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April 26, 2007
Hrumph.....
Fox Urine my ass.........seems the only one who is irritated by it is me.
Posted by frani at 10:26 AM | Comments (2)
April 25, 2007
You don't say......
There are many things out there on the market that don't appeal to me. I don't buy belly shirts or muscle shirts, for instance. That's probably a good thing for those of you with sensitivity to all things capable of ruining one's appetite - for life.
I don't buy much in the diet or low fat category, which, come to think of it, probably explains a lot about belly/muscle shirts. If it's not "good for me" in the the original form then way on earth would it be "good for me" with all the taste texture reduced?
I don't buy gamey foods or fishy fish.
I don't buy a lot of doodads or ketchie things...well ok, maybe if the flamingo on it is "tasteful", ya know.
I don't buy towels or linens for all seasons; I don't move my furniture around, hell, I don't even buy furniture even though I ought to reasonably soon.
I do buy shoes..and fresh foods...I buy books and gadgets and other assorted neat toys. I buy candy and dried mango slices from the Phillipines. I buy dried rapsberries from nutsonline.com
I used to buy plants but all the local nursuries have my photo with the red slash through it by the cashiers...something about inhumane and murder.
There are plenty of things I just wouldn't buy..a pet snake ( oxymoron) comes to mind, or anything snake like for that matter. In fact some of you probably have things on a list that you don't think you'd ever be buying...
..but I'm here to tell you...yup...never say never........
Today, I bought something I don't think I ever would have bought if asked...wouldn't think I'd ever have a use for, but then I'd be wrong again.
Today I bought fox urine. Yes, you heard me..read me..fox urine. I'll be making little fox urine dispensers this afternoon. 
The woodchuck has decided to move back in under the porch. As a matter of fact she has dug along the foundation so much she has nearly buried my woodchipper in the process with flung soil. She's brazen even, she just ran across the yard right in front of ~Elmo and Knoel and me as we were out enjoying the sunshine. She has to go, no one else should be able to move into her quarters either so this stuff is suppose to repel lots of critters "naturally".
Oh sure there were other more interesting products on the market...I was intrigued by the smoke bombs but those stated they would kill the critters. I'm not into killing them, I just want them to move along, find another home preferrably out in the 15 acres of woods next to us! Is that too much to ask? huh? huh?
Sigh...with any luck at all, she'll be gone soon...hhhmmm...you don't think I'll get a family of fox under there, do you?
Update in Extended
So okay, it's one thing to go out and buy the stuff, it's a whole other matter to use it! PPPPPPPPPPPPPUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Well she forced my hand. Not only was she out there chomping away at what little grass we have out back but she was also just right there within feet of the back door. I put on my grass mowing sneakers, rubber gloves and went out into the woods to pour the stuff into the dispenser bottles. I Gagged a bit but I didn't want to just pour it next to the porch, after all I didn't want the cats to feel like they couldn't walk by there. HA! I left one bottle next to the woods while I threw the first one into the hole under the porch. I turned around to get the other bottle and there was Knoel sniffing it..like his nose was right on it! Great...hope I didn't buy an expired batch of fox urine.
More update...I opened the door that leads under the porch and nearly had a heart attack...scream!!!!!!!!!! No problem...it was only Knoel again researching that really good smell......
Somehow I'm reminded of Bill Murray..........
Posted by frani at 02:54 PM | Comments (2)
April 11, 2007
Busy Busy Busy
So what I've actually been doing is keeping occupied so I won't notice there is a winter weather advisory in effect for tomorrow...something about 6 inches of snow. We don't need no stinkin' snow! Psst we finally got the snow off the front porch.
Let's see...I've slept, read a couple of books, played my game, sat by the fireplace, did some month end and quarterly reports, paid some bills, drove to Montpelier with my MIL's tax information (how timely), did some laundry, got some groceries, made some food, ate some food, shopped for books, played with the cats...
Oh yeah, while shopping for books for Maura's birthday (6th!!!!!!) I came across some "new" ones from an author her father used to read, noooooooo not Frog and Toad, although I did see some Frog and Toad books in the beginning reader section as well. Maybe Maura will read to Kieran.
Off to buy milk and lay in supplies for the winter weather advisory - maybe if I prepare good enough, we won't need all the preparation! Yeah, that's the ticket.
Have a fine day all
Posted by frani at 04:45 PM | Comments (2)
April 03, 2007
More or Less
Ok, so I wasn't very goodabout keeping up with the blog while we were in Maui...nor when we got home but now that we are back in Seattle for the week, maybe I can catch up.
::::::::::::crickets:::::::::::
Hmmmm, I seem to be having a little trouble coming up with something to talk about. More about Maui, I guess
Maui was great and of course I could do with a lot more beach time but the majority of the people I was with perferred something like this:
However, I did get in some beach time and snorkeling at 14 Mile beach on the way to Lahaina..here are my flip flops as proof:
One of the highlights was a trip upcountry to Kula to see Shim's Coffee Plantation and Botanical Gardens. Mr Shim was more than we expected and we ended up spending nearly 3 hours with him on his 1 hour tour. He was a facinating 70ish man of Chinese decent who's grandparents came from China to Maui to work the pineapple fields 100 years ago. Man oh man did they ever pick a prime piece of property to build on back then!
Mr Shim was really a botanist. He seemed to have lots of fun tending /pruning and experimenting half the year in Maui and the other half he teaches in CA. He comes to Maui in Jan to pick his coffee beans:
It's an on going process for several months because as you can see in the photo the beans don't rippen all at the same time. he cracked us up with his explanations of plants that seem to want to do whatever they want instead of what he wanted and of course there were also the "volunteers" - plants that just seemed to show up on their own.
He also has glorious flowers and fruit trees allover his property with orchids growing out of rocks and fruits that are a little weird:
I forget the name of this strange citrus..someone's palm or hand or gnarly something: ( update: Buddah's Hand
Of course we bought the last of his coffee - he takes his beans to a roaster so what he had was last year's crop. Obviously he is more into growing than roasting and drinking his coffee. WE panic if our roasted coffee is older than a week........hhhmmm but we enjoyed him and I would have liked to have had some of his fresh roasted coffee since I didn't find his year old stuff all that bad.
Oh yeah - the whales. There is still nothing better than watching the whales. Anytime you can see water, you are little to see a whale or 5 and it's truely more fun to "see" them with someone who has never seen them before as well. ...pppsssttt Auntie Anna was very excited to see them. We did have one guy who slapped his tail a good 50or more times just for us - ok, maybe he was really chatting with the cow and youngun who seemed to be breaching just for us as well.
Magic.........and as if we didn't have it all in paradise, we got an apology for the sudden rain shower on our excursion to Lahina:
Aloha....
Posted by frani at 11:33 AM | Comments (2)