You're Doing It Wrong

Are You The Lady of the House

Posted on March 13, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

I had to grab the camera card out of my “real” camera and it already had photos on it. These are from last year. There are daffodils out there now but just a few.

A couple of weekends ago someone came to the door to sell us something.

As an aside: wasn’t that one great thing about the pandemic is no door-to-door salespeople?

When I opened the door they asked if I was the lady of the house.

In the moment I didn’t think much of it but since then it makes me laugh every time I think of it.

What does that even mean? Am I the homeowner? Do I made the decisions? Maybe she thought I was the butler and needed to go find the lady?

Any minute the never ending parade of exterminator companies should be starting. OOF. There is no reward for being polite. Last year I had a guy and no matter what I said, he had a reply. At one point I think he assured me that their service would only kill the pests I wanted to kill. AMAZING!

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Raised Beds and Pretty Dirt

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

This is a project that has lived in my head as an idea for many years and I would do a little bit here and a little bit there to prep but never took it seriously until last year I bought the raised beds.

Here is the dirt delivery. It’s a lot but not quite as scary as what I imagined.

I had only set up two raised beds and sort-of decided to sell the other two. But the minimum dirt order was so big, I started assembling the other two.

As I described when I got them they come in 12 pieces, each specially shrink wrapped in a kind of taped/plastic film and plus 60 (?) fasteners? It takes a couple of hours to put one together.

There is a lot going on right now. My weekdays are wall-to-wall and exhausting. My weekend days are differently wall-to-wall and busy. I was picking away at getting that last bed put together.

We enlisted help to get the dirt moved from the front to the back. If I did it by myself I wouldn’t be done until the end of the summer. Bob texted me on Friday morning that they were on their way.

I put my work clothes on and ran out to get that last one finished and ready.

Remember last year when I raked leaves and filled the beds? We transferred some of those leaves to the new beds and then spread the dirt on.

Look how pretty they look! Plus there was leftover dirt. I put a healthy layer on my berry patch (not pictured) and planted a couple of new berries I bought.

The rest is under a tarp for when I have time to deal with it later. I also planted a number of strawberry plants that I bought last year and just arrived.

Today I have a little time and hope to get a few more seeds in the ground. I love being outside in the dirt but it’s hard to balance with all the other things I have going on.

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Old Friends Have Returned

Posted on March 5, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

I was just thinking that we haven’t seen a Skunky in the yard for quite some time when this image popped up, the last one on the card.

I wonder where he’s set up. I don’t think he lives in our yard. Sheesh, I hope not. There’s a dog next door so not there. I wonder how much the average skunk gets around — like, is he in a nearby yard or does he cover some ground at night?

Ditto for the coyote. I have only caught a coyote on camera a couple of times so I was surprised by this clip. But bunnies are in our yard almost every night so I’m guessing that’s the appeal.

Mostly the camera is raccoons, opossums, bunnies, and cats.

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A Little Spring in the Air

Posted on March 2, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

We had a couple of unseasonably warm weather this weekend and I jumped on the opportunity to get some work done in the yard. I came *this* close to asking colleague if I could grab the rototiller before he went on vacation and then I thought: It’s February. Don’t be ridiculous. Now I wish I did.

This is the current scene out there.

I cleaned up a bunch of old debris that’s been sitting there all winter. I put some of the bird feeders away.

Out front I cleaned up the roses.

I also went to the garden store to talk about getting some soil for my raised beds.

The minimum for delivery is a huge amount. I had talked myself out of putting up the other two raised beds but now that I have a mountain of soil being delivered I really need to get those set up. I’m also borrowing some wheelbarrows and we’ve recruited some helpers to get the soil moved to the backyard.

More photos when we’re on that project.

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Last Week’s News

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

I intended to post the obligatory snow photos while there was still snow on the ground but I had the other post scheduled and didn’t get organized in time.

It wasn’t much but more than I expected. We didn’t need to go anywhere and were able to enjoy it from the windows. We woke up on Day 4 and it was completely gone. The rain washed it away overnight.

This is from the deck.

There were lots of other fun animal prints to try to figure out. I had left prints going to the bird feeder and it looked like something had stepped in my footprints. I never got out there to study them.

There were also lots of bird prints.

Remember when we exposed the hardwood floor in our bedroom? I am amazed by how quickly the dust bunnies accumulate. Did the carpet hide the dust blobs? It seems like every time I drop a sock and get a glimpse under the bed, there are giant fluffy wads. I vacuum under there every weekend.

I am guessing it’s the flannel sheets since I don’t have issues with dust wads in other rooms. I wonder how long it takes flannel sheets to completely disintegrate into fuzz?

