Oh hai!
So kaya! Whatcha been up to lately?
Oh I am so glad you asked! *grins* I’ve been busy busy busy! Let me tell you all about it. 
We’ve been creating an oasis on our back deck. The mosquitoes are terrible. Like.. terrible. There was no way to enjoy sitting outside without a screened in area. (And that 10′x12′ piece of carpet is in there!)
As it is, I look like a spotted cow from going fishing the other day but at least now we can sit out there, have a beer, watch the birds (the hummingbirds come right up. They don’t even care. It’s SO cool). Now I just need a laptop so I can keep up with all of you while I’m drinking coffee and watching the birds. Ah. The tragic life of a slave!
From the back- Look at the purty flower boxes Master bought me!
We’ve decided that we’re not going to get a garden in this year. (Boo! Hiss!) We just weren’t ready for the weird, inhuman weather up here. By the time it warmed up enough that we could get started on the beds, the growing season was in full swing already. We’d only gotten as far as nailing a few boards together when most people had planted, and we still have to finish building the beds, haul in dirt, get it fertilized- and then plant.
I didn’t want to rush it, half-assed putting up the raised beds and not have good dirt just so I could get seeds in the ground. So! We’ve decided to take the summer and take our time. We can build beds to our heart’s content, make them look really nice, probably haul in good dirt at half the price at the end of the season and then have the fall/winter to let the fertilizer get in good and by next spring, I will be ready.
In the meantime, I now have a use for those dozens of empty cat litter buckets that Master, for whatever reason, won’t let me throw in the garbage. (Hoarder tendencies. He haz them.)
I’m going to drill some holes in the bottoms, fill them up with potting soil, and have a ‘bucket garden’. A couple of tomato plants, maybe a cucumber if it’ll grow in a bucket.. and I don’t know what else. Whatever else I can make grow in an old cat litter container. Peppers probably. I’d love zuchinni but I tried that in a big pot last year and it didn’t grow for crap, so we’ll see.
So, I’m pretty disappointed to not have my garden this year, but I’m kinda stoked to see if I can make a go of it with plastic buckets. It’s all kinds of recycle and reuse and money saving and just tickles my domestic little soul. AND I expect to have some uber-neato raised beds by next summer!
I’ve scratched my gardening itch a tiny bit anyway by working outside with flowers and stuff. I’m not real knowledgable of flowers/flower beds, nor do I care enough to learn, but the front of the house desperately needed something done to it.
I went with white marble chips with potted flowers over trying to make it a full flower bed because of that aforementioned ignorance, and it turned out pretty decent. I didn’t think to take before pictures, but there was nothing but grass all the way up to the house.
I need Master to cut the edging so I can finish it. He seems to think I’m too uncoordinated to use the saw. He’s probably right. Anyway, so there are two of those beds in the front of the house and maybe, when/if that marble goes on sale toward the end of the season, I’ll swing it all the way around the side of the house too.
(Just an added note: Those bags of marble chips are fookin’ heavy. I had to two-hand drag them across the grass so I could dump them out. But when we bought them, Master was just tossing them in the back of the truck like they were nothing.
It solved the mystery of “why does it hurt so much when he smacks me on the ass?” Fucking powerhouse.)
I’m going to check into making my own compost bin. Every time I throw food scraps in the garbage I think about what a waste it is. I could so use it in the garden!
I don’t know what Master’s decided on regarding the chickens. I think he’s just not had the time or energy to build a coop. We’ve got all the wood, well, most of it anyway, now it’s getting it done. I really want them but I’m not gonna nag him about it. He’s a busy boy.
Course if he’d let me use the saw, I’d try building it myself. (hint hint)
I had kind of a moment of enjoyable, uber-service that pushed my boundaries a little bit the other day.
We’d gone fishing, and this time we took the boat. He doesn’t have a big boat by any means, just a small fishing boat, but it’s still a boat which means it has to actually get IN the water and leave the dry ground to be of any use.
I have this silly little water phobia where taking a shower is plenty enough water for me, tyvm.
I’d been doing good just getting close to the water’s edge when we went fishing before. It’s been nothing but his desire to get out into the middle of the lake that’s forced me to work through this phobia.
