#there was a full on possum in my backyard today

[art-of-manliness]

Podcast #883: The Naturalist’s Art of Animal Encounters

Whether you see some deer, have a fox cross your path, or spot a moose, there’s something disproportionately delightful about encountering wildlife. Even seeing something pedestrian like a possum feels really fun. If you’d like to have more of these kinds of encounters, and a deeper experience with nature as a result, my guest has some tips for making them happen more often. His name is Dave Hall, and he’s an outdoor educator and guide, as well as the author of The Naturalist’s Companion: A Field Guide to Observing and Understanding Wildlife. Today on the show, Dave and I first talk about the safety and ethical considerations around observing wild animals. We then discuss the best places to spot wildlife (and how it could be in your own backyard), whether there’s a best time of day to encounter animals, and the approach to take so that the animals don’t know you’re there, or if they do, feel comfortable with your presence. Dave shares the gaze to adopt to spy more animals and the signs that will help you find them. We end our conversation with how to practice what Dave calls “spontaneous acceptance,” which may allow you to chill with a beaver. Resources Related to the Podcast * Field guides and nature-related books that Dave recommends: * Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking by Tom Brown Jr. * Peterson Field Guides * Timber Press Field Guides * Tracking and the Art of Seeing: How to Read Animal Tracks and Sign by Paul Rezendes * What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young * Touching the Wild by Joe Hutto * Beaversprite: My Years Building an Animal Sanctuary by Dorothy Richards * Dave’s previous appearance on the AoM podcast: Episode #157 — Primitive Pursuits & Winter Survival * AoM Article: A Primer on Identifying Animal Footprints * AoM Podcast #739: Rewild Your Life * AoM Podcast #194: The Field Notes of Theodore Roosevelt Connect With Dave Hall * Dave’s website Listen to the Podcast! (And don’t forget to leave us a review!) Listen to the episode on a separate page. Download this episode. Subscribe to the podcast in the media player of your choice. Listen ad-free on Stitcher Premium; get a free month when you use code “manliness” at checkout. Podcast Sponsors Click here to see a full list of our podcast sponsors. Read the Transcript The post Podcast #883: The Naturalist’s Art of Animal Encounters appeared first on The Art of Manliness. http://dlvr.it/SlghTd

[slav-every-day]

#there was a full on possum in my backyard today #also I went into a target #a pretty exciting day all things considered #slav #slav every day #voltron

[livingcorner]

Vegetable Garden Layout: 7 Best Design Secrets! – A Piece Of Rainbow

7 best vegetable garden layout ideas on soil, sun orientations, spacing, varieties, plans & design secrets to create productive & beautiful kitchen gardens.

Before this blog took over, I worked as a garden designer for over 10 years. My favorite gardens always had an edible garden in them! 

You're reading: Vegetable Garden Layout: 7 Best Design Secrets! – A Piece Of Rainbow

I found that the best vegetable garden layout & designs invariably have a lot of things in common. They are all well planned, easily accessible, very productive, inviting, and beautiful . 

Today I am super excited to share with you 7 secrets to create great vegetable garden layout & designs and practical tips you can implement in your own garden right away!

* Some resources in article are affiliate links. Full disclosure here .

1. Start with sun and shade when creating vegetable garden layout and designs

Most vegetables grow best in full sun. Not all open areas in a garden will be sunny. A tall tree or building can cast several hundred feet of shade when the sun is lower in the year from late fall through early spring. ( Via Pine House Gardens )

Always choose the most sunny location you can for a kitchen garden, where plants can get at least 5-6 hours of direct sun per day, especially between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Usually the south, south west, or south east side of a house is great for a veggie garden on northern hemisphere. ( Via NW Bloom )

What direction should vegetable garden rows run? Typically the garden gets more sun exposure when rows are running north south direction.

Read more: Dealing With Backyard Possum Problems – How To Get Rid Of An Opossum

Sometimes we can not do so, such as in this sloped garden. A good alternative is to plant shorter plants such as cabbage, onion, or zucchini on the south side of a garden bed, and taller plants such as pole bean, fava bean, tomato etc on the north side so the taller plants won’t shade the shorter plants. 

2. Well designed beds and paths in vegetable garden layout

A well designed vegetable garden layout needs to have good circulation paths. A main path should be at least 30 inch wide for ease of circulation. You can have narrower paths or stepping stones through garden bed as well. ( Via Magnolia )

Garden beds should be less than 4′ wide to easily reach any plants in the center without stepping onto the soil.

Check out this detailed guide on easy 25 DIY garden paths with inexpensive materials.

How to build 28 easy and productive raised beds!

If you want more edible garden beds ideas, check out this reader favorite article on how to build 28 easy and productive raised beds!

3. How to space vegetables in a garden

When you are designing what to plant in your vegetable garden, it’s important to know how far to space vegetables in a garden bed.

You can find the spacing requirements of different plants on a seed packet, or use this spacing chart above. This is for intensive plantings with good soil in small space or raised beds. Increase the spacing by x1.5 or x2 if you have a bigger garden area.

Another popular edible garden design is the square foot garden. Square foot gardening system is the practice of dividing the growing area into 1 foot square sections for better planning of an intensive vegetable garden. ( Via Almanac )

We also have a free printable gardening calendar you can download here, which will help you plan which vegetables to plant each month in your climate zone.

Free printable gardening calendar

4. Learn from beautiful kitchen garden designs

There are so many beautifully designed kitchen gardens and potagers throughout history to draw inspirations from. The majestic vegetable garden above was designed by George Washington at Mt Vernon.

We can use these timeless garden layout designs in our own gardens. Keep in mind that garden beds do not have to be rectangles and squares. You can use curved shapes in your garden designs like in this garden above.

5. Use trellis & structures in a vegetable garden layout

Trellises are functional garden structures that make a garden more productive. They can also be really beautiful in an edible garden. Check out these 24 best DIY garden trellis ideas and tutorials here!

Another garden structure to consider is garden fencing, which can keep out deer and rabbits, and act as a trellis for climbing plants like beans and cucumbers.

Read more: 26 Vegetables That Can Grow In Partial Shade – Gardening Channel

This simple and attractive raised bed garden is by Homefront Farmers.

6. Front yard vegetable garden layout and design

Once upon a time, the idea of a front yard vegetable garden seemed ridiculous. Now as urban farms and beautiful edible gardens are popping up everywhere, we are no longer limited to only the backyard for vegetable gardening.

