We shall flit hither and yon in this catch up, as there are wide and varied things to share!

First up: Chickens

Back row, left to right: Sugar, Salem, and Ricotta (she’s so little! She’s so Fluffy! She hates EVERYONE and I love her) Front row: Peep (I can’t nail down exactly why, but she looks so vulture-y to me. She’s very sweet though)

And good news, everyone! They no longer smell like death! Feeding them copious amounts of fresh thyme and oregano, lots of fresh spring greens and leaves off my toscono kale plants have FINALLY worked their magic and they smell just *normal* bad! Hurray for small wins!

In bad news I saw a baby possum in their run a couple of times recently.

My chickens live in a converted playhouse for a coop, the run is a fence on two sides and wire on the others, and the run door was a vintage screen door that has… seen better days. (yes I tested that glorious red paint for lead. It’s clear) HOWEVER COULD THE POSSUM BE GETTING IN? ‘TIS MYSTERY.

It’s as secure as an unlocked car left on the curb with the keys in it just begging to be stolen or invaded by possums, I get it. And so I decided to move the coop forward and put down some wire along the fence line behind it to keep the possums out. That was the plan, anyway. When I moved the coop forward I didn’t uncover a tunnel under the fence so much as a NEST OF POSSUMS UNDER THE COOP ITSELF. Cue me screaming my absolute mind off and baby (1/4 adult size maybe?) possums sprinting off everywhere. AGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH. I’m hoping the cats got them, I really do.

I reinforced the corner I saw 3 of them run through. I put 12″ soil pins along the areas they’d dug under the fence. And I saw another baby possum in the run a week later. The asshole ran right back under my coop.

So here’s my thinking. Raise the coop high enough to see under it so it isn’t such a cozy and secure hideaway. Replace the door as like… seriously, it’s a must. I GUESS I need to go through again and secure the perimeter better too. And I shall get a live trap and rehome them if I’m still finding them after that. (I plan on letting them go by the VFW down the street. What? There is this whole wooded area behind it, I’m not being a dick to veterans. Thank you for your service, have some possums. It’s fine.)

My brother did ask me if I wanted to borrow his dog as Hank is a bit of a possum annihilator. While he’d make swift work of them, he also was the one who attacked my chickens before and so turning him loose in a chicken coop seems less than ideal.

I bought a “new” vintage door at an estate sale… and that’s as far as we’ve gotten so far. It’s raining today and I’m not dealing with possums or doors in the mud. It can’t be put off forever though because where there are baby possums there is a Momma possum. and while the little one’s are not “chewing chicken faces capable” yet, the mama is. And the little ones will get there eventually. But it can wait till Tuesday after it stops raining.

And next time I’ll make sure this one is in the coop when I move it- she’ll make quick work of at least one of them. All should fear Lacy the Destroyer- the dogs sure do.

Second up and speaking of: Dogs

God her bark cuts through my brain. And all three of them have ramped up the barking lately because the three “puppies” my neighbor rescued are now teenagers and it’s like a bark-off anytime all the dogs are out at the same time. Mac can go through the catdoor to go bark at the neighbor dogs but not go potty on her own, huh? SUPER AWESOME.

Here’s the thing though. If any of you have a dearly loved 17 year old who is set to move out into the wide open world at large in T-minus 10 months I HIGHLY recommend getting them a super annoying dog so you can be happy about it when they move and not sad!

At least she’s cute.

Third Up: Holidays

Dia de los Muertos

This year I didn’t make pan de muertos. We didn’t do full themed dinners around our lost loved ones favorite meals… everyone was so sick leading up to it we only ever did the candles and incense twice even. Hope you made do with the peanuts, serrano peppers, and cherry filled pastries this year, ancestors. I’ll make it up to you next year.

And also- my neighborhood mail center has a craft display in their front area and let me put up my book- I made $50 and 5 people in my town now own something I wrote- nice!