So, we went. And I got in the boat and he started away from shore and I was white-knuckle-gripping the seat and the farther away from shore we got the more panicky I felt. And angry. Angry panic. Angry at myself for being such a tool and for potentially ruining his enjoyment. Angry at him for just not letting me be with my stupid irrational fear of sharks and piranhas and alligators and drowning. And panic because.. fuck if I know why. Because I was going to DIE! Because there was a tiny bit of leftover rain water in the bottom of the boat and I was convinced there was a hole and we were sinking and I wouldn’t be able to swim and I would die.
Then he stopped, really not too far away from shore- maybe 20 feet if that. May as well have been 20 miles, though. He asked me if I was okay and I said yes. He asked me if I was crying and I lied and said no and then angrily fisted the tears off my face.
He asked me if I wanted to go back.
Every single fiber of my being screamed YES. Fucking christ YES.
And I said no.
Because… fishing was what he wanted to do. Being out there in the boat was what he wanted to do. Being a slave, to me, is about more than beatings and blow jobs. It’s more than fetching water when I’m tired. It IS doing what I don’t want to do just because he wants to do it. No matter what that thing is.
It’s not that I was then cured of my water fears. Just, at that moment, pleasing him took precedence over panic.
Once I’d calmed myself down enough to peer over the side, I realize that not only could I see the bottom (the lake is crystal clear. It’s *gorgeous*), we were in probably about 5 feet of water- at most. I may not be able to swim back should we sink- but I could certainly walk back, ffs.
Silly girl.
That “uber-service moment” I mentioned? Master hadn’t put the motor on the boat. So I rowed him around the edge of the lake while he lounged back in his chair and fished. He’d look over at me and grin, relaxed, comfortable, make some comment about his “rowing cunt” or whatever and direct me where to go. “Left paddle, cunt. Now, right. No, no, left. More left. Both together, cunt. Good. Stop here a minute.”
Way cool.
Also? Rowing a fishing boat is hard work.
Also? I caught a fish. And he didn’t. He was pwned.
Hee!
What else.
Jes is doing good. Pregnancy wise anyway. She’s dropped so… anytime now I guess. I told her she’d better get her room clean and start getting things ready, bag packed, bottles washed, clothes and diapers set up and ready. She’s only just over two weeks from her due date.
I can’t wait. We’ve had an explosion of pink in the house. Every baby item we have is pink. The clothes are pink. The blankets are pink. We live pink.
Master is understandably disturbed.
She rearended somebody over the weekend. Grrs. Not a major accident, slight damage to the front of her car, and who knows how much to their car. She says none but I wasn’t there and I don’t know if I can believe her.
And who knows if they’ll start crying whiplash or whatever.
I just can’t wait to see what the fall out from that is going to be. I’m sure it’ll raise our rates and then with adding Am on? I may have to get a job just to pay the new insurance premiums.
When she called to tell us what had happened, Master got on the phone and told her to calm down, everything was fine, what mattered was that nobody was hurt and that we love her. Which, yanno, how sweet is that? He’s a doll.
A big pink doll.
I bet he falls hopelessly in love with this baby.
*squee!*
Okay. I gotta go run errands. Y’all try not to have nightmares about forks. *snicker*
Uncategorized | kaya | 
June 18, 2009 11:08 am
The deck looks great! Flower pots too. Just add miracle-gro once or twice a week. 1tblspn to the gal. Best cukes I ever grew were in a plastic bucket set in the ground and filled with rotted horse manure. Leave bucket about 1 or 2 inches above ground to keep out slugs etc.
So what did you do the bottom of the bucket? And you actually buried it IN the ground?
punch holes in bottom and lower sides of bucket and yes dig a hole and plant the bucket all but about 1 to 1 1/2″
I just wanted to note on the buckets – if you drill a hole in the bottom, the cat litter container handle things are strong enough to hold them full of dirt and you can have those nifty upside down tomato plants and such. More production! They’ll put out so much for you.
CUTE BUMP! So excited for y’all.
Yes! I was thinking the same thing. Now I just have to decide where to hang them. I can’t use the deck now!
Does anything else grow upside down like that, that you know of?
Herbs, cukes, and anything that doesn’t vine.
What an awesome deck! … I might be coming over to chill on it. I can fold all all the pink clothes.
Hired.