This front yard vegetable garden is so beautifully designed and absolutely inspiring!

7. Biodiversity and companion planting

When planning your garden, it’s a good idea to incorporate companion planting. It is a system of which plants go together and how to create more beneficial relationships among plants to increase productivity and to repel pests naturally.

By planting certain vegetables, herbs and flowers together, you can allow them to help one another to grow a healthier and more beautiful and abundant garden. ( Via Helen Philips )

This companion planting chart by afristar is a wonderful guide to start with. If you want to dig deeper, there are some great books on companion planting. We have this one: Carrots Love Tomatoes !

Check out this book on Amazon: Carrots Love Tomatoes

Stay tuned for more in our vegetable gardening series!

Happy gardening friends! See you soon!

Source: https://livingcorner.com.au Category: Garden

source https://livingcorner.com.au/vegetable-garden-layout-7-best-design-secrets-a-piece-of-rainbow/

#livingcornernews

[ezatluba]

The Wildlife Insights platform will help analyze and share camera trap images, such as this one of a spotted hyena snapped in the Zambezi region of Namibia.

New website aims to gather all those camera trap mugs of wildlife

Eva Frederick

Dec. 17, 2019

Camera traps—automated cameras that snap a picture whenever an animal walks by—have become an indispensable tool for wildlife biologists, helping them study behavior and estimate populations. But each trap can generate thousands of photos, and researchers often don’t have the time to sort through all the images, pick out their study subjects, and toss the “bycatch”—all the other critters that get their portraits taken. As a result, there are countless “hard drives around the world full of very, very useful data just sitting there, unused,” says Margaret Kinnaird, a wildlife practice leader at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Washington, D.C.

Today, Google Earth, WWF, and other conservation organizations are launching an online database that aims to change that. Wildlife Insights will allow users to upload camera trap images and then have software powered by artificial intelligence analyze them. Users will be able to ask the system to search for their animal of interest, and all of the images will be publicly available. That could be a huge help to researchers, Kinnaird says, saving time and putting a global data set within easy reach.

ScienceInsider talked to Jorge Ahumada, executive director of Wildlife Insights, which is based at the offices of Conservation International in Arlington, Virginia, about how the new platform will work and the impact it might have. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: What problems is Wildlife Insights solving?

A: There is a lot of camera trap data from everywhere, but it’s not being used for conservation. We asked the question, “Why?” And we came up with three barriers. The first is that there’s too much data from each trap for one person to manage. It’s very difficult to get from the raw data to a clean data set because there are thousands of images to look at and keep track of. We wanted to work in a system that would improve that using artificial intelligence, and that’s why we partnered with Google: so the individuals working with camera trap data wouldn’t have to identify all the images by themselves, but a machine would do it first and help simplify the problem and speed up the data flow.

The second barrier that we wanted to improve was having a place where people could put their data and make sure that it’s available, shareable, and people can collaborate. There was no such place. Even if people were successful in organizing all the images from a camera trapping project, they ended up on an external hard drive somewhere. Some might be in cloud accounts, but a lot of these data sets are either in danger of disappearing or siloed. They’re not talking to each other. The only way to bring that together was in this single platform in the cloud.

The third barrier is that even if you speed up the processing of data and [you] can share it, there’s still a lot of barriers in understanding what the data is telling you. You need a lot of technical knowledge and training to be able to make a camera trap data set and calculate how species in that data set are changing through time or what the species richness in the sample is or basic statistics like that. That requires a lot of work that most people don’t have the skills to do. So, our solution was to create an analysis module that will automate all that analysis.

Q: How will this platform change the way we study animals in the wild?

A: Wildlife Insights will basically give us information that we don’t have access to at all. For many animals, we don’t really know how their population is changing or how many animals are in the population. Those are basic facts that you need in order to manage a conserved species that we don’t have for most animals on the planet. Wildlife Insights will give us that for hundreds of species.

The other thing I would say is that this data will help reveal a lot of the inner lives of animals. For example, how do animals use their time during the day? Are they moving, eating, sleeping? That helps us understand changes in the activity patterns of animals that usually happen when there’s some change in the environment, either because of climate change or because of people hunting them. There was a paper in Science a few months ago, using camera trap data, about how animals have become more nocturnal because of people. Camera traps can help us document and understand things like that. And as climate change continues, a lot of animals will have to change their activity. [They could] move into colder periods of the day or nighttime just because of heat stress or things like that.

Q: Will the platform help people other than scientists?

A: Yes, actually, a lot of our potential users, I hope, will be local and Indigenous communities. A lot of these people live in remote areas. They have access to biodiversity and they sometimes use wildlife as part of their livelihoods. They don’t normally know the impact they’re having, and they would like to know. That’s one user group that we’re very interested in getting to.

Another group that I’m very interested in and very passionate about is citizen scientists. That is a very diverse group of people, from nature lovers who just want to put a camera trap in the property to see what they have, to wildlife-savvy land managers and hunters that are interested in knowing how the species there are faring and how to manage different species like deer or turkey. Camera trapping is not a citizen science activity now, and I want it to become one. I think the potential is enormous and it’s a lot of fun for education.

I live in Takoma Park in Maryland, and I put a camera trap in my backyard every winter. I am now analyzing the data, and it’s amazing what you get in your backyard. I get deer and foxes and possums and squirrels—there’s a lot of wildlife. Imagine if every kid in Takoma Park had a camera trap and put it in their backyard. We could put the data in Wildlife Insights and then kids would be doing little competitions to find out who’s got more species in their backyard—and they would learn about wildlife. It could be a fantastic tool that really has the potential to bring people together and rally them around conservation.

