New Job
Today was my first full day on my new job. Here’s a picture of my only customer.
This might turn into a part time gig.
Then again, it might not!
Happy Mother’s Day!
This year Shae got inducted into the sorority of Mothers so naturally we had to do a little extra celebrating for Mother’s Day.
One of the popular Mother’s Day gifts are hanging baskets. A hanging basket can provide beauty for several months, fits nicely into gift spending price ranges, and coincides well with the normal growing season.
On Friday, we shopped around some of the locally owned nurseries to see what kind of hanging baskets they had.
Wow, what a lovely display of annuals. Here is another attractive arrangement.
Store prices range from $10 at big box retailers to upwards of $50 at Mom & Pop establishments. The ones shown above where 10″ plastic pots for $30.
We wanted 3 baskets to fill out our front porch and while we could have picked out 3 and called it a day we wanted a bit more of an experience. So we decided to try and make our own!
After striking out at two garden centers we finally found some nice Calibrachoas fresh off the growers truck at where of all places? Lowes. We also found Dwarf Coreopsis, a mounding perennial. To tie it all together we picked out an attractive metal and coconut lined 14″ hanging basket. In my opinion it looks far superior to the plastic bins that most pre made hangers come in. One advantage of larger basket sizes is that they hold moisture better than smaller baskets and that means less chance of the flowers drying out and wilting.
On a side note, don’t wear a red shirt and a front baby carrier to Lowes. I was asked by a gentlemen to get the forklift and load a pallet of stone into his truck. He was surprised when I informed him that I wasn’t an employee. Later, a woman asked me what time the store closed. Apparently wearing a baby screams Lowes employee to people. Who knew?
Anyway, back to the task at hand. I read that the coconut liners are prone to drying out and that a plastic liner should be used to help retain moisture. We made impromptu liners out of grocery bags and cut holes in the bottom for drainage.
Then we added a bit of enriched soil to the bottom of the pots. Container plants have to get all of their “food” from a finite amount of soil. Each time you water the plant, a little bit of the food is washed away from the roots. That is why it is important to add a time released fertilizer that will slowly leach food into the soil over the course of several months.
Here are our two Calibrachoa (mini petunias) baskets. There are 6 individual plants in each one and hopefully they will get much larger. Each basket weighs about 20 pounds when fully watered.
With the annuals all set to go it was time to work on the perennials.
The dwarf coreopsis were tightly intertwined with their neighbors and proved difficult to separate. Instead of trying to separate them at the store we just bought a carton. When we finally did get them pulled apart, we discovered that one of the pots was just dirt! A quick trip back to the store and a skeptical dirt poking clerk later we were back on track.
With the pots fully watered we proudly hung them up on our front porch. Aren’t they nice looking?
Huzzah!
Happy Mother’s Day.
The E… WAIT!!!
STOP THE PRESSES. There is a problem.
All of these plants are full sun but they are in the shade. We figured that we either needed to lower the baskets down to the level of the railing or extend them out further from the house in order to get full sun. The latter seemed like a better option so I set about making some base plates for the metal extension hooks. These simple octagon plates are made from some scrap 1×4 with only a miter saw and router.
Now these sun loving plants can get all the rays that they need.
I also trimmed up all of the bushes so I can check that off my honey do list.
Making our own baskets didn’t save us much money this year because we had to buy the reusable baskets and extension hooks. They also aren’t as full bodied as the store bought versions. On the plus side our baskets have many positive memories associated with them and we learned a lot by doing this project. Next year we might try to start some annuals from seed and see if we can have any success.
Finally, it wouldn’t be a complete Mother’s Day post unless I included a couple of pictures of Grandmothers and Frugal Boy.
Camping with a 3 Month Old
Earlier this year, Shae and I agreed to a goal of camping at least 5 times in 2014. That conveniently works out to camping once a month from May to September. Last year we only got out and camped once, and we felt like we were missing out on some great memories by failing to get out the door.
Shae’s maternity leave ends this week and along with some other travel obligations later in the month and the blissful forecast, we decided that last night would be an opportune time to go camping with our son Frugal Boy. As you probably already know, FB is a little less than 3 months old.
I posted to Facebook about our plans and got the expected response along the lines of, “Good luck, you’re crazy for trying”, but I don’t think it is crazy to go camping with a baby. Think about it. The outdoors is a babies preprogrammed natural environment. For thousands of years, babies have been coping just fine outside of climate controlled, child proofed, brightly colored, electronically monitored nurseries. With that said, it doesn’t hurt to be well prepared. Our packing list was a little longer than usual. (Now where is that kitchen sink?)
