Victory! Maybe!

I know it's probably too early to declare victory, but I'm just so pleased I can't help myself. So after we worked so hard and got the garden all prepared and planted, the cats started using the freshly prepared soil as their litterbox. I immediately started researching my options... had we considered the problem prior to building and setting up, we could have easily laid down chicken wire at the soil line. There are chemical deterrents available, but this is where we're growing our food and we don't love the idea of chemicals anyway. Some suggested planting disposable forks, tines up.

Neil says the vein in my forehead starts to visibly throb when I talk about this, and I can feel it throbbing now, so I should finish this story quickly. I planted lots of forks. I laid down unused tomato cages around the little seedlings. I put citrus peels down on the ground. My beautiful beds look like a warzone.

And it didn't help. In fact, I think they enjoyed the challenge.

So, I bought... THE SCARECROW!

It's a motion-activated sprinkler. I am pleased to say that so far it has been very effective, and I've only soaked myself a dozen times or so setting it up. And forgetting it's there.

While I was deciding where to put it, Chester was following me around so I let him see THE SCARECROW.  He loved on it a little bit... I encouraged it. Is that wrong?

That evening as we were sitting outside talking, we heard the sprinkler go off then saw Hamilton come running, slightly moist. That happened two more times that night, that we saw. Chester also got hosed, and quickly learned to stay up on the tops of the fences and on the roof to avoid THE SCARECROW. Tomorrow I'm going to move it... switch things up a little for them. You want to keep the enemy on his toes.

We went to Disneyland the weekend before last for Cali's birthday, and met up with my side of the fam. (Kat/Patty, Cali/Craig, Neil/Andrea)

Unfortunately, Neil felt crappy and was well on his way to getting sick, but he made the best of it and we had a great time. Cali & Craig especially :)

My dad, Cali & Craig on the Jungle Cruise... Craig's first time!

We stayed until just after fireworks, and then went home before Neil passed out.

I got sick too the next day, and it took us the whole next week to recover, it seemed.

But we're all better now! And last weekend we tried out the food dehydrator my Aunt Debbie sent us. We bought pineapple, kiwi, apples, bananas and nectarines, sliced them all up, and made some fruit snacks. Encouraged by our success, we moved on to meat, and made some really good beef jerky.

We also picked up free firewood from some people who had cut down several trees in their yard, and Neil spent a good part of Saturday chopping up what he could of that.

I noticed we suddenly have a huge aphid problem on the roses in the front yard and some of the plants and trees in the backyard as well, so we picked up some ladybugs from the nursery and set them out on Saturday evening. They went right to work, and have been doing a fabulous job so far!

I planted some more seeds to replace some of the plants that either died from our overwatering episode, and from the cats (throb), as well as new varieties like this really cool thistle-looking flower from my cousin Saz in Oregon. I hope the seeds grow, I can't wait to see what the flowers look like.

Spring has definitely arrived here in LA, and everything is growing and blooming. We're really looking forward to our garden!

I think that's about it. If we did more, I can't remember!