My treehouse
I has a treehouse! Well, not really. We have a little deck accessible from our kitchen via sliding door, which is on the 2nd floor of our split-level house. The 2nd year we were in the house, I put out pots of herbs on the deck, which mostly failed spectacularly. Since then, the deck has remained a graveyard for my dead herbs, with the pots weathering away out there. I ventured outside this summer to see if any of the pots could be salvaged for annuals to brighten up my doorstep (I have marigolds and portulaca aka moss roses, lavender, bee balm and catnip). Many had been colonized by an attractive purple plant that appears to have been a highly invasive escapee of the landscaping in the backyard, but were too cracked to be useful, so I threw them out. I rescued a few pots, but more importantly, I noticed that I had been overlooking a very nifty part of my house. The redbud tree and the mulberry tree have really overgrown so that their branches spread a delightful green canopy over the deck, shielding it from morning and midday sun and activating some tree-loving part of my primate brain. I took a folding chair out the deck and sat out there reading, protected from the sun, for most of the morning.
"M!" I said excitedly, "It's like having a treehouse!"
"Hmmm," replied my eminently practical husband. "We should really trim those branches back from the deck so they don't damage the wood planks.
"But it's my treehouse!" I said.
This evening, I bought some fuchsia petunias and took them to my treehouse. He may take my branches (whenever he actually gets around to it) but I can bring my own greenery.
Another observation is related to Alice teh Kitteh. Alice is terrified of the outdoors. We have tried to take her outside on a leash or in our arms, just outside the house in the yard, with unpromising results. She only wanted to go back in the house as soon as felinely possible. This is mostly a good thing, as we can protect her more easily from things like FIV and being eaten by things and being hit by cars if she stays in the house. Also, we are protecting the songbirds of our neighborhood from another potential walking ecological disaster. The cats next door are inside-outside cats and regularly jump the fence into our backyard to taunt Alice through the glass sliding door in our den. Her hackles go up and her tail bristles when she sees these carefree hooligans in her line of sight. They probably also eat all the birds that Alice likes to watch and make chittering noises at. Anyway, as I was sitting outside in my newfound treehouse, Alice is going nuts. Trapped inside, she is frantically pawing at the sliding glass door dividing her from her human. In fact, it is the same behavior she exhibits when encountering a closed bathroom door with a peeing human on the other side. The strange thing is, Alice has never exhibited any interest in actually *going* outside before. She even managed to get past me and venture forth onto the deck. I immediately scooped her up, with visions of her slipping through the gaps between railings or jumping into the redbud tree and being to scared to come down. It occurred to me if we put up some chicken wire or mesh blocking the gaps, Alice could join me on the deck. We have some hideously vivid orange plastic mesh fencing in our garage M. put up when fixing the fence last summer. I mentioned this to M., who shuddered at the thought. "It would look terrible!"
"But we could have a catio. Think of how cool that would be!"
"We are *not* building a catio!" said M. stubbornly.
"But the New York Times says..."
"No!"
"Fine, but maybe we could put some deck chairs out there?"
"Okay," M. relented.
In other news, I had spent some solid time at the KC Mitzvah Garden this week. The Mitzvah Garden is a community project designed to be both an educational experiences about Judaism and the environment, as well as on social justice issues. The produce grown in the garden will be donated to local food providers, increasing the availability of produce to those who may not be able to buy it at the grocery store. On monday, I met up with another volunteer at 7am (when it was nice and cool) and attempted to weed the onion patch. I sank up to my ankles (and fell on my butt!) in the soft, squishy mud several times (We've had a lot of rain these past few weeks), but found I was mostly effective when kneeling - I guess it distributed my weight more evenly over the squishy surface. My partner, B., is a pretty determined lady. I was very impressed with her stamina and fortitude. Also, she let me babble about my favorite subject, the environment, as we weeded. I told her about my worm friends, nutrient cycling, my interest in Judaism and the environment, etc. I have a tendency to gives lectures about things that interest me, (which may or may not be of interest to other people). My roommate at Biosphere 2 claimed that I used to give lectures on photosynthesis as I talked in my sleep (c3 and c4 and cam....snrgl). Between the two of us, we cleared something like 8 rows of weeds. Then, we laid down newspaper with a covering of straw to help retain soil moisture, prevent erosion and prevent weeds from coming back up. Before I knew it, several hours had passed and I was exhausted (but in a good way!). I was also filthy- mud up to my thighs, on my face, on my hat. I put some newspaper down on the driver's seat to avoid having a permanent mud-butt. I also found a pair of dry shoes in my trunk to change in (Who said never cleaning out your car was a bad thing?) One side effect of all the weeding was that I got a boost in WW activity points (yes, there is a category for "weeding garden" on their points tracker), but also that I experienced some serious soreness the next day in my hamstrings and gluteal muscles. "I can't move!" I complained to M., "My butt hurts." I think I may have pushed it a little hard, as it took me about a day and half to get over the fatigue and soreness. Luckily, this afternoon, I was feeling better and scrubbed out my bathtub (2 WW activity points). My bathroom smells nicer and is certainly shinier. I plan on going back to the Mitzvah Garden tomorrow as the weather appears to be awesome (high of 81F, in June, in KS! Rock on! It's usually like 95F with a million percent humidity )
"M!" I said excitedly, "It's like having a treehouse!"