Start tomorrow.
…sounds good. I ran out of my own laundry to fold, and I have two hours before my next job interview. Plus, I’ll bring the chocolate.
Great deck! Look how big Jes is! Aw, you’re gonna love the baby.
And lol at noticing the water was five feet deep, ahahaha! Glad you two enjoyed.
[rq=43383,0,blog][/rq]Pondering Aimlessly
Well I AM only 5’4″ so *techinically* I’d still drown.
[...] See original here: Oh hai! [...]
Beautiful deck! I’d be having coffee out there. I’ve tried taking my laptop out on my porch but there’s always a stupid glare & I can’t see the screen. It’s ok at night though.
I’m pretty good at gardening–flowers/veggies & composting. And I raised chickens & rabbits for years.
If you lived closer, I’d bring you some irises & live-forevers & purple campanula & evening primrose…&…&… LOL.
And the baby bump–oh my goodness. I think she’s veryyyy close! YAY BABIES *especially if they aren’t mine–I just want to sniff freshly washed baby heads & then hand them back* lol.
Great job, your oasis is awesome!
Tell me everything you know about composting please? I can/will google but sometimes google gives me so much information that I get confused more than helped.
HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII BACK!!! Thanks for the comment.
[rq=45883,0,blog][/rq]Friday Fill In
oh Kaya, ya gotta email me – I’ll send you my vanilla photo link you will be in garden heaven. We do square foot and container gardening and yeah, rocks are friggin heavy!
I am emailing you. Gimme!
K, so i don’t post much, but you may remember me…i am your most loyal lurker! tee hee. So i have a great idea for tomatoes and probably cucumbers if you get the bush kind…
You have seen that silly tomato tree thingy right? well, don’t spend the money. Get a 3 or 5 gallon plastic bucket (like the kind that paint comes in, but plain) at the home depot type store, or your garage if you are like us and keep EVERYTHING. Cut a hole in the bottom about two inches across (i used a small glass to measure) then you poke the plant into the hole from the bottom, put a little dirt in to hold it in then hang it up and fill it the rest of the way.
Screw plant hooks into the bottom of your deck and let it hang like fancy potted plants. I even cut a glass size hole in the lid and put it on so when i water it helps keep the soil moist.
The cool thing, the veggies don’t even touch the ground so bugs are not an issue and you can go totally organic. You are so crafty you could even paint the goofy buckets…so, taadaa, you have been visited by the cheap idea fairy!
tc
Did you put anything around the hole that you cut? I’ve read different things about needing to add, like, a styrofoam ring (between the plant and the bucket)- maybe to keep the dirt from falling out the hole? I’m not sure.
Anyway, yes! I was definitely going to try that with one of the litter buckets. I just have to find somewhere to hang it. The underneath portion of our deck gets little to no sunlight so I may end up hanging a pole out in the garden area or something.
And you know I’ll have to decorate the buckets..lol. I just gotta!
i just cut the hole, if the dirt is packed enough it doesn”t fall out. i will try to take a picture and send it to you but it may be a couple days.
Ok first off. If youre going to do chicks, get them in April at TSC. Ask me before you do though, Ill ‘splain later.
The deck looks ZOMG amazing!
I will have to make the trek up north I think. We has to has a meet.
[rq=43710,0,blog][/rq]Thursday Thunkery
You most definitely need to come up north. I’ll beg.
I think if he does end up building a coop at this time of the year, we’d probably try and buy hens that are already grown. I would be a bit intimidated to start out with chicks anyway. But what’s TSC?
i always bought pullets?? ( i think thats the word) young hens just beginning to lay. way less hassle than chicks. and after all instant gratification of the eggs
Pullets are females, yes. Straight run is either male or female, you never know till they grow up what they are. Anything labeled “pullet” is an egg layer. You can get them in the spring at TSC just a day old and tend them. Most start laying eggs at a year, sometimes earlier, depending on the chick it is.
Normally the vats at TSC are either “white rocs” or “comets”. They also have ducks, chicks/straight run that are “Reds”, “Cornish” or sometimes “Bantams”. I suggest investigating to get the right kind of chicken for your needs.