[luna-verse]

Chem Trails (My 'Howl')

I. It started in Middle England with stagnant thoughts and incestual friendships- It was bleak wet skies that smelt of burning rubber, rotten souls and home- It was busy stale beer pubs full of laughter and cocaine and Irish accents and men are always too drunk to go home and see their kids- It was houses joined on to houses joined on to houses joined on to houses joined on to corner shops where the immigrants were forced to live and work and die- It was backyard grass forcing it's way through concrete slabs to meet the summer parties and twenty degree barbeque excitement- It was once your feet got cold they were cold for six months unless you were lucky enough to have someone in your bed to warm them up against- It was one cold muddy festival a year for screaming at rock bands you list interest in ten years ago and drowning in the weather and rum and Carling- It was small business pubs with gone off ale for one pound a pint and drowning in odd company and rum and Carling- It was Wetherspoons and ecstasy and treats and dreams and walking everywhere cause everyone was too poor and too drunk to drive- It was Sunday family beef pork lamb Yorkshire pudding roast potato grandma's hugs and sleeping grandad, hungover naps on the sofa and red red wine- It was everyone's parents splitting up except yours cause you were adopted and went to private school- It was White Lightning big bottle pills poker and coats in the park to the tune of skateboards and fist fights- It was art degree false friendships smashing plates, juxtaposing mattress forts, white wine and Smallville- It was selfish political statements badly represented by still performance and pornography and skipping lectures to sleep and play Pathfinder- It was Nottingham and Coventry and Birmingham and punks and gigs and fake hair and not going home- It was falling in love in hammocks and getting your heart broken in portaloos It was MySpace and Facebook and FOMO and anime conventions- It was jealousy over boys and girls and perfect snippets of their perfect lives abroad and fear of being trapped in this dry concrete for the rest of your life- It was part time jobs in pubs which dominated your social life and every penny you earnt went straight back into that till, serve one, drink one, serve one, drink one, can't pay the rent- It was memories and friends and cocaine addictions and alcoholism, lovely souls with sad eyes, kinky sex, cups of tea, sweet smiles and deep hugs- It was tearful goodbyes and googly eye stickers and hope and fear and need- It was not being capable of being happy in the cold, seasonal affective, drunk, smells like coke, smells like rain, smells like envy- It was all this that pushed me away yet pulls me back, push me away, trap me back, can't ever leave a good home, get lost.- II. So I left. - I left for the hot sand blue sky sunset Seaford forty degrees beach just across the road and the road is ninety one kilometres long- I left for the mattress on the floor share a room share a bed share my secrets money doesn't last long here- I left for the hottest Christmas of my life followed by selling my body on Boxing Day I left for Deck bar cocktail oyster Australian accent still got a drinking problem but now it costs more- I left for not having access to Cocaine anymore thank God, but do you want to buy Meth instead?- I left for lingerie high heels, secrets and lies, hundreds of dollars, no dollars, star signs, starry skies, stars in my eyes, can't keep secrets, gotta tell someone, don't fuck it up- I left for an hour and a half on the train and forty five minutes on the tram and a ten minute walk to work- I left for five am possum attack man attack park, kookaborough screaming dawn, parrot party in a tree all night, shit all over the cars- I left for inner city whorehouse sweat hair waiting room chair pizza crackheads WWE TV, girlfriend experience porn star extra thirty, no natural don't you know that's legally rape?- I left for Munchkin Azul Catan chessboard Scorpio rivalry comedy nang don't give me that spiritual crap!- I left for Somersby sunny day vegan scrambles Mercedes Champagne, broken glass laugh, piano washing up - never alone- I left for not having my own bedroom but being welcome in everyone's bed - I left for queer identity if you want one, choose a gender, choose a partner, want two? Want what you can't have, never want again- I left for best friend wedding VISA, do you want to stay forever? Marry me, emerald glee, indecision but love forever- I left for crack secrets, stay hydrated, look after yourself, dopamine shortage, Vitamin C, taco burger cider beer mdma ketamine acid- I left for bush doof LSD lose your mind, every time's a silly time, tell your friends, will this trip ever end?- I left for van life, pattern curtain, three in a bed, winter beach, sandal tree, never in your life have you felt this free- I left for more self esteem and a harder shell against the harsh insults of the world- I left for hard smashing my box twenty rubber dicks lights on peep show early morning thrush for minimum wage- I left for toothaches broken collarbones sliced fingers ripped breasts urine infections, please expand the NHS, I can't afford to get out of bed- I left for salty sea rainy season Pad Thai hundred kilometres per hour scooter no licence, can't see, get in the sea, Arrhoy Makh Mah island life paradise is cheap but doesn't last forever- I left for forced holidays VISA runs plane food sim card swimming tuktuk airport homelessness freedom and not being able to afford my safety but I can always afford a beer - I left for choice and freedom- I left cause the good outweighs the bad, and while the bad is much worse, for lack of pubs to drown in and doctors for the poor, the good will be my Paradise.- III. OH acid you opened my eyes- OH Emerald you opened my heart- OH Katie you gave me the world- OH Lachlan you helped me keep it- OH Thailand you set me free- OH England you patch me up for free- OH Great Prostitute in the Sky, you shower me with riches - OH Great Alcoholic in the Gutter, you keep me in poverty, you humble me. - OH to the Great Avocado, the humble noodle, the sacrificial egg. - OH to never being alone, to always being home- OH to every great home, to Coventry, to Nottingham, to Frankston, to Melbourne, to Koh Phangan, to Wellington, to Pai, to all these noble strongholds of my life. - OH to every choice I've made, without one I would never be here as I am today And OH to knowing this long poem will never truly end.

[jash62]

The Hell Universe Entry 2 part 1

Slight breeze blowing. Foot falls on dirt. snapping twigs. Rhythmic stretching of leather and cloth. Rustling of brush. Slight heavy breathing.

Person 1 assumed male voice: Hello, hello, testing testing, 1. 2. 3.

Hand hitting plastic

Person 1: Huh this transcriber program is not bad, but how will I remember that person 1 is me? I guess male voice-

Crow call in the distance

P1 to Me: That's pretty cool that this program can tell it was a crow. Wait it changed person 1 to me!

Deep laughter

Me: That is ever loving cool. Okay. Now only if I can break up the paragraphs so it's not one big block of texts.

Audible Pipboy clicks.

Me: There. Hopefully the setting are right. Monty's Log, Diary, Journal? Screw it! Captain's log Oct 25 2287 currently 1400 and change. Weather humid as fuck. Location: west-south west of the neighborhood. Current mission: tracking my wife Cassandra. Status: pain in my ass.

Deep sigh from Monty

Me to Monty: Ha this is awesome, deep sigh from Monty. I wonder if this thing can tell the difference from voices. Experiment for later. Anyways log, the reason why I'm talking to you instead of typing is because I'm out in the woods trying to find my wife with little luck. Not to mention I hate typing on that small ass Pipboy keypad, let alone one handed.