"Hmmm," replied my eminently practical husband. "We should really trim those branches back from the deck so they don't damage the wood planks.
"But it's my treehouse!" I said.
This evening, I bought some fuchsia petunias and took them to my treehouse. He may take my branches (whenever he actually gets around to it) but I can bring my own greenery.
Another observation is related to Alice teh Kitteh. Alice is terrified of the outdoors. We have tried to take her outside on a leash or in our arms, just outside the house in the yard, with unpromising results. She only wanted to go back in the house as soon as felinely possible. This is mostly a good thing, as we can protect her more easily from things like FIV and being eaten by things and being hit by cars if she stays in the house. Also, we are protecting the songbirds of our neighborhood from another potential walking ecological disaster. The cats next door are inside-outside cats and regularly jump the fence into our backyard to taunt Alice through the glass sliding door in our den. Her hackles go up and her tail bristles when she sees these carefree hooligans in her line of sight. They probably also eat all the birds that Alice likes to watch and make chittering noises at. Anyway, as I was sitting outside in my newfound treehouse, Alice is going nuts. Trapped inside, she is frantically pawing at the sliding glass door dividing her from her human. In fact, it is the same behavior she exhibits when encountering a closed bathroom door with a peeing human on the other side. The strange thing is, Alice has never exhibited any interest in actually *going* outside before. She even managed to get past me and venture forth onto the deck. I immediately scooped her up, with visions of her slipping through the gaps between railings or jumping into the redbud tree and being to scared to come down. It occurred to me if we put up some chicken wire or mesh blocking the gaps, Alice could join me on the deck. We have some hideously vivid orange plastic mesh fencing in our garage M. put up when fixing the fence last summer. I mentioned this to M., who shuddered at the thought. "It would look terrible!"
"But we could have a catio. Think of how cool that would be!"
"We are *not* building a catio!" said M. stubbornly.
"But the New York Times says..."
"No!"
"Fine, but maybe we could put some deck chairs out there?"
"Okay," M. relented.
In other news, I had spent some solid time at the KC Mitzvah Garden this week. The Mitzvah Garden is a community project designed to be both an educational experiences about Judaism and the environment, as well as on social justice issues. The produce grown in the garden will be donated to local food providers, increasing the availability of produce to those who may not be able to buy it at the grocery store. On monday, I met up with another volunteer at 7am (when it was nice and cool) and attempted to weed the onion patch. I sank up to my ankles (and fell on my butt!) in the soft, squishy mud several times (We've had a lot of rain these past few weeks), but found I was mostly effective when kneeling - I guess it distributed my weight more evenly over the squishy surface. My partner, B., is a pretty determined lady. I was very impressed with her stamina and fortitude. Also, she let me babble about my favorite subject, the environment, as we weeded. I told her about my worm friends, nutrient cycling, my interest in Judaism and the environment, etc. I have a tendency to gives lectures about things that interest me, (which may or may not be of interest to other people). My roommate at Biosphere 2 claimed that I used to give lectures on photosynthesis as I talked in my sleep (c3 and c4 and cam....snrgl). Between the two of us, we cleared something like 8 rows of weeds. Then, we laid down newspaper with a covering of straw to help retain soil moisture, prevent erosion and prevent weeds from coming back up. Before I knew it, several hours had passed and I was exhausted (but in a good way!). I was also filthy- mud up to my thighs, on my face, on my hat. I put some newspaper down on the driver's seat to avoid having a permanent mud-butt. I also found a pair of dry shoes in my trunk to change in (Who said never cleaning out your car was a bad thing?) One side effect of all the weeding was that I got a boost in WW activity points (yes, there is a category for "weeding garden" on their points tracker), but also that I experienced some serious soreness the next day in my hamstrings and gluteal muscles. "I can't move!" I complained to M., "My butt hurts." I think I may have pushed it a little hard, as it took me about a day and half to get over the fatigue and soreness. Luckily, this afternoon, I was feeling better and scrubbed out my bathtub (2 WW activity points). My bathroom smells nicer and is certainly shinier. I plan on going back to the Mitzvah Garden tomorrow as the weather appears to be awesome (high of 81F, in June, in KS! Rock on! It's usually like 95F with a million percent humidity )