Oh, and on the cat litter front, I decided not to strain the poor Rumpke guys too much, and I cleaned out half the litterboxes completely. This week I’ll clean out the other half, and then replace the bad litter with new litter. From then on, I’ll only have scooped litter to toss, which will make the Rumpke guys happier, since my garbage can won’t weigh 200 lbs. every week.

So far, though, the Odor Lockers and World’s Best cat litters are comparable in quality and clumping ability. I’m leaning towards liking the World’s Best more, because it’s available very locally for a reasonable price, and as long as they keep carrying it, I’ll be fine. I do like the dust-free aspect.

Now if I could get everyone to cover up their stinky messes, I would be happy.

I’ve had a cold all weekend (well, since Thursday, really) and last night, I tried a new cough medicine because the liquid cough medicine has HFCS in it and I’m still trying to avoid it.

I took Robitussin Cough gels, and they were absolutely horrible. I coughed all night long! And the bad thing–they are supposed to “work” for 8 hours, so I couldn’t take anything else to get some relief! ARGH. I ended up raiding both office chairs for pillows, propping myself up, and trying to sleep almost sitting up, which didn’t really work at all.

And then, every time I was about to fall asleep, my lovely cats would jump on my bed and make nuisances of themselves. It was a very exhausting night.

At least I didn’t have to wake up early this morning, though, and I did drop off eventually. But I wasted my money on that stuff. I won’t buy it again.

This morning, I discovered that someone (*cough*Zoey*cough*) had peed on Mabel’s blanket again–that hadn’t happened for a while, and then it happened last weekend and now this weekend. My only thought is that someone was in the litterbox when she wanted to use it? I’m not really sure. But it’s in the wash again, and I might wait a bit before putting it back on the floor. I wish I could stop that; she already ruined Mabel’s pillow, and Mabel does like to lay on her blanket.

I’m not putting a special litterbox in the entry room for Zoey. I’m already feeding her in a special place, and she now has water in the same spot. I’m not putting a litterbox there to. She needs to deal with her dislike of everyone else and just stop being stupid. I’m sick of it!

I’m going to go work on my list in a bit, though, and try to get some stuff crossed off before noon. We’ll see how far I get.

(Mabel is in here now informing me that she has to go potty, so I guess this will be a short entry.)

I only crossed two things off my list to do today and tomorrow, so I’m going to be busy tomorrow. But one of those things was to sow the rest of my seeds (by ‘rest’, I mean most of the rest; the others are direct sown, for the most part.)

Due to the mix-up last year, I labeled each pot. Now, unless I want to have five zucchini plants, I won’t. At the moment, I’m thinking four. Maybe of each. But we’ll see. I do have a large piece of garden to fill up, after all. The entire back is going for vining plants. They can go nuts at their leisure.

I’m aiming to have lots of winter squash to eat, and also freeze a lot of garden produce so I’ll have good stuff to eat overwinter.

I ate one and a half strawberries today, fresh from the garden. It feels like cheating, but they are from my plants, so I guess ripening them counts. They were yummy!

I was at the rummage sale all day. I did come home for a bit and rode my bike back, but then hitched a ride with Dad to drop off a chest of drawers for Ethan and some of the stuff I bought. My bike is still up church. I’m half tempted to just leave it there overnight and ride it home tomorrow after church. (That’s actually not a bad idea!)

I bought too much stuff, as usual, including two vacuum cleaners.

*hangs head*

I am NOT collecting vintage vacuum cleaners now. Honest!

But the one is a Kirby Heritage 2 Legend, and, well, just click on this. Could I resist?

The other one is a Eureka cannister vacuum, which can be the upstairs vacuum since it’s really lightweight and it has a nice long hose so I can do the stairs easily. It also came with a bunch of attachments that the other upstairs vacuum (which is now looking for a good home) does not have. So I can clean thoroughly without killing my back. Yay!

I also picked up a Montgomery Ward cast iron waffle iron, which needs a bit of help (it’s a little rusty) but is otherwise cool, since it’s patented 1925. I did buy one box of fabric, but in my defense, I did not buy the other three boxes of fabric, or the box of white sheets and pillowcases. I bought some kitchen utensils, a very old cookie press, some books, and a cool natural wreath that smells so good I hung it on my bedroom door. I found a couple of old spice tins in the free box, a Sunbeam Mixmaster stand mixer, and a folding hanging rack (like for clothes on hangers) that might work at one of the craft shows. But really, that’s about it.

And that was enough!

I did not buy the sewing machine. But Mom and Dad did.

Somehow, I’m not sure that’s any better!

No one even considered buying the Kirby, though. I really couldn’t pass it up.

(I think that’s going to be on my tombstone. “She just couldn’t pass it up.”)

Whew! What a lot of stuff. Tomorrow’s the big day, and it looks like I will be there most of the day, if not all day. So I’d best get to bed.

My radishes are starting to come up, and so are my beets. That was quick!

The church rummage sale is Saturday, and I told Mom I would help sort and price things, and that’s where I was this evening. There’s a sewing machine there–a Vigorelli–that I don’t need at all, but we’ll see. It’s a good brand, evidently, despite the fact that I can’t seem to find much information about them online. The lady who owned it purchased it in December of 1953.