Note to self: thank Codsworth for program.

Anyway I say with little luck is because according to Codsworth, there was a rain storm rolled through not too long ago and wash her tracks away from the vault.

Speaking of the British ass, after I woke up yesterday afternoon, (after my drunken cry fest Hangover) Codsy-poo reminded me of my supplies box I buried in the backyard and that it was still there. So after digging it up, and finding my paranoia finally paying off, I took stock.

My grandfather's Walther P99

My service Beretta

Weapon mods

Fuck load of 10mm rounds

2 Throwable survival knives

Survival gear bag

Tent

Canteen

Water purifier

Survival blankets

Bed roll

10 days rations

5 days of water

Fire starter kit

Assortment of momentos

10 days of rations for 2

2 military issued medkits and field surgery kits

10 days of water for two

Bedroll

2 sleeping bags

3 different carrying bags for supplies

4 empty duffle bags for scavenged supplies

Footsteps stop

Monty: 1500 already and a rock that looks comfortable to sit on, brake time!

2 asummed bags hit the ground. Bag 1 zipper opens. Metal scrapes against cloth. Plastic cap unscrewed. Liquid being gulped down assumedly by Monty.

Monty: ahhhh that's the stuff. You know log assuming makes an ass out of you and me.

More cloth rustling against metal and cloth. second metal object pulled out from ASSUMED bag.

Monty: Smartass

Plastic pop from metal. Multiple rustling sound from metal object. Crunching noise. Liquid gulping from first metal object.

Monty while eating: where was I

Crunching of food

Monty Swallowing: Okay Mom I get it! No eating and talking. Geez getting back sassed by my own transcriber program. I just trying to eat my trail mix gah!

Swig of liquid

Anyway where was I? Right after taking stock, I reburied what I didn't needed, packed my survival bag with the essentials, cleaned my the guns and headed up to the top of the hill where the vault’s entrance is. Then using deductive reasoning in my tracking skills I summarized my wife went left to the game Trail instead of turning right to the hiking trail trail to the neighborhood.

Anyway where was I? Right after taking stock, I reburied what I didn't needed, packed my survival bag with the essentials, cleaned my the guns and headed up to the top of the hill where the vault’s entrance is. Then using deductive reasoning in my tracking skills I summarized my wife went left to the game Trail instead of turning right to the hiking trail trail to the neighborhood.

Rustling of trail mix against metal. Chewing. Swig of liquid.

Monty: I followed the game trail for miles, noting what tracks I could find. Oh boy let me tell you log, the tracks I found are unsettling at best. For example I found what I assume is deer tracks, what may be small mammal tracks large rat maybe possum. Somehow bear tracks and something big.

Rustling of trail mix against metal. Chewing. Swig of liquid

Bipedal, big tail, and from the ruts in the ground and gashes in the trees, fucking long sharp claws. Also fast, tall, and heavy from the stride length, foot size and foot impression left behind this beast wake. Good thing it's head the opposite direction that I am but I need to be careful. (whisperd) just another reminder of what has changed.

Rustling of trail mix against metal. Chewing. Swig of liquid. Repeat 3x Crow call in the distance.

Wind rustles tree branches and bushes.

Plastic cap screwed back on metal container 1. Plastic top is put back on metal container 2. Both containers are put in assumed bag and said bag zipped up. bags 1 and 2 are picked up and put on. Monty starts walking

There's something else log that I noticed today. Human tracks, mostly barefoot human tracks, but they was off. By my count there was 8 of them and each had a walking pattern that was weird. Some limping, others dragging a leg, some at a step step shuffle or a full shuffle. I even swar one was crawling along but the unsettling part was there was no blood trail and all 8 tracks where constant. The unsettling thing is that if any of those humans were wounded they would be leaning on each other for help but the tracks were nowhere near each other and there was no blood trail. So if the humans weren’t wounded what happened to them.

Walking stops. Sound of leather and cloth stretching. Assumed knee hits dirt. Rustle of bushes.

Monty: Ello, ello, ello! What is this!?

Cloth rubbed against fingers. Deep breath from nose

Monty: Lavender and bluebonnet. It's Cassandra, I'm sure of it.

Rustling leather and cloth. Bushes being asked pushed aside. Leaves being pushed around

Monty frustratedly: Come on love give me something.

More vegetation being pushed around x4

Monty triumphantly: Eureka! Thank you Lady Diana! Okay log it looks like she's headed towards the main power line towers. This is great! I have yet to have a solid clue since I found her camp yesterday evening.

Walking continues. Rhythmic stretching of leather and cloth of a steady pace.

Monty in concentration: Okay Monty pay attention, go with your intuition. It's not what you would do, it's what she would do. Oh right my log. Anyway log I found what looked to be her camp about 6 miles from the vault. I'm guessing she found someone else's abandon camp and holed up for the night. How do I know she stopped there you ask log? Well I found her discarded bandages and trash from her new ones. Also I don't think her vault suit is holding up very well either, because I've been following little strips of fabric torn from it-

Distant voices on the wind. Footsteps stop cloth and leather strain. Bags 1 and 2 quickly taken take and thrown to the ground under a bush. A dog barks. A pistol is unholster. Voices are getting closer.

Person 2 assumed male voice: Because you can’t peanut butter your dick up her ass!

Assorted laughter followed by a dog’s bark

Person 3 presume male voice: I don't get it. What's peanut butter?

Person 4 assumed female: that's because your dumb dick Peter.

P3 to Peter: Hey easy on the dumb dick, at least I know what toilet paper is Kim.

Metal hitting metal

Peter whining: ow what was dat for.

Person 5 assumed male voice: shut up Peter you dumb fuck and pay attention to your surroundings. Something off.

P4 to Kim: see something Alan?

P5 to Alan: no but Paul has disappeared.

Person 2: So what he does that all the time.

Alan: who's the dumb fuck now! If Paul has disappeared that means he hunting something.

Kim: Ooooo do you think it's the hot ass vault girl we saw the other week. Petey here has been having wet dreams since we saw her. Ain't that right Petey

Pete high pitch cracking voice: Sh-shut up

Kim and person 2 fully laughing

Pete yelling embarrassed laden cracking voice: SHUT UP!

Alan angrily: ALL THREE OF YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Continue next post

[tlcrescuepa]

New Post has been published on To Love a Canine Rescue

New Post has been published on https://tlcrescuepa.com/week-end-update-youre-hot-then-youre-not/

Week-End Update: You're hot then you're not . . .

