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31 March 2008
More Bee Fence
Yesterday Abelisto and I, with help from #2 son, place a few more sections of fence in the side yard. Probably one more weekend and we will have the first section enclosed. There are a few places where the ground is uneven enough that we will have to put some paver bricks around the inside of the fence to fill in the low spots so the cats will not be able to squeeze out from under the fence panels. I expect them to eventually climb the fence (probably sooner than later) but I do not want to make it an easy saunter under the fence. If we get strays coming in I will need to run a charged line around the perimeter, maybe at a foot off of the ground. That will keep anything that might harm the beehives out and will have the added bonus of keeping the neighborhood dogs from peeing on the fence too (at least more than once). If I run a charged line on the outside to keep strays out I may run a couple on the inside to keep ours in.
30 March 2008
Fencing the yard
Yesterday Abelisto and I worked on the fence for the beeyard. I think it will end up being around 20' by 48' when it is finished. Of course the bees will wander afar. This is just to protect their home-ground from noisy neighbors, dogs, skunks, and the stray kid that wanders through. It will also give the cats an outside area to be in that is safe from dogs.
Speaking of the cats, Poppy (the lone female) was spayed this past week. It came down to telling daughter #3 that something HAD to be done. Poppy was marking her territory trying to attract a mate. Unfortunately her territory included places/things like my inkjet photo printer (which I finally threw out) and the rest of the computer desk area (both computer desks actually), the laundry room counter, and any plastic or vinyl bag that she found in the house - which meant that my studio had to be kept tightly closed because my new (and expensive) quilting sewing machine has a dust cover that is made of vinyl. She did pee on it once when I forgot to shut the door all the way. It took the chrome off of the presser foot knee-lift which was laying on the table in front of the machine... damn cat. Anyway, the hope is that once she no longer is constantly in heat she will no longer be advertising the fact by marking her territory. She came home on Friday, a bit groggy and out-of-sorts, and I have found no new pee marks. I am tentatively hopeful.
Speaking of the cats, Poppy (the lone female) was spayed this past week. It came down to telling daughter #3 that something HAD to be done. Poppy was marking her territory trying to attract a mate. Unfortunately her territory included places/things like my inkjet photo printer (which I finally threw out) and the rest of the computer desk area (both computer desks actually), the laundry room counter, and any plastic or vinyl bag that she found in the house - which meant that my studio had to be kept tightly closed because my new (and expensive) quilting sewing machine has a dust cover that is made of vinyl. She did pee on it once when I forgot to shut the door all the way. It took the chrome off of the presser foot knee-lift which was laying on the table in front of the machine... damn cat. Anyway, the hope is that once she no longer is constantly in heat she will no longer be advertising the fact by marking her territory. She came home on Friday, a bit groggy and out-of-sorts, and I have found no new pee marks. I am tentatively hopeful.
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29 March 2008
On the Edge of Anger
Thought I would change the colors on the blog and see if it increased my motivation to blog. How strange it is to feel guilty over not blogging. Add one more thing to fret over. Messy house, bad eating habits, forgetting/avoiding exercise, browsing the net while at work (okay, this one is not a problem, I am supposed to look at websites now and then...), forgetting to check my bank balance before deciding to buy something, Now I can add not blogging to the list.
I am finding myself on the edge of anger more often nowadays. Mostly an unspecific anger which makes it hard to combat. I think it is a number of things:
I really do feel like it is nearly a sin (and I do not actually believe in sin, per se) to have 3 people living in a 3000 sq. ft. house. This house could house a community of 6 - 8 like-minded adults, or a family of 8, if there were families that big. I guess there are still families that size, but I do not know of any who would buy the house.
Having this much room has given me more studio room, and it is great for gatherings - last fall we had a party with 30 or so people attending and no one said it was too crowded.