And that’s where I will be for the next two evenings. And most of Saturday, probably, unless I go to the Grant Days celebration for a bit. After that, I have a long list of things to do, including that custom doll, which isn’t finished and probably won’t be finished until Monday. But that’s okay, really; I said by the end of the weekend and so it will be.

I am doing a cat litter experiment at my house, since the cracked corn really didn’t work all that well. Right now, I’m testing World’s Best Cat Litter and Odor Lockers cat litter. These two will be vs. Tidy Cats Small Spaces once I get more baking soda to put in the bottom of the last downstairs litterbox. (I ran out.) I tried Pa-Purr, neglecting to get the clumping kind, and I hated it. Maybe the clumping kind would be better; I don’t know.

One point in World’s Best’s favor: Virtually no dust at all. I was impressed. Odor Lockers, however, says it’s 99% dust free, and while there wasn’t as much dust as the clay litters, there was definitely some dust.

I am also wondering that if World’s Best is really just coarsely ground corn, what’s stopping me from buying a grinder and grinding my own to the same consistency? $7.50 for 50 lbs of cracked or whole corn is much better than $6.99 for an 8 lb bag of World’s Best Cat Litter. (Yes, I found a cheap supply. It is $9.99 a bag at Kroger for the same amount.)

Sure, the initial investment of the grinder would be expensive, unless I find a cheap one on ebay or something, but in the short run, it would pay for itself in the lack of cat litter I would have to buy. And I can always grind my own flour…

I rushed through supper tonight, since it didn’t rain (yet) and planted one row of beets, one row of swiss chard (evidently it’s an either/or crop, as in spring or fall), and one row of turnips. Then I tilled in the side flowerbed/garden and planted six of the strawberries. The rest I will plant in the back, and they can fill in the bed around the well*. I was outside ’til almost 8:30pm.

But it’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow, so I can’t do much about that.

(Edit: I keep saying cistern. I mean well. There isn’t really a bed around the cistern. yet.)

I am so sore this morning. Every muscle in my body aches, or so it seems. I really didn’t want to get out of bed, so I compromised and slept an hour later. It didn’t really help, but now I have to get to work.

Yesterday afternoon I did get to the plant store and I did buy broccoli and tomatoes. And I did plant them, too. And mulch. I planted two different varieties of radishes too. I did not plant the turnips, beets, swiss chard, or anything else than what I’ve previously mentioned because I ran out of time.

And now I am sore. It’s not supposed to rain today, but I’m not sure if the garden will be dry enough to plant anything else when I get home. But oh–the deep row I tilled up last night was glorious. I truly have good dirt.

Loki and Misty, enjoying my new quilt.

Jacob’s Ladder
This is the first year it has bloomed!

My mystery flower that I planted the first summer I was here. All last year, they were foilage only. They don’t die back in the wintertime, either. Now I’m waiting for the blooms, which are taking their sweet time to arrive. Anyone know what this is?

I did get all but a small section of the garden tilled. It started raining, and then it rained harder for a little while, but the main part has been tilled twice and I got halfway done with the newer part. The newer part was wetter, probably because I just moved the rug, and so it was more difficult to do. Since the back pieces of the garden are mostly overflow for viney things, it doesn’t really matter if it’s perfect anyway.

Edit: I’m leaning towards Sweet William as the mystery flower, but I’m not sure why it didn’t bloom last year or the first year. Hmm. I guess we’ll see if I’m right!

Trimming is done, and I’m going to till in a minute here, once I change my shoes. Mom (the gardening Voice of Wisdom) says I can plant green beans but not lima beans (I thought perhaps if I planted lima beans now, they’d be ready sooner, but they are a warm weather crop), and that I should even go get two tomato plants to stick wherever I’m putting the tomatoes just so I can say I have early tomatoes.

So I see a trip to the plant store in my near future.

She also said I could plant more potatoes… we’ll see if I can get some.

(an aside: Ethan’s frogs are barking (Seriously; they sound like little Yorkie dogs) and Mabel is barking at them. I think she thinks I have other dogs in the house somewhere.)

Here is what I have to plant out (at the moment):

–Beets
–Carrots (more; I’ve already planted some)
–Peas
–Green Beans (four varieties, and then three varieties from last year. One pole, one half runner)
–Tomatoes (I need to buy some)
–Broccoli (either direct sown or I buy a couple plants too)
–Potatoes (I would need to buy more)
–Onions (the rest of the onion sets Mom bought.)
–More lettuce; I have three more varieties
–Kale? Swiss Chard? One of these is for the fall; I can’t remember offhand which one. Maybe both.
–

Here is what I have to leave room for:

–Squash (I think six or seven varieties; I’m going to plant them in the back as well. This includes: Early Summer Crookneck, Regular Zucchini, Spaghetti Squash, Delicata, Eight Ball Zucchini, and more.)
–Tomatoes (the rest of them, probably 16-20 total.)
–Quinoa
–Peppers (I’m going to aim for 8 plants this year, which is double what I had last year)
–Sweet Potatoes
–Lima Beans

I’m also going to create my kitchen garden this year–around the cistern in the back. I’ve also decided to eliminate the grass on the small hillside beside Ethan’s garden; I can plant bush squash back there, or even some vines, since I scored a bunch of wooden trellis last night–twelve 8-foot sections for $1 each. (Most of it will replace the nasty plastic trellis on the front porch. But I don’t think we’ll use it all.)