The forecasted low for the night was a surprisingly warm 64°. That is about what our house is at night, so we didn’t need to worry about packing too much cold weather gear. One important item we included was a fleece sleeper for FB. Cotton is a poor insulator and is worthless once it gets wet.
There are a number of campgrounds close to us, but we chose Comlara County Park. They actually have two campgrounds. One is RV and car camping and the other is “backcountry” camping. We’ve done the ‘extreme car camping’ version and didn’t feel like hauling all of our stuff a quarter mile out so this time around we chose the main campground.
Due to it being a weekday and school still being in session we had our pick of the litter when we showed up. I counted only 2 other tents and maybe 10 RVs in the 100+ site campground.
Our site, 118, was a 45 second walk from the road, secluded, and had a nice view of Evergreen lake.
FB was happy to hang out in the Boba carrier and supervise the setup of camp.
There was little protection from the wind, but the 88° temperature made it enjoyable.
While FB hung out in the tent to do baby things (eat, poop, sleep), I checked out the surroundings. There was another campsite a little bit further inland next to this old bridge.
The wind was kicking up some good waves on the lake. Can you see the windmills in the background?
Back at camp, FB was taking to the idea of camping splendidly. I guess you can say he was one happy camper! (I’m so sorry, I couldn’t resist)
With the tent and sleeping arrangements all set up, it was time to turn our attention to dinner. In the past we have made meals from scratch over a roaring fire, using a propane stove, eating at a restaurant, and even self contained ready to eat meals. Neither of us were motivated to add the extra challenge of cooking so we brought along some ready to eat meals. If you are interested in learning more about these types of meals, MREInfo.com has excellent information on both military and civilian meals.
Find your Rock or Something™ and let your dinner heat up for about 15 minutes. Shae had chicken and dumplings and I had sloppy joes.
After dinner we had just enough daylight to walk around the campground. The sunset was particularly romantic,
that is until the serenity was interrupted by FB loudly filling his pants. What can I say, it must have moved him. (again terribly sorry, it won’t happen again)
One of the many nice things about camping is that it helps reconnect you with nature. Sometimes you see things that you wouldn’t see if you were driving.
Poor little guy!
Okay, now that I’ve put enough filler in, I guess I can answer the question on everybody’s mind. Did FB sleep at all or did he terrorize the entire campground all night long? Here is your picture proof that babies sleep just as well outside as they do inside, even with howling winds and some random sprinkles (no I didn’t put the rain fly on).
Yep, that was a full night’s sleep for everybody!
You see, camping can be fun with a baby! Here is one more smiley photo to convince you.
After some breakfast and cuddles we packed up and went home.
Negotiating a Lower Cable/Internet Bill Revisited
It’s been 6 months since the last time I negotiated a lower internet bill. As you may recall from that earlier post, I went from a $30 bill for 25 Mbps to a $35 for 50 Mbps and access to Streampix. This month, my bill was set to increase to $84. Time to pick up the phone and renegotiate.
As always, it is a good idea to have some goals and expectations beforehand. I looked up the only competitors advertised rates and they had increased $5 across the board. We wanted to keep our internet bill under $50 a month, and if we had to switch companies that would have put us at $45 for a 12 Mbps connection.
After working my way through the menu prompts, I got in touch with a human being. Our new deal for the next 6 months is $20 for a 25 Mpbs internet connection. We dropped Streampix and there were no tears shed. We tried it out once in the past six months and not only was the movie selection skimpy, but the user interface was a pain. I’ll happily continue shelling out $8 a month for a far superior Netflix experience.
The drop in internet speed isn’t even all that bad. When we upgraded six months ago there was no noticeable difference in browsing and streaming. It appears that there is a bottleneck somewhere beyond the last mile.
In conclusion, 10 minutes on the phone yielded a 76% decrease in cost while only reducing our service 50%. I call that a win.
Kitchen Sink Baths
As a parent, you are bombarded with advertising and product choices for millions of different niche baby products. Some of these products are useful (I’ll write more in the future about some we love), some are okay, and some aren’t really necessary (at least for us).
For the past two months we have been using our kitchen sink to bath Frugal Boy. The height of the sink makes it an ideal work surface for us. We don’t have to get on our knees to wash him.
He doesn’t seem to mind the slightly cramped conditions.
We follow our pediatricians recommendation and bathe him about once a week. Scrubbing up too frequently dries out a babies sensitive skin.
If you are overly worried about your baby gulping down water and drowning, don’t be. All babies have a diving reflex that causes them to hold their breaths when their face is submerged. Even so, we play it safe and keep Frugal Boy’s face well above the water.
Don’t forget to clean that backside!
Frugal Boy seems to be a bath/shower thinker. Here he is contemplating life.