As disappointed as we are at the bone-chilling cold & rain today, we are glad that Mother Nature had her act together long enough to make yesterday a beautiful day for Woofstock 2. We can’t thank Osteria and Anthony Costello enough for putting this event together for us! We’re hoping Mother Nature gets her act together to provide us with equally nice weather this Thursday as we head to Terra Culture Gifts for Malvern Strolls.

In the meantime we’ll bask in the glory from a week full of adoptions, including the beautiful Bit Bit, Blossom, Celine, Ellie, Felix, Footie, Gillingan, Gynger, Jim B, Juliette (now Bella), McDoodle, Mrs. Howell, Polly, Possum, Rose, Thurston, Violet & Waldo!

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Blossom

Celine

Ellie

Felix

Footie now Ryder

Gilligan

Gynger

Jim B

Juliette now Bella

Mcdoodle

Mrs Howell

Polly

Possum now Benji

Thurston

Bit Bit

  Of course, we also have some updates to share with you too:

Shemma FKA Bonnie

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“We just wanted to send a quick update as it’s Shemma’s (FKA Bonnie) 2nd birthday today! She enjoyed a long walk around the neighborhood, an extra treat (or two), and a new squeaky toy to celebrate her big day! Since our last update over a year ago, Shemma gained twin (human) sisters last July and she’s the best big sister ever! She loves the girls and showers them with puppy kisses and is incredibly patient with them—even now that they’re crawling and try to steal her toys! Our family just wouldn’t be complete without her and we continue to be incredibly thankful for To Love a Canine rescue for saving her and allowing us to welcome her into our home. She is the best pup and the most perfect fit in our family. “

  Keira FKA Ivanka

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“I know it’s only been 2 months with Keira now, but she just completed basic obedience class tonight, and is heading into teens 2. I dropped her off at day training and the professional trainers kept telling me how great of a dog she is, and how quickly she learns things, they even started teaching her a few new things because she catches on so quickly. Every person who meets Keira just keeps saying how lucky we are to have found her: she is super well behaved, follows most commands and is super loving. She still has her puppy/teen issues like chewing some things she shouldn’t but she is such a great addition to our little family! 

She has already been hiking with us, to rugby games, breweries, family events and she adapts to her surroundings very well. She has so much more potential with us continuing her training as well!”

  Zeus

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“Zeus is doing great!   We sent a few pics to Jen Catrambone a while ago but I attached a few more.  Zeus and his sister Gabby absolutely love each other.  They literally are inseparable and play outside constantly!   Zeus is an amazing dog.  He’s loves to play and is everyone’s friend.   

We couldn’t be happier with him!!!”

  Luna FKA Nyrobi

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“We did change her name to Luna and she is doing great!  We could not have found a better puppy for our home.

She does a vet appointment at 12 today and we may be looking into doing some training with Jeri, just to make sure we are on the right track.

I have attached 2 pictures to show how well she is adjusting.  :)”

  Remi FKA Athena

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“Remi is doing great!  I have attached 2 pictures.” 

  Mack FKA Skipper (Gilligan’s Island litter)

Mack FKA Skipper

““Skipper “ now Mack is doing awesome!  He actually slept from 10-5 last night which was an unexpected bonus.  He is mild mannered and wearing himself out playing with Lucy.  (she seems too distracted to lick the way she was doing before)

Working on house training.  He’s so darn cute and curious.

We have a vet appointment this afternoon.  To get him checked out.  

Thank you for a wonderful adoption experience 😁”

  Murphy FKA Terk

Murphy FKA Terk

“Murphy (fka Terk) enjoy the warm weather! We’ve had him 3 months! He starts training classes this week. He’s already 6 months! He’s shaping up to be a great dog. He’s very smart, crate trained and housebroken ”

      Max

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Max is doing amazing! He is getting along really well with our other dog Blue and he has learned to ignore my guinea pigs. We had the backyard fenced in so Max and Blue can run and play. We will be taking them on some camping trips soon too. Max had a great time taking an obedience class and a tricks class with Peppers Paws dog training. He is an amazing, loving dog and we are so happy to give him a forever home!”

  Wiley FKA Joseph

Wiley FKA Joseph

“Wiley and I are doing great!  He is such a little love.  He is coming along really well in all his training classes and is in a walking club on the weekends.  And, he loves day camp at Wagsworth.  He is such a wonderful furbaby.  Here is a picture of him from this year’s Christmas card.”

      Calvin FKA Sam

“Calvin (formally known as Sam) is doing great! We just moved to a new house in the city and he’s transitioning very well, only peed on the floor twice. We plan to transition him out of the crate during the day and hope to put a baby gate up to keep in the kitchen for now at least becUse he climbs furniture and tables and chews things when he’s alone. but he can jump over and climb every gate we’ve tried. Do you have any ideas on that??”

Editor’s note: we’ve referred Calvin’s mom to our trainers

Dixie

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“My husband and I were just saying the other night that we feel like we have had Dixie longer than 6 months!  She is just such a big part of our family now, and she loves everyone she meets. She goes to my son’s college baseball games and plays or at least is social with the other dogs there (she has her favorite!). She had already rid our yard of one mouse and one mole, the CAT(ahoula) in her name should have been a sign!!  We just started daycare to get rid of some of that energy, still a little nervous but I am sure as the weather gets warmer and the dogs get to go outside she will feel at home. She loves the snow…we could leave her outside for hours and she would not get bored…but we get cold so she has to come in!  

We are so happy to have rescued her, can’t imagine my life without here. “

  Chloe FKA Dixie

Chloe FKA Dixie

“Chloe fka Dixie is great! She has settled in wonderfully & is the greatest little girl 

Loves walks, sticks, and is particularly fond of her favorite stuffed animal squirrel! 

 She is still a little submissive but becoming bolder all the time & is great w everyone she meets 

Here she is all ready for bed”

    Sasha

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“I wanted to pass along an update about Sasha, who we adopted in September!

Sasha has made a wonderful addition to our family. She is definitely a ‘daddy’s girl’, and I don’t know what my husband would do with out her at this point! 