[rq=45876,0,blog][/rq]Friday Fill In
TSC is Tractor Supply Company. Get familiar with it. You’ll learn to rely on it. You can get ALL your dog/cat stuff there cheaper then almost anywhere. Plus you can do your cats yearly shots there for a fraction of the cost that the vet charges.
[rq=45869,0,blog][/rq]Friday Fill In
Loved the catch-up, loved the pics and loved the humour: It solved the mystery of “why does it hurt so much when he smacks me on the ass?” Fucking powerhouse.
I wish I could get into the whole gardening thing. Maybe I’ll start small with herbs…
[rq=43797,0,blog][/rq]Am I a bit sick?
Surprisingly (or maybe not), I have the most trouble with herbs.
They just don’t grow. Or.. they do and I think they are weeds and pull them..lol
gardening in your area sounds .. challenging to say the least.
and of course wonderful cackle berries too!
do you have the evil black flies along with mosquitos? they practically carried me away from my cottage in NS last year.
i had 9 ft tall Sweet One Million cherry tomatoes and something called patio tomatoes in buckets last year. had em in the sunniest spot and they were amazing. i also sprinkled Mesclun (mixed lettuce) seeds in one bucket and it came up a solid green that i could cut like that fancy spring garden lettuce mix in the stores. one bucket was good nuff for two of us.
if you get chickens (which i LOVE em) you gotta protect em from everything wild that tries to eat them. In my area thats bears cougars weasels hawks etc. BUT you talk of you leftover foods and scraps. Chickens will eat EVERYTHING and produce nice chicken poop for you instead
I have heard talk of the black flies but it’s either not time yet or we don’t have them.
Its probably not time yet. We couldn’t get so lucky as to not have them.
It is challenging to garden. There is no dirt here! We could play beach volleyball in the backyard though. It is pure sand. Fucking weird, man.
I like that lettuce idea! I’m totally going to do that.
What are cackle berries? Noms?
Black flies are usually in the UP from May/June thru July/August, with the heaviest concentration about now. Where they congregate varies for reasons some biologist (bugologist?) might know. They are aggravating devil spawn so if you aren’t getting them Hooray for you. Flash: nekkid subbie, black flies, mosquitoes, hummmm
Funny you should say that- just last night we were talking about Spankfest and camping and the mosquitos and he said he’d been thinking about tying me up somewhere naked and leaving a sign that said “Whip her”, and using the mosquitos as targets.
It sounds itchy to me!
cackle berries? LOL sorry those are the EGGS the chickens lay!
i was thinking last year that nekkid + black flies + mosquitos = the most cruel of tortures! and the black fly bites seemed to fester and itch for days and days
sand is better to start with than clay.
Lettuce!! I think we should all come for coffee…it`s so nice!
I think you should too! I’ll be the serving wench.
That’s not a baby bump. That’s a baby mountain.
[rq=44407,0,blog][/rq]Nothing much going on
lol! Thats how she feels, too. She’s at the point of being so uncomfortable that she’s willing to endure the pain of labor to get it over with.
Thats natures way. It makes one torture be so awful that you’re begging to pick another. Hee.
How about radishes? I heard they were great for container gardening and they mature really fast. About the flies: I was at a place overrun by black flies and ended up fleeing the campsite the next morning. I think the screen on your wonderful deck will be perfect to keep these bugs away!
I love hearing about your gardening ideas!
You should really look into vermicomposting if all u are going to use is the odd bit of scraps(kitchen/garden) and paper for composting until next year. Very handy and green : ) and u have a ready source of fish bait.
what a lovely oasis!!! Jes is looking *very* ready!!
[rq=49073,0,blog][/rq]Rewarded with Training
About the hole in the bucket.. try putting spagnum moss around it, then the dirt. It works to keep the dirst from falling out.. also could use styrofoam noodles unless they are the ones that recycle (ie.melt in water)
The deck looks fabulous!
[...] the other day but at least now we can sit out there, have a beer, watch the birds (the hummi click for more var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : [...]
A good friend of mine makes earth boxes out of the old cat litter pails. http://74.6.239.67/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=earth+box+cat+liter+bucket&fr=slv8-msgr&u=www.green-trust.org/freebooks/Earthbox.pdf&w=earth+box+cat+liter+litter+bucket&d=BMXD6RlMS-GH&icp=1&.intl=us
He swears by them -