Today is my husband, Mark's, birthday. Mark is a union sheet metal worker and there hasn't been a lot of work in Omaha in the last two years. The first part of September, he went back to work after nearly a year, but the job is in Spirit Lake, Iowa, which is a little over 200 miles away. So he leaves on Sundays, late in the afternoon, works 40 hours in 4 days and comes back on Thursday nights. It's less than ideal, but it's better than no job at all. My point is, though, that he's up there all by himself on his birthday - what a bummer. I talked to him last night and he sounded a little down. I guess I can understand that, with being away on his birthday, Christmas a few days away, and his mom passed away the day after his birthday in '98, which I'm sure he's thinking about, too. (Wow, I can't believe that's 7 years ago already...)
Yesterday was an adventurous day - if you like a good mouse hunt! We've lived in this house since '87 and the only year (until now) that we ever had a mouse was 2001, the year we put my greenhouse up. (It's actually one of those Four Seasons rooms right off my kitchen, with a slider into it...) There was apparently a litle crack between the house and the greenhouse floor, under the threshold of the door where a little guy came in. I caught-and-released him after a week or so, stuffed some weather stripping down in there and didnt' have another problem. Well, looks like the weather stripping has worn out because I've been chasing another one around for the last couple of weeks. I finally caught him yesterday after he got particularly brazen and was down in a jar of popcorn I left open. Took him outside and let him scurry under the tool shed (and left the popcorn for the critters to eat...) Well, a couple of hours later, I caught another one in my wastebasket in the greenhouse!! This was a fat little sucker - maybe momma... Put her out by the shed. So I went to Home Depot and got some of those (what I thought were...) totally useless little live-catch traps and loaded them with some peanut butter and put them strategically about. Just got up to let Remo out (it's 4 a.m...) and - viola! - one had a mouse in it!! I must have a whole colonly in here!! Either that or they're turning right around and coming right back in (are mice really that smart??) Mark says "Just kill 'em!" But they're just so darned cute, I can't do that. They're just trying to survive like the rest of us... Well, I got some caulk and as soon as mark gets home Thurs. night, I'll have him caulk the heck out of it. I suppose I could, but he's the "master caulker" and I don't want to look at a sloppy caulk job (which it probably would be since I'm an amateur!)
Enough rambling about mice and caulking! I'm going back to bed now that my adrenaline (from catching another critter) has settled down. More later...
It's now 8 a.m. and the plant I want to talk about is this Haworthia retusa geraldii. This is one of the first Haworthias I ever got and I can't even remember where I got it. It's very prolific, so I've given away dozens of pups over the years. I grow it under many different conditions, because when you have a lot of one particular kind of plant, you can experiment. The one in the pic started in a pot with an Aloe, out in
south sun, which is really kind of a "no-no" for a Haworthia. But because the Aloe provided some shade for the Haworthia, it didn't sunburn. But boy did it get big and fat and pretty! So after a year or so in with the Aloe, I potted it up by itself in a 4x6 bonsai pot. It has literally turned into a mountain of a plant! It's hard to tell from the photo, but this little expanding Haw has mounded up to the point that it's as close to being a sphere as it can be and still maintain roots! Very cool! It now grows in the greenhouse with dappled light in the winter months, and lots of strong morning sun in the summer, and it still seems very happy. I have lots of pups that I've planted in under other plants - they seem to like growing that way, probably because they often grow that way in habitat.
Well, off to start my day!
Yesterday was an adventurous day - if you like a good mouse hunt! We've lived in this house since '87 and the only year (until now) that we ever had a mouse was 2001, the year we put my greenhouse up. (It's actually one of those Four Seasons rooms right off my kitchen, with a slider into it...) There was apparently a litle crack between the house and the greenhouse floor, under the threshold of the door where a little guy came in. I caught-and-released him after a week or so, stuffed some weather stripping down in there and didnt' have another problem. Well, looks like the weather stripping has worn out because I've been chasing another one around for the last couple of weeks. I finally caught him yesterday after he got particularly brazen and was down in a jar of popcorn I left open. Took him outside and let him scurry under the tool shed (and left the popcorn for the critters to eat...) Well, a couple of hours later, I caught another one in my wastebasket in the greenhouse!! This was a fat little sucker - maybe momma... Put her out by the shed. So I went to Home Depot and got some of those (what I thought were...) totally useless little live-catch traps and loaded them with some peanut butter and put them strategically about. Just got up to let Remo out (it's 4 a.m...) and - viola! - one had a mouse in it!! I must have a whole colonly in here!! Either that or they're turning right around and coming right back in (are mice really that smart??) Mark says "Just kill 'em!" But they're just so darned cute, I can't do that. They're just trying to survive like the rest of us... Well, I got some caulk and as soon as mark gets home Thurs. night, I'll have him caulk the heck out of it. I suppose I could, but he's the "master caulker" and I don't want to look at a sloppy caulk job (which it probably would be since I'm an amateur!)
Enough rambling about mice and caulking! I'm going back to bed now that my adrenaline (from catching another critter) has settled down. More later...
It's now 8 a.m. and the plant I want to talk about is this Haworthia retusa geraldii. This is one of the first Haworthias I ever got and I can't even remember where I got it. It's very prolific, so I've given away dozens of pups over the years. I grow it under many different conditions, because when you have a lot of one particular kind of plant, you can experiment. The one in the pic started in a pot with an Aloe, out in
south sun, which is really kind of a "no-no" for a Haworthia. But because the Aloe provided some shade for the Haworthia, it didn't sunburn. But boy did it get big and fat and pretty! So after a year or so in with the Aloe, I potted it up by itself in a 4x6 bonsai pot. It has literally turned into a mountain of a plant! It's hard to tell from the photo, but this little expanding Haw has mounded up to the point that it's as close to being a sphere as it can be and still maintain roots! Very cool! It now grows in the greenhouse with dappled light in the winter months, and lots of strong morning sun in the summer, and it still seems very happy. I have lots of pups that I've planted in under other plants - they seem to like growing that way, probably because they often grow that way in habitat.Well, off to start my day!
posted by GreenGirl58 @ 2:09 AM
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