As you can see by the pictures, she loves naps on the couch, and if she sees a squirrel through the window or on a walk it definitely gets her attention! She has been great with all of our nieces and nephews, as well as the other dogs in our extended families. She is a gentle goofball, and has mastered every trick we have taught her. Thank you all again for what you do, and for bringing Sasha into our lives!”

  Harley

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“I am keeping her name the same.  I do have a vet appointment on Friday with Dr. Hanning.  I have kept in touch with Beth, her foster mother and overall she is adjusting well.  I have attached some photos of her from her first day until today.”

  Susie Q

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“Hello! Thank you for checking in! I did get a call a few weeks back also. Susie Q is doing wonderful!! She is the perfect addition to our family and we love her so much! 

She enjoys snuggles with the kids and walks with her house mate Baxter. She all around just the sweetest dog! She is also a mommy’s girl and stays by my side but loves a good head rub from her daddy too! She is funny and has such a great disposition! We love her to pieces! Thanks again! 😊” 

Vincent

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“Hi! Thanks for checking in! Vincent is adorable! Our Doberman Kavi likes having him around too! They can’t wait for warmer weather and getting back to the park to run!! I’m attaching a recent pic of them.”

  Zoey FKA Juno

“Hello TLC family!! 

We wanted to share a video of our Zoey’s first birthday!

On March 17th we took her for a day trip to the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge. Zoey experienced her first bridge, goose poop, kayaker and more. She is a beautiful dog full of  much happiness and love for the world around her. 

Fred and I will always be grateful to TLC for bringing her into our lives!”

#adoptions #updates

[thomasreedtn]

Garden Update: The Good, The Bad, and the Undetermined

Despite last week’s heatwave into the mid-nineties, which we had not reached all Summer, signs of Autumn continue to reveal themselves. A cool breeze here, crunchy leaves there, along with more squirrel activity than I’ve seen since Spring.

It’s also the start of Fall bulb planting season, and — since CPL (crazy plant lady) ordered those bulbs before what turned out to be a slightly dislocated rib causing all the neck and upper chest pain — I’ve got a lot of bulbs to plant. Not the 1,000 I planted in Goshen in 2015, but 200+ daffodils, alliums, irises and fritillaria are nothing to sneeze at.

About those fritillaria …

I sure hope they’re worth it! I ordered them as groundhog, rabbit, vole and deer deterrents. If the flowers and leaves smell even half as potent as the bulbs, they might also become Laura deterrents. Oh. My. Skunks. Seriously, those bulbs smell like skunk times ten. They won’t make you sneeze, but they might make me gag. Crown imperials are so stately, though finicky, and fritillaria meleagris (the checkerboard droopy tulip looking things) look so dainty. Let me tell you, they don’t smell dainty! And that’s the point. I hope they keep groundhogs at bay as much as people claim they do, because Kalamazoo Kal appears to have found the front yard gardens.

I can’t prove it’s him. Yet. But I strongly suspect, because a) I’ve seen him right across the street, eyeing our front yard; b) a possum moved into his former home under the backyard shed; and c) something has had major kale munchies on the side of the driveway that Kal used to zip past on his way to and from the backyard:

That kale is in a pot between lemon time and day lilies, away from the rest of the edibles. I noticed evidence of kale poaching several weeks ago, but I didn’t really care, because that kale was puny compared to my femur length kale leaves tucked behind the weeping birch tree on the other side of the driveway.  It’s also too close for comfort to the neighbor’s septic tank, so I figured whatever wants to eat over there, have at it, as long as it keeps that critter away from the rest of the garden.

That might not have been the best plan. I think someone now has a fever for the flavor of lacinato. Last night, I got a warning as I sometimes do that I should protect my main crops of front yard kale. Instead of hustling out with deer repellent spray, I spent an hour and a half on the phone and then dove right back into novel preparation. Characters, mirror moments, structure, genre, how to do this, how to craft that. Very productive time, I might add!

Unfortunately, someone found the golden goose. A completely unprotected brassica heaven, without the eagle eye view from the dining room table. Whatever ate this kale came up on the house side and munched a lot of leaves at least two feet above the already raised bed. It could be a rabbit, but I do suspect it’s Kal, even though he’s been warned –repeatedly– that the forbidden side of our yard means a trap. Don’t make me do it, Kal.

It’s not terrible yet, but the house side has been seriously gnawed, and if this critter continues like it has with the sacrificial kale, we’re going to have a problem. I suspect Kal due to groundhog’s notorious love of kale, but also due to some interesting timing. I had just yesterday decided those fritillaria stink too much to plant them all. They’re expensive, so I didn’t want to throw them away. I offered quite a few to a friend, but today, I needed to skim the top of that offer in an effort to deter (and thus spare) my worthy adversary.

Several synchronous gifts followed. This friend reminded me about planting garlic, which I already have scheduled to do, but she sent me a site with perennial vegetables in case my sea kale seeds (which I misplaced) didn’t sprout. I’ve procured and not received sea kale several times this year, so hopefully the third time’s the charm. Someone in Kalamazoo offered me one as a gift, but they dropped off the radar as soon as I accepted. Other locations had run out of sea kale, and I have no idea where I put those seeds! I thought of taking a root division in Goshen, but it was sooooo hot and muggy the day I visited. I also at that point, thought I had a plant waiting for me in Kzoo.

In any case, thanks to my needing to explain why I was tweaking the number of fritillaria, I now have 2-3 sea kale root divisions, ramps, another rhubarb and one (that’s all you need!) Egyptian walking onion en route. So thank you, Karen! And thank you, critter, although I will specify right now that this sea kale is not the thank you. You can munch on the dandelions, the sacrificial kale, and be glad I haven’t asked the cat to spray.

Another synchronicity about this suspected Kal violation is that just this morning I got inspired to change both point of view and the protagonist/antagonist structure of my novel. I’m still brainstorming, but I had a major aha moment right before I discovered the early morning mischief. The breakthrough involves creating a surprisingly sympathetic villain protagonist who finds himself caring about his adversaries. How do I show that sort of thing? What does it feel like? What sort of emotions and conflict might that fuel? Enter Kal into my prized front yard garden. Even if it wasn’t him — but oh, you fat rascal, I know it was — the suspicion gave me great insights into character, conflict and motivation.