Does anyone remember there were always rumors the J.D. Salinger was still writing but throwing the writing in a vault? I can’t remember the exact story — maybe he was disenchanted with publishing so he wrote for himself but told his heirs they could do what they wanted when he was gone? I might have made some-to-all of that up but whatever happened to that? Was there a vault filled with manuscripts? Are there no manuscripts?

It seems like the story is that something is coming out. But is that real?

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Animal Cam: Opossum Edition

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Here’s an opossum in the rain. That black planting pot is right at the opening of the spot where he crawls under the shed. He looks unhappy about it and then tears off across the yard.

I think in my earlier post I said the white one was smaller and the brown one was the big one but I had it backwards.

Here they are waddling around the garden together. Are baby possums in the future?

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Who’s Been Brawling?

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

In January, on the weekdays, it’s dark when I leave the house and dark when I get home so I don’t see what’s happening in the yard until the weekend.

I looked out there and saw white fluff in the garden.

I figured it was a poor little deconstructed bird although I was surprised by how white the detritus was. I figured little birds probably had white fluff.

When I finally inspected it, I realized it was fur. It must be opossum.

I didn’t see any other signs of injured opossum so either it was (a) a light brawl, (b) the injured party scuttled off to some other yard, or (c) they were out there making baby possums.

There are two that show up on the trail cam and I will try to post. One has more brown on its fur and the other is smaller and more white. I saw the brown one the other night around 6pm when the motion-light went off.

I don’t know what it was doing but it was wiggling around at the spot where it exits from underneath the shed and I was afraid it was stuck. Obviously I didn’t want to leave it there but also, I wasn’t sure how to help it without risking a bite.

It toddled along eventually.

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Animal Cam Report

Posted on February 12, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Bunny is a regular visitor to the yard. I can tell he (they) have been around because there are dozens of clips when I download.

I move the camera to the garden for a week and got a good bunny close up.

This is from the very end of summer but it’s a funny one. There’s one raccoon sniffing around the camera and the other two are on the lookout for … what?

Probably other raccoons.

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A Little Ice Bucket

Posted on February 9, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

This is the ice I tipped out of the bucket. It lasted for a long time but it’s gone now.

I missed last week! I kept thinking I could get to it on a weeknight but also I try to stay off the computer when I get home from work.

It seems like just about the time I get started I get interrupted for dinner or else my brain can’t do anymore computer things.

Also I got a new computer which I am still in the process of setting up and adjusting to my ways of working.

I did not update my operating system for years and was still using Catalina (10.15) which was from 2019. My new machine uses OS 15 and has changed a lot. I’m fine with change but every single thing I do requires at least three extra steps and after while I want to jump out the window.

I haven’t had time to dig in and learn the new OS. I’ve said this before but I hope I live long enough for all the tech-bro people to get older and realize how hard it is to completely relearn something every year.

Obviously my Photoshop was outdated, too, and now I have the most up-to-date version of that.

Every app and plug-in is begging me to use AI when I don’t want to. I can compose an email thank you very much. But when I want AI to help me with photoshop it’s still the 1972 version of help. I was kinda pulling my hair out just getting these photos up and cropped.

Posted in doing it wrong | Tagged wildlife | 1 Comment

A Little Icy

Posted on January 26, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

After a few cold nights the bucket turns into a block of ice. I pulled the ice block out and refilled it but its a block of ice again.

Plus it really needs to be cleaned out and I can’t deal with it right now.

In the last few years I have said that January is my favorite month. It’s kind of embarrassing but I love that there are no holidays. It’s full winter so there are few activities. You don’t have to work in the yard. It’s nice to have a month to sit inside and read books and drink hot chocolate and not have to go anywhere.

I like how this guy is figure skating. The ice is very confusing to these critters.

I had notes for a post and I don’t know what happened to them and now I am a big blank.

I don’t think I wrote about my failed sweet potato pie for xmas dinner. It was edible but it wasn’t very delicious. It tasted like a vegetable side dish that someone poured sugar on and added to a pie crust. Everyone was very polite about it and said things like, “Good Pie” and “C’mon, do you ever make a pie that you think is good?”

Yes, I do. I’d made an amazing apple pie a couple weeks earlier. This was a failed pie.

While discussing with a friend and telling her I couldn’t figure out what I did wrong — she easily figured it out. I used the wrong kind of sweet potatoes. I’ve only made it a handful of times over the last many years and I’m not sure if I knew in the beginning which sweet potatoes to use or I just lucked out.

I made another pie today and it looks a lot better but I won’t be sure until we try it.

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