Today Abelisto and I did our shopping on the bicycles (first time out on the bikes this spring - that's another thing, this winter seems to be hanging on tooth-and-nail up here in Minnesota, I am so sick of winter), and we saw a man working on the roof of a house near ours. I circled back around and asked him if he did roofs or if he was the homeowner. He said he did roofs on the side and we asked him to come look at ours. We told him about the bees, and the fact that we would only be doing sections of the roof, and he was fine with that. He said he would contact us in about a week to take a look at the roof and give us an estimate. I hope we can afford him, otherwise I will be doing the roof myself. I know I can do it, I just do not know if I want to tackle a job that big.
I am finding myself on the edge of anger more often nowadays. Mostly an unspecific anger which makes it hard to combat. I think it is a number of things:
the kids are being particularly aggravating these days;
the website redesign (at work) seems to be ending up as one giant hurry-up-and-wait project where things are becoming a jumbled mass of other people's agendas and not the team's;
and the fucking housing market fell apart just when we were reaching a point where we might sell this huge house.
the website redesign (at work) seems to be ending up as one giant hurry-up-and-wait project where things are becoming a jumbled mass of other people's agendas and not the team's;
and the fucking housing market fell apart just when we were reaching a point where we might sell this huge house.
I really do feel like it is nearly a sin (and I do not actually believe in sin, per se) to have 3 people living in a 3000 sq. ft. house. This house could house a community of 6 - 8 like-minded adults, or a family of 8, if there were families that big. I guess there are still families that size, but I do not know of any who would buy the house.
Having this much room has given me more studio room, and it is great for gatherings - last fall we had a party with 30 or so people attending and no one said it was too crowded.
Today Abelisto and I did our shopping on the bicycles (first time out on the bikes this spring - that's another thing, this winter seems to be hanging on tooth-and-nail up here in Minnesota, I am so sick of winter), and we saw a man working on the roof of a house near ours. I circled back around and asked him if he did roofs or if he was the homeowner. He said he did roofs on the side and we asked him to come look at ours. We told him about the bees, and the fact that we would only be doing sections of the roof, and he was fine with that. He said he would contact us in about a week to take a look at the roof and give us an estimate. I hope we can afford him, otherwise I will be doing the roof myself. I know I can do it, I just do not know if I want to tackle a job that big.
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06 March 2008
Between teaching and the website redesign
I am now teaching part of Brother Roderick's Graphic Design II class. I am teaching the website design part of the class. the class meets three times per week for one hour and 15 minutes. I have one of those class sessions. It is not really enough - we need an entire class for web design. The university is a bit behind, make that a lot behind. However I have made myself a bit of a P.I.T.A. (pain-in-the-ass) to the VP of Academic Affairs (who so unfairly and incorrectly dismissed Abelisto's sabbatical proposal) and the best I could do would be to push the university to create the class and hire someone else to teach it. I may do this. Our students really need it. They are leaving here at a great, great disadvantage. I need to wait until near the end of the semester though. I do not want to get Roderick into any hot water about me team teaching his class. I am not getting paid for it, so they cannot bitch about that. I think that as long as the students feel they are getting information and skills they need they will be happy. Those two things should keep the administration off of Roderick's back.
This post started out being an explanation of why I have been so lax with this blog... Between learning the things that I need to learn in order to give the students the best I can give, and the craziness of the web redesign project, I am generally sick of computers by the time I get home. I do not believe I have mentioned it in this blog, but the university is in the midst of a total website redesign. Everything is on the table. As Director of Web Communication, a major part of the work is mine. I can tell you that when you are doing a redesign of a 3000+ page website, it is a bit grueling.
Anyway, once again I am trying to reconnect with this blog.
We will see.
This post started out being an explanation of why I have been so lax with this blog... Between learning the things that I need to learn in order to give the students the best I can give, and the craziness of the web redesign project, I am generally sick of computers by the time I get home. I do not believe I have mentioned it in this blog, but the university is in the midst of a total website redesign. Everything is on the table. As Director of Web Communication, a major part of the work is mine. I can tell you that when you are doing a redesign of a 3000+ page website, it is a bit grueling.
Anyway, once again I am trying to reconnect with this blog.
We will see.
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