I walked to the nearby landscape store to get bulb fertilizer since I got my initial batch of 50 daffodils and a reblooming “Mother Earth” iris. While there, I ran into an edible gardener (gardener of edibles?) who actually offered me a groundhog solution besides, “Oh, you just have to trap them. That’s the only way.” “Here, let me show you what I use. It smells like vomit!” Sold! Actually, I did buy it and sprinkle it around the kale. I also sprayed the deer repellent around the edge of the garden. I wouldn’t put it in a perfume, but obviously, this guy has not experienced fritillaria!

Anyway, I got the bulb fertilizer so my daffodils actually bloom in the lawn’s poor soil, and I spent two hours planting eleven daffodils. I need to wait for some rain, or it’s going to be a long, slow Fall bulb season! Daffodils are the best gift you can give yourself, though, imho. One time planting brings decades of Spring cheer, and unlike tulips, nothing wants to eat them. I’ll view this batch first thing in the morning, as I open our bedroom curtains. The others will get scattered around the front and back yards, in spots that won’t get watered during regular garden season.

I also got the reblooming iris planted within easy view of the front window, and the root of a miniature aster by the mailbox volunteered to clone itself in a nearby spot, as well. You can see some of the current garden in bloom, along with newly planted beets and lettuce, and just imagine the deep purple aster and reblooming iris of I forget which color towards the right of this photo:

Speaking of asters, this one made it from Goshen! Once it finishes blooming, I will plant it out back by the shed, between the larkspur and clematis. In Goshen, this one grew to about four feet tall, so I look forward to prolific blooms next year:

All in all, the garden’s doing well. Two rhubarbs have established themselves in the 20-gallon Smart Pots out back, and today I noticed we even have a full sized strawberry trying to ripen before frost sets in:

The late Summer planted lettuce has finally taken off:

And a clematis who’d nearly given up the ghost before we moved in has recovered enough to bloom a second time this year:

So far, the kale muncher has left most of the collards alone:

And to top it all off, the shrub the former, former owner told us was a reblooming lilac is, in fact, blooming right now:

I have been so preoccupied with writing prep and sessions that I really have done very little in the garden of late. That will, of course, change as I plant the remaining 190+ flowering bulbs, garlic and perennial vegetables. Fortunately, my neck-rib-chest bizarre injury/initiation seems to have healed enough to get these babies in the ground. I get glimmers of how colorful the yard will be next year when this year’s newbies start coming into their own. With any good luck, those skunky fritillarias will do their deterring, while I do my writing, and Kal and I will continue this uneasy, yet somewhat comical dance of wills.

Wishing you and yours brilliant colors and abundant harvests — on whatever level!

          from Thomas Reed https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/09/28/garden-update-the-good-the-bad-and-the-undetermined/

[orvalc6901060310-blog]

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[thomasreedtn]

Shamanic Gardening

I’m making up for very sparse blogging the past month in otherwise unusable time chunks set aside for various repairs and upgrades. Today it was five new, matching locks on three doors. Because we bought an older house, the locksmith wasn’t sure how long it would take, but now I have some extra time before I get busy again with sessions.

As the locksmith left, I felt called to plant some of the potted up strawberries into the existing groundcover in front of our porch. After watering them in, I second guessed myself, wondering if that would encourage mice too close to the house. I had in my Amazon queue another 100 gallon Big Bag Bed and some fake snakes that supposedly help to repel mice and possibly groundhogs. I put some veggie burgers in our air fryer, went outside to harvest a little lettuce, and what suddenly appeared at our threshold?!

A garter snake: “Reporting for duty.” This was similar to when a praying mantis appeared out of nowhere right after I put out a mental call for one in Goshen. One early evening, I got a telepathic and insistent message: “Go out on the porch.” I did, then heard, “Turn on the light.” I did and heard two taps on the porch window. Sure enough, a praying mantis was tapping on the window, and I heard clearly in my mind, “Reporting for duty, ma’am!” Then, he was off to chase mosquitoes. Similarly, today, this snake appeared out of nowhere, but synchronously right before I planned to order the fake snakes. I didn’t even know we had snakes here.

After my heart slowed down, I realized this snake was on its own schedule. This little guy was not leaving the threshold. At first I thought it would block my entrance, perhaps indefinitely, but then I realized something else was going on. The locksmith had inquired about two flower orgone pucks located on either side of our front door, inside. I explained that a friend had made them and they “shift the energy.”

The locksmith said, “Oh, I just asked, because I see people from all walks of life. Sometimes people put things by the door to protect the threshhold.”

I said, “Yeah, that’s why they’re there. I have foo dogs, too, but they’re in the hall closet. My husband thought they looked funny outside here.” He laughed and I added, “I guess I’m a little superstitious, but it’s worked well for me.”

He then proceeded to ask if I was the resident artist: “I love your painted doors. I’m a lock guy!” He was the coolest locksmith I’ve ever met.

Anyway, right after he left, I planted the strawberries, had a concern flash across my mind about mice, put in the veggie burgers, got out my laptop to order my garden supplies, and went back outside to harvest lettuce, at which point, the snake appeared. It slithered at the base of each external door we’d just had re-keyed, and then shimmied up the side of each door towards the new doorknobs. The movements were deliberate, and I got the sense it was blessing our thresholds, telling me not to worry about the garden, the foundation of the house, or these entry points.

“I’m the real deal, reporting for duty. You don’t need a fake snake. I’m the real deal.” Once I acknowledged that message, the snake immediately slithered away.

Just prior to all of this, a friend had sent me an email, “How are you doing with the state of your yard, worked out a deal with the critters to let you garden in peace?” When I had answered him, I was still trying to work out the balance of not attracting the wrong sort of attention to our front yard, while finding balance with the known groundhog situation out back. Groundhogs who so far, have done nothing but eat clover and make a mess of our shed before we got here. I want not to be their favorite backyard, but also not to make things so inhospitable that they dig new tunnels, especially not along our foundation to my front yard garden beds.

I had come up with a new plan, but I wasn’t certain it would work. The snake seemed to affirm that we are all in harmony here. I can plant as I feel led, and despite all the complex considerations, I can rest easier that I do have both seen and unseen support here.

I thought of all the other times animals have appeared right after I’ve called them — wasps, bees, hawks, owls, pelicans, praying mantis, eagles, osprey, ladybugs, possums, and more. I thought of the plants that have appeared overnight right after I thought, “I’d really love to have ___ in our yard,” and of having needed to learn in Goshen how to cloak my thoughts if I ever considered moving or removing a plant or tree, lest I walk out the next morning to find it dead. I thought of when the Elementals helped me bring much needed and miraculous rain during the 2012 drought in Madison.

