New Year's Resolution - Keep Up Blog

Merry Gift Mess. Lots of stuff happened since I had to put this blog on hiatus. I miss Blue Hill Smells Like Cow Poo.

Because I'm really ill and lightheaded, I created this photo for a FARK.com photoshop contest.

Coal-Wood-Pellet-Gas Comparison Chart

Warm up your calculators! In an attempt to be informative, I present a link to a chart on the cost comparisons between coal, wood, pellet, propane and natural gas heating stoves. Thank you Reading Stoves.

We looked into coal stoves, but found that the affordable (>2000$) models were not suitable to heating an actual home and didn't have the right hook-up to modern air duct systems. They are suitable for heating a barn, workshop or garage. The models that could heat a house were =<3000$, which is out of our price range. This was sort of disappointing, but hey - we did our research and that's all you can do.

Yankee Gravel-Spreading

There is some debate where the idea for this contraption came from. Some of you will think this is a jim-dandy of a great idea. Some of you won't. Yes, it is a zero turn-radius mower with a homemade hitch hooked up to bedsprings with a boulder on top. The driveway turned out really well and we highly recommend it.

Jim Rockford Helps Me Think About My Blog

The weather got lousy again and we're stuck inside watching the Rockford Files. Actually, the RF is a fantastic show. James Garner was the best as Jim Rockford. Did you know Magnum P.I. was a RF spinoff? We get to see RF on RetroTV, a mysterious and new digital TV channel that probably broadcasts somewhere in the Albany, NY area.

Now, what can I do to make up for the lack of blog posts? I just had a major change in my schedule, placed my kid in a home daycare 3 days a week, and have had to deal with some major personnel issues at work.

The blogs I read the most post several times every day. I don't think I can do that, but I should try to post every day or every other day.

The Care and Feeding of Everyone

yeah, yeah, I know - I need to post more. Let me just describe a typical morning on Blue Hill:

I wake up as soon as the first ray of light peeps into the window. I stare at the ceiling, which has cool, weird smoke stains on it from when our kerosene heater plotzed out one freezing night in '06. The dog hears my eyes open and stands on the side of the bed, breathing on me and licking me. Husband and I tell her to go lay down. She goes over to the window for a while.

About 7:30, we hear bouncing and babbling from the baby's room. She's almost 2. She sounds really happy, so she must be unzipping her pjs and pulling off her diaper. Both will be tossed over the side of the crib, hopefully not into the stovepipe hole in the floor, which is open to permit heat to rise into the room.

When I get up, the dog jumps on me hysterically, because there could be a squirrel outside. The dogs across the street must hear the commotion, because they begin to bark too. I scrape pennies and quarters off my feet before placing them in sandals. The Toddler found a bag of change yesterday and I allowed her to toss coins all over because it enabled me to get dressed in peace.

Nadia is indeed, naked and jumping up and down as high as she can. There is a small puddle of pee in the exact center of her crib mattress. I inspect the zip-tie that Husband had to place around one corner of the crib, where all the jumping stripped the screw that holds the bar in place. I wonder where the screw went. Nadia sits down every time I have to pick her up. I have to pee. Really badly. After a few more bounces, she picks up every blanket in the crib and I carry her down the big curving staircase.

I put her down and get into the bathroom. Nadia knows I am helpless on the can, so she runs past me and grabs Husband's shaving cream off the counter, then disappears, still babbling. The dog wants OUT. As I walk through the house to the side door, June Bug stops several times to jump on me, ramming her pointy collie/lab feet into my c-section scar. I'm too burned out to yell. I hook her to her line outside the door and go back in. The cat wants FOOD. Nadia is sucking on the business end of the shaving cream dispenser. The stoves need wood. I pause, and try to re-bend my glasses into shape. Husband stepped on them last Friday after watching "Rockford Files".

I schlep into the back room with the cat food, feed Opal, schlep back to the cupboard, then take the can away from Nadia. It's diaper time. I find a diaper, and a wipe, and spend the next 3 minutes chasing Nadia around the living room. Once she's immobilized on the floor, she clenches her legs and butt so I can't change her. Then she scissor-kicks onto her side six or seven times in order to get up. I tickle her into submission, wipe her down, and re-diaper her. Then I have to find new baby clothes from the massive pile of unfolded laundry on the couch because she's naked except for a diaper. I do so, then spend another 5 minutes chasing her with the clothes. Finally, she is dressed.

I shuffle over to the TV and put on "Word World" for her to watch while I make her breakfast. I grab a sippy cup and put an eggo waffle into the toaster. Nadia runs into the kitchen and demands her gummy vitamins. I give them to her. She says "Tangy", and demands her waffle now. I pick her up and show her the toaster and explain how it has to cook first. She demands my cup of decaf. The waffle pops up. I put her down, she has a conniption and knees me in the c-section scar. She accepts her waffle and milk and races into the living room.

I slurp on my decaf. Caffeine has been not been helping me remain calm, so I stopped drinking it. I also quit smoking two months ago, and that has helped my breathing. I breathe and sit at the dining room table, listening to the cluster flies in the window. It's springtime. I check the clock. I'll have to get washed up and into my work clothes if I don't want to be late again.

I take a vitamin E capsule, which instantly lodges in my throat. I can breathe around it, but it's there, stubbornly stuck. I keep drinking decaf to no avail. Later on, I change the crib sheets, capsule still lodged in my throat. Soon it will be noon, and time to wolf down my lunch. Ah, another morning on Blue Hill.

June Bug-O

"IjustheardaTicTacboxbeingopenedinMiddleville!They'reMinty!Minty!Minty!Minty!"

Christmas Cacti - What Gives?

My Christmas Cactus goes nuts this time of year, even in our dining room, which is one of the coldest areas of the house. And cold it is. The house is just freezing - we didn't get any warm weather at all this March.

Anyway, I think the cactus loves the light, which is ample and intense at this time of year. In December, there is no "light". I water my Christmas Cactus twice a week, and it seems to enjoy it. The branches actually perk up when it gets water and sunlight. The cat has eaten the flowers and barfed them up, leaving nice bright pink stains on our unfinished floors. (Way to go kitty. Way to keep eating something that makes you barf.)

Christmas/Easter Cacti are Epiphytic, meaning they are not native to typical deserts. They grow in jungles and rainforests on treetrunks, branches and rocks. They are found in Central and South America and the West Indies. The pink Christmas Cactus is a hybrid variety, a Schlumbergera truncata. There are white, pink (Pink Beauty), orange, striped, magenta, and gold varieties. The Easter Cactus is a close cousin (Rhapsiladopsis gaertneri), with smooth oval segments and fluffy red-orange flowers. It's really beautiful. This information comes from the book entitled Cacti, by the Royal Horticultural Society.

Keeping Christmas/Easter Cacti alive in your home is easy. If mine has stayed alive for 20 years, so can yours. In fact, mine belonged to a now-deceased bachelor uncle-in-law who wasn't exactly a plant guy. It probably served as a beverage caddy for whoever was sitting in that part of the room. I think the majority of the illumination came from the TV. The soil in the pot is probably the original soil, scarily enough. I've never fertilized it, however it might be time to put just a very little in the pot. The Cacti book suggests keeping the soil moist and not turning the pot around once they start to bloom, otherwise the buds will fall off. I've never had an insect infestation or disease attack my cactus, but if this happens, use insecticides sparingly. To get cuttings, snip a segment at the bottom, straight across. Then be sure to let the cuttings dry before potting them in moist soil (regular potting soil will do). Place in a sunny spot and there should be new roots fairly soon.

Coming up next: Coal heating stoves Vs Pellet stoves Vs Wood stoves.