A Losing Battle
I always feel like I’m fighting a losing battle around here when it comes to keeping the floors clean. I can vacuum one day and by the next it’s time to do it all over again. I don’t even have kids running around, I do however have 3 cats (fairly large cats) and a big dog shedding all over the place (how are they not bald yet?).
We have dark hard wood floors, so the dust bunnies are highly visible. I wouldn’t change that for anything though, I’d rather see them and be able to get it all up than have carpet and not see it! Perhaps it’s just worse in the winter because I don’t have the weeds in the garden to distract me from the tumbleweeds collecting at the end of the hallway.
What chores feel like a losing battle in your home? the dishes, the floors, the bathroom, the basement, the kid’s rooms?
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Quote of the Day: M.K. Ash
“Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly,
but the bumble bee doesn’t know it, so it goes on flying”
~ M.K. Ash
I always love it when I download my photos and I’ve caught a bumble in mid-flight. They are truly amazing when you watch them buzz around the garden, I think they’re my favorite pollinator to see. I’m glad I have so many of them! We certainly could all learn something from the bumble bee I think.
What’s your favorite pollinator?
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We Have Roots
I talked about propagating your own plants back this spring and did a little how-to with some photos. Early this summer I got some boxwood cutting from a friend. He has a beautiful old shrub, very mature and in great condition. It does very well in our climate, which can be harsh on certain boxwood varieties. I figured my best chance of getting beautiful boxwood would be to grow my shrubs from cuttings.
I put about 40 cuttings into 3 long trough planters filled with a mixture of sand, perlite and peat moss. I put them back behind the garage where they’d get morning sun and would be protected from the elements. I decided a few weeks ago it was time to check them and sure enough about 15-20 had roots. This was very good because I actually took cuttings a month before you’re supposed to on boxwood and I wasn’t sure they’d root. They’re all tucked away in the cold frame ready for spring planting.
Have you ever propagated shrubs or other plants?
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Friday Favorite: Buttons
I’ve always like buttons for some reason, I can’t quite explain it. I’m drawn to their usefulness and beauty. I remember going to the Warther Museum when I was young and being in awe of her button collection. They were all laid out to look like quilt tiles. I wanted to make one myself someday, I’m sure I’ll never reach her total of over 100,000 buttons, though.
I distinctly remember sitting in my paternal grandma’s living room and pouring out her button jar on the carpet. I’d spend quite a while organizing the buttons by size, color, shape. She had quite a variety, some round, some oblong, some smooth, some covered in rhinestones. I had my favorites that I’d linger over as I’d put them back in the jar. I remember doing this often when we’d stop by for a visit.
When my grandma died back when I was college, I asked for her button collection. I was happy to get it, still in the same jar it was in when I was little, with my favorite buttons still inside.
Last summer, my maternal grandmother died, and I too asked for her button collection. I don’t have memories of looking through her collection much, but I’m glad to have it all the same.
I have my own small button collection in a jar. I don’t specifically buy buttons, I try to acquire in the same way my grandmother’s most likely did. Through extras on clothing or picking them up off the sidewalk. If I’m making rags from a shirt, I always cut off the buttons and add them to the jar.
I’m sure I’ll keep slowly adding to my collection and maybe I’ll even make a design with them someday. (like this fabulous tree on Flickr) I wonder how many buttons I will collect in my lifetime without ever specifically seeking them out.
Do you have anything like this that you’ve been fond of since you were a kid?
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Cats and Winter Driving
I love almost everything about winter but the driving. It’s not so much that I mind driving in the snow personally, it’s all the other crazies on the road that worry me. Yesterday I almost didn’t make it home after the weather took at turn for the worse. It all started after a field trip with my nieces & nephew.
Their home school group arranged a field trip for the kids to tour the Cat’s Meow Village in Wooster. We saw how screen printing was done and iron on transfers were made. We also learned about the history of the company and got to see how they make all the little wooden houses, the kids thought it was very interesting. We also learned how Casper, little black cat, ended up on all the houses.
After the field trip, I met Mr Chiots to deliver a big pot of venison stew for the fearless hunters to eat, then I headed home. All was going well until about a half hour into the trip, then the roads took a turn for the worse, they were covered in a sheet of ice. For some reason, here in NE Ohio, everyone seems to forget how to drive in the snow during those warm summer months. People were flying by my at 80 mph and were swerving in and out of traffic. Of course many of them ended up in the ditches, most of them after bridges. They must think the “Bridge Freezes Before Roadway” signs are just a suggestion, not a fact. Normally the trip takes me around 50 minutes, I arrived home about 2 hours later.
The tally for the trip ended up being about 12 cars that I spotted in ditches. Two accidents that closed down both lanes of the four lane highway I was one, with fire trucks and everything at the scene. Ironically the back country roads I take for half of my trip weren’t too bad, old fashioned cinders are still the best I think. Not to mention, I think rural people are better versed at less than perfect road conditions since it’s the norm for us.
I’m happy I made it home, hopefully no one was injured too badly in any of those accidents. Perhaps those people will be more careful in the future. Winter driving is something I definitely am not looking forward to!
What are the roads like in your area in the winter? Does snow create big traffic problems?
PS – I didn’t take either photo above while driving, that would put me in that category of stupid drivers with all the people flying by me yesterday. I was stopped in a traffic jam yesterday for the blurry tail lights, and the winter road photo was taken last winter while Mr Chiots was driving, this is the road into town from our house.