I thought of my 2013 walk in the Goshen woods, in which I told the faeries, “OK, I’ll create a huge garden for you, but if you want that garden, then I need mulch and lots of it. For free.” Not even two minutes later, I left the woods, and what was barreling down the street towards me? A tree service truck, filled to the brim with mulch.

“Do you ever make home deliveries?” I asked.

“Hmmm, I suppose I could do that depending on where you live. You’ll save me from having to pay to dump it.”

“About a half mile from here.”

“Race you there,” he said.

Thus began the first of about 16 full mulch loads over the years, plus the contagious front yard wood mulch “Back to Eden” gardening that increased to 13 delivery addresses in Goshen by the time we left town four years later.

It’s a strange life, but it’s the life I live. Of course, we never have any total guarantees, but it would seem I’m covered for the new plan I’ve envisioned for our yard.

I can walk to all the amenities I need here, or walk 11 minutes to catch a bus downtown. We’re pretty urban. But last evening, I walked the other way. It’s wild here! As dusk approached, it was loud! Not with cars or trucks, but with bird song, squirrels, crows cawing, critters large and small rustling in the deep woods adjacent some people’s yards. As I turned back towards home, another woman walked the opposite way, carrying home bags of groceries, and we just smiled at each other. Big, exhuberant grins amidst the noisy calls of Nature.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I sure enjoy this present!

from Thomas Reed https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/shamanic-gardening/

[thomasreedtn]

Death of the Old: Let it Go and Embrace the New!

Just a very quick note today between sessions. I’ll start with an email reply I made to someone today:

This must be the time of many deaths. I think every session this week has been about people processing someone’s death or needing to deal with their own mortality. That is not to minimize your own losses, for which I’m sorry. It’s just bordering bizarre how many clients have had death as their session topic this week.

Life is good here, but I’m also having a kind of death of a version of myself in that we have so much wildlife here — very cool, but also such an abundance of it — that gardening will be extremely different for me. There’s not much point in planting most of the things I had planned to put in, as even with fences, there are tunnels, there are climbers, flyers, it’s kind of a free for all. I wanted a more manageable garden, so this transition is forcing that upon me. I can either fight all the critters full time and still lose or plan accordingly and not even build things up too big to begin with. Choose plants they notoriously don’t eat.

Time to focus more on other things like writing and meeting compatible local people of which there was a complete dearth in Goshen! Everything is a trade-off. Given what others are processing, I’m grateful it’s just the death of a garden plan in my head.

…

A little more info for the blog:

Truly, I’ve heard from multiple people who’ve attended funerals this week, or who booked a session for a dying animal friend or one who recently passed, people whose parents are in hospice care, someone reinventing life after the death of a spouse, people who think they’re dying because they’re going through such intense detoxification, people who’ve done huge cleanses, either of their body or of their possessions, and multiple people I know saying “I don’t want to be here anymore,” followed by, “Don’t worry, I’m exaggerating, I wouldn’t really kill myself, but it’s just so intense!”

The times, they are a’changing! Best to roll with it, as the intensity decreases when you approach things with non-attachment and a wee, tiny sense of humor. What are these changes telling you has run its course? What freedom can you claim now that you’re less grounded in the old? If you feel stuck, try decluttering. If you feel boxed in, get creative.

I ran into two neighbors today — a next door woman named Amy who works from home and used to live in South Bend and …. the groundhog, who never misses a chance to crawl through the shed if rain washes away the fox pee. He was mighty fidgety, though, even with windless and motion-free pinwheels. One open and close of the window and he was outta here.

The encounter began to confirm what I already suspected: I’m not really going to get rid of these groundhogs. They’re everywhere around here, and I’d rather have them use a single known fence and shed dodge than burrow all over the place trying to get back in. I’d rather have them eat the prolific backyard clover than discover my front yard garden. I’d rather make peace than total war. Our neighbor also told me we have tons of wildlife, even things I’ve not yet seen, like possums (they eat 2,000 ticks per day … I invited them, and she saw a “huge one” in our front yard yesterday). We’ve also got raccoons, deer, and even wild turkeys. She looked at my front yard garden and stifled a laugh. I told her it was better than sure destruction out back.

The thing is, I love nature. I don’t want groundhog burrows all over our yard, but I’m OK with one or two sightings a week through a long standing path. I planted that food forest in Goshen because I couldn’t stand the complete lack of nature and beauty. Here, I have nature and beauty galore. There are also many edibles that wildlife find less enticing or even repellent:

many herbs, especially lavender, mint, hyssop, chives, thyme, and garlic

lots of my favorite flowers, including foxglove, dianthus, irises, alliums, columbines, and snapdragons

perennial vegetables like rhubarb, horseradish and Egyptian walking onions, plus annuals like fennel, peppers, and beets

fruiting shrubs like aronia berry and spiny gooseberry

After reading about groundhogs climbing peach trees, decimating serviceberry bushes and stealing entire apple crops, I’m just not going to bother with those. I found a long list of groundhog resistant plants even beyond these particular favorites, which you can find here. Most groundhog resistant plants are also rabbit and deer resistant, too. I’ve got strategies to stinking them out with fragrant herbs intermixed with my more vulnerable plants. I’m excited, because it’s actually a lot of easy care plants.

All of which is to say, change is here. For me and for a lot of others. David and I chose this location for the massive upgrade, and we feel it — especially me since he’s still spending his weekdays in Goshen for the next month or so. When we make a change, some things fall away. Sometimes things we dearly loved, but if we’ve set our sights and intentions, prayers and Reiki on the highest, most empowered good, then it’s much easier to release what’s leaving anyway.

I’ll leave you with a comment bump up from Timothy Glenn:

“Laura: You’re right about shifting gears while driving. To get from any gear into any other gear, you have to go through a phase called neutral. As for pivoting, another fun ditty from Abraham-Hicks is seeing life as a river — and everything thing you want is downstream. Even if you’ve been doing the typical human thing of paddling as hard as you can upstream, you can simply put down the silly paddle — and river by its very nature will turn your boat around. You will pivot easily and gracefully.”

Here’s to flow, ease and grace!

from Thomas Reed https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/death-of-the-old-let-it-go-and-embrace-the-new/