her.
Her mom went and got a few stray socks, buttons and some needle & thread, and my niece and I made up a couple of nifty-looking sock puppets. I let her name them, but for the life of me I can't remember what she called them.
Her dad got a some pictures of us, but I didn't have them to add to this post yet. (I'll post them at a later date)

I got a call from Hotness (who actually was able to work from home yesterday and today) and said she and a neighbor we going to eat downtown and asked if I wanted to join them.
About that same time, I was invited to a "beach party" at a friend's house in town.
They were inviting everybody over to hang out (in appropriate 'beach' attire) and have fun to take our minds off of the flooding, rain, and general poor weather.
I stopped in to say "hi" for a bit then continued down into town where I had dinner.

Afterwards, we went to the outskirts of town to see how high the water was on the roads before coming back home and going to bed.

It was a terribly rough journey through the ravaged wasteland that is my hometown, but somehow I perservered and made the best out of it.

---------------
Coming up soon:
Begging for money
Cat issues

It Is Finally Finished

Last week, after getting back from camping, I started in on a project that I'd been putting off until I could spend the time doing it.

I had bought a clothesline pole set-up and wanted to put it in our backyard so we could stop using the dryer as much and thus save more money on our electric bill.

To get everything finished and ready so we could start hanging our clothes up was going to take more time than I could invest in just an evening, so I waited until I could spend the better part of a day on working on it.

So on Sunday, after I unloaded my car, I got to work on setting it all up.

I dug a couple of holes about 20 inches deep and then put a cardboard cement form in each. I filled them with some gravel (for drainage):

Then I poured in the cement and and placed the poles, making sure they were centered:

And then... I discovered that I didn't have enough cement to fill the forms.

So on Monday, I went to the hardware store and picked up some more along with the clothesline rope, clothespins, etc. 'Cause after all, I was going to be finished with it that night.

Wrong!

I poured the concrete and filled the tubes the rest of the way and then I started stringing up the clothesline. All was going well until I discovered that as I measured from one side the to other, that the poles were pivoting. So that one string from pole to pole might be the right length, but by the time I got to the last couple of strings they were too short.

Ugh! Another day and it's not finished.

The remainder of the week was taken up with things after work, so I wasn't able to get back to the project until today. A week after I started it. (This should only have been a weekend job!)

Today I re-strung the lines that were too short and got everything tightened up properly:

And within an hour I was hanging up clothes to dry in the sunshine! Finally!

Yay me for trying to lighten my carbon footprint on the planet!

------------

In other news:

Hotness killed our lawnmower today. Not the riding one, but the one we've had for 6 years since we moved out here.

It was making a weird rattling noise the other day which I attributed to needing more oil.

So today she goes outside, starts it up and it makes that same noise.

I came out and said that it sounded really bad. We changed out the old oil and gave it some brand new fresh oil. Started it back up and it still made the noise.

"Well, I guess I'll just mow and see what happens," she said.

And she mow she did. For about 5 minutes. When suddenly the mower went *CrAcK*!

I came outside and asked her what happened, and all she said was, "Don't come out here. It's dead."

Sure enough, there's a big ol' crack in the side of the engine that is irreparable.

I don't know what happened but now our mower is dead.

Folks, this is the second piece of lawn machinery that Hotness has killed.

She's at Home Depot right this minute buying a new one while I'm in mourning for our old one.

*Update!

She just returned with the new one and it is very similar to it's predecessor.

We'll see how long it has to live after Hotness 'breaks' it in.

Growin' Worms

This weekend I built a worm composting bin.

For those of you not 'in the know' about such things, rather than tossing your table scraps out in the garbage, you feed them to a bunch of worms who chew through it and break it down into a terrific soil amendment.

There are lots of fine articles about it all over the web and in many gardening books.

What's cool about worm composting is that you can do it indoors if you live in the city and don't have a yard to keep a bin in.

The castings (the fancy word for worm poop) works wonders on houseplants.

My bin isn't the fanciest-looking worm holder, but it'll do the job.

I spent tonight shredding up newspaper to put in for bedding before adding the little buggers.

I can mail-order them here, but I think I'll try to find them locally (read: free) if possible.

My goal is to have them break down our day-to-day food scraps while we also compost our lawn clippings in another bin.

Then, when gardening times comes we'll have lots of good, rich soil to grow stuff in.

"Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie...."

Hotness and I were talking one day and I mentioned that when I die I would donate my body to science (or the porn industry... whichever wants me most), and whatever was left should be cremated rather than buried.

She had told me about when her dad passed away and how she and her brother had to go about picking out a 'container' to have him cremated in. They opted for a wooden box, but that for the very budget-minded greiver they offered a plain, old cardbord box.
Looking back, she said it was actually quite funny in a 'black humor' kind of way.

I told her that if they offered a cardboard box, then she could save even more money by burying me in a comicbook longbox. Afterall, why not be put to rest in something I love and people remember me most for?

It made sense to me.


And then I found out about these.... Creative Coffins



Made out of environmentally-friendly products (at least 60% post-consumer recycled paper), they come in an assortment of designs to fit your "style" or you can have one custom-made to your particular tastes.

So maybe you want to have a picture of all the superhero babes crying over your deceased body.
Or maybe you want your coffin to look like the locker you had in high school.
Or perhaps you just want a big, freaking Cannibus leaf to show your love for the ganja.
Now you can!

So I guess this'll be a much better choice than having to cobble together a bunch of longboxes together for me to fit into.

Thanks to the Presurfer yet again!

There Will Be Pie

If you haven't heard, bees are dying all across the globe in record numbers.

It's called Colony Collapse Disorder and if you haven't heard or know much about it, I really suggest you find out more.

This will have a devastating effect on world food supplies since bees are the major force in pollinating crops.

But not to paint a bleak picture for today, I am happy to report that not ALL the bees are dead.

In fact I saw lots of fat, happy little bumblebees buzzing around my plants this spring.

That's a good sign because that means my cherry trees at home got all nice and pollinated by the helpful little critters.

So later in the summer when the days are hot, I'll be able to make some homemade cherry pie!

(I noticed that there are lots and lots of little green cherries just waiting to ripen as the summer wears on, so I'm excited about that)

Here's one of the little fellas that was hanging around outside my house on Sunday:

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day.

I'm not going to harp on things to do to improve the health of the planet.

I think by now we either already know and are making changes in our lifestyle or just don't care.

We can all make simple changes that have long-term effects.

Personally, I'm having tea this morning rather than coffee grown on a plantation that has destroyed homes for migratory songbirds and I 'brown-bagged' my lunch so I wouldn't have to drive my car and get it today.

However you plan to celebrate Earth Day, I hope it's fun and that you make it a daily routine instead of just once a year.

The Green Movement

A great article in the Seattle Times about organic and 'green' products on the market and the consumers who buy them.



Whoa! This's like my smallest post ever. So far....

Ass-lights

Greenpeace has started a viral campaign to get people to use energy-efficient lighbulbs instead of the standard variety.
The idea is kind of cute, if not a bit risque.

They have people with light shining out of their bottoms saying "Until the light shines out of your bottom, use an energy-efficient lightbulb instead".



Good advice and a simple thing we can all do to help improve our enviroment.