There was also Halloween

I again decorated the front porch as a witch’s workshop.

The youngest went as an evil queen, again. The 14 year old went as a clown and skateboarded all over the neighborhood in her costume. And the oldest (bless her poor, dedicated heart) stayed home to hammer out a college application. My husband and I got handed many a jello shot or small liquor bottle along the way- I am not sure where this trend started but it happened at numerous houses this year and had never happened before. Gots ta roll with the changing times and take that jello shot when handed one, I say.

Fourth up: Fashion and Thrifting

I put together what I deemed a pretty solid work outfit the other day:

Until I realized:

God fucking dammit.

I can’t dress myself, but the children love and get compliments on many of the vintage or thrifted things I buy them at estate sales, and are now into thrift shopping for that sole purpose, so we’ve gone a couple of times for them for clothes. ‘Tis good bonding.

We laugh so much on these trips- you need humor to deal with the people watching and weird stuff you see when in thrift store and the children are naturals at this. Exhibit A: the cart vignette that my 14 year old put together:

I love literally everything about this aside from that it and the possum relocation location thing couldn’t be worse timed to share, now could it. (On Veteran’s Day weekend, really, me? What a dick.)

Oh well.

Fifth up: A few things I keep forgetting to share in other blog posts

I HATE nothing more than packing a lunch in the morning and finding out we’re out of juice boxes. I HATE it! I hate storing and buying juice boxes. I hate that they’re plastic-y and unhealthy feeling… the whole deal, 0/10, would not juice box again. So we’ve switched to these:

Youngest takes a reusable water bottle in her lunch bag. This thing is $3, shelf stable and so stays in her lunch box each day, and it lasts for a month. Perfect solution!

Next thing I’ve found lately solves another annoying problem: as I’ve aged I’ve lost color in my lips, so I need lipstick or something. But lipstick causes me to break out or get infected pores along my lipline… in addition to causing the world’s worst chapped lips! It’s all so incredibly super fun!

But this stuff:

…has worked great! It’s a lip stain that goes on dark blue- you leave it on for 45 seconds, and then wipe it off. (there is another step of a spray you can use and then peel it off… it works without it so I just… don’t do that) and it’s been a goddamn revelation! Color on the lips but nothing that actually stays on the lips to cause me issues. Nice.

And the final tip and trick I’ve found lately:

You know that thing that happens when you’re halfway through making meatballs and you realize how much longer and more tedious it is than you remember and how the whole thing is pretty custom made to have an ice cold beer in the midst of for some relief, but you’re making meatballs so you have gross raw meat hands? May I introduce you to maybe my favorite invention: The beer straw! (Just ensure the beer is placed somewhere you can fairly easily lean down to.)

Next up: Date Night!

There is this really cool cocktail and jazz bar in town in the basement of a historic hotel that my husband and I like… aside from the fact that I loathe jazz and trumpets reverberating around a basement make me want to punch puppies. Solution is that we buy our cocktails, bring them upstairs, and hang out or occasionally hang out AND play chess in the lounge of the hotel.

Yes we bring our own chessboard and I’m still on the GIN COUPE DRINKS ARE LIFE kick. They are my very favorite dates!

And finally- lamps.

Recently I bought a pair of A.R. Cole vintage lamp bases in an online auction for $30. A.R. Cole is a pretty famous North Carolina potter, and some of his lamps sell for $150- $300ea. I figured I could wire them up into finished lamps and resell them, and that a matched pair would be even more in demand than single ones. (My capacity to think I can do damn near anything is unreasonably high)

One of said lamp bases. (this glaze is called Frogskin, which… I don’t love the name but do love the color)

I hope I’m getting paid for all these Crawford Boch product placements. Also, those directions were GARBAGE, Amazon, on your lamp wire kits. Youtube to the rescue though.

TA-DA! I love them and just may be keeping them. And nuh-uh, YOU arranged the Turkish throw artfully just for the picture! YOU.