Cassie’s Blog

I’m trying out my green thumb finally – now I will see how the deer enjoy it.  I cleaned up the area around our front walk Sunday and 5 construction trash bags later I was ready to plant a portion of it.  Planting here is so much different than CA – in CA there were year round flats of plants available for dirt cheap.  Here it was small fortune to plant a small area.  Home Depot had a limited supply of stuff and nothing Dave really wanted.  I don’t remember ever reading the words "Deer Proof" on a label in CA, and here it is on anything they think the deer might not eat.  Once I got done planting and mulching, I filled a spray bottle with the egg/Tabasco mixture and headed out to douse the plants.  I am worried it will kill them, but without something the deer will eat them within a day.  I do adore the group of 4 that roam our yard, but they are hard on things.  I will have to wait and see.  Below are my starting pictures, and I plan on tracking my progress and the success of the egg/Tabasco mixture.

As I was walking down the front walk two full grown deer and two babies wondered into the front yard.  The two full grown deer began to approach me on the sidewalk as I walked towards them (but really towards the garage).  They just kept coming, so I did what every sensible person would do and went back inside to get carrots which coaxed them off the front walk and into the yard.  Our front yard is quite green now so the deer are really enjoying grazing out there.  The couple we had dinner with last weekend suggested using an egg and a teaspoon of hot sauce in 1 gallon of water to sprinkle on your plants to prevent deer from eating them.  She said it would last about 2 rains/waterings.  I think I may give this a shot when I start planting.  She promised it didn’t damage the plants.

Boulder and Golden are on a more reasonable schedule now that the time has changed – they want fed at 5:30 instead of 4:30 in the morning which is a real treat!  That actually gets me going at about the right time, and I do like furry alarm clocks better than beeping ones.  I’m very jealous that Dave can sleep right through them, but I guess they are pawing and stomping me not him.  Unluckily the furry alarm clocks cannot tell that it is a weekend…

Week 3 is coming up, and I cannot wait.  I am really enjoying my job, and the people I work with appreciate having me there.  We have been down hard with a nasty cold.  It has taken all life out of me for about 2 weeks now – I don’t remember feeling so exhausted after doing very little work on the weekend.  I do like taking naps, but this is ridiculous…

 Dave and I are trying to figure out what we want to do for our honeymoon.  We discussed it with friends the other night, and almost 4 1/2 years later we still haven’t taken it and we don’t know exactly what we want to do.  We are open to suggestions…

Once again we had no where else for Boulder to sleep so she was forced to sleep in an empty pizza box I had put next to the back door for recycling.  We actually had walked by her quite a few times before we noticed where she had decided to sleep.  Poor, poor Boulder.

Repair service available by Boulder cat for 100 pats/hour.  She will diagnose any problem with her patented rub method demonstrated below.

Our cat, Boulder, was stared down by a deer in our front yard on Sunday morning.  Dave had gone out to throw a couple carrots at the deer (they were up to their knees and sometimes their chests in snow), and Boulder came out and sat just off the front entry eating a piece of visible dead grass.  The deer pictured below took quite an interest in her, then started to stare at her.  Then the deer began to take slow steps towards Boulder almost as the deer was going to attack Boulder.  At that point Boulder was crouched down ready to attack and defend herself if need be.  I picked up Boulder at this point because I didn’t want to see who won this battle, and the deer hissed and they all scattered in different directions quite a ways.  Boulder was extremely proud of herself, and Dave fed her ego by saying she was a fierce mountain lion.

For those of you that I have tortured with my job hunt stories and woes, I accepted the offer from Spectra Logic this morning and start work Monday!  Yeah!!!!!!!  Spectra Logic makes tape drive backups and if you are interested they can be found at www.spectralogic.com .  I am getting my foot in the door as a Project Coordinator – providing support for the Support and Engineering Departments including the CTO (Chief Technical Officer) and 5 Managers plus some work at the RMA (returns) desk.  I will be working approximately 5 blocks from the gym I have a membership at through our volunteer fire department, and I will also be near all of the places I run errands like the grocery store and recycling center.  I know this sounds corny to those of you who do this stuff all the time, but for me it is exciting to have work be the reason I am going to town instead of saving up my errands and making one trip every three days or so into town.  The cats will miss me, but it is time to escape the confines of my house and experience the working world!  

The cats can’t sleep on mornings such as this – the sun starts reflecting off the snow very early.  I was lucky enough to catch some pictures of this beautiful morning.
Sunrise was incredible.

I got a kick out of the little table and the lights out front.
 

As usual, we have a terrible view out the back=)

The mystery of why a snowplow was parked outside our house was explained. It broke down and was waiting for a tow (so of course I had to take some photos). It was quite the ordeal to remove the plow from the front of the truck and then figure out how to transport it down the mountain. I unluckily missed getting photos of the “Oh S@#%” moment when the tow truck driver decided to reposition the plow on the back of the truck and ended up yanking it off of the back of the truck causing it to swing wildly. The man who was standing next to the truck that the plow was being placed on moved quicker than I think he probably has in years up into our yard. The plow came close to striking the truck it was removed from and a few of the county employees. The plow finally was settled into the back of the truck that was transporting it down the mountain and all was well. They lifted up the disabled truck and put it on blocks while the tow truck driver figured out how to attach it. He attached the truck with no mishap and began maneuvering the truck to get it off of our road onto the main one. The conditions are quite slick so his unchained front tires kept sliding down our road. He finally got it backed up and took out a chunk of the side of the hill in our neighbors yard by driving the disabled truck up into it. After that he got it maneuvered around and headed down the hill. I hope they all made it down safely. These are just photos of the highlights I did catch.

Tow truck arrives

Plow is removed

Attempt 1 to position the plow for transport

Swinging snow plow

Attempt 2 to load the plow for transport

Finally loaded

Hooking up the truck

Backing into the neighbors yard…whoops

I am hooked on my knifty knitter.  Part of the reason why I need a job is to support my yarn habit so I can continue to make things, and also I want to buy the long purple knifty knitter and a small wooden knifty knitter like hoop that makes baby booties.  I quickly mastered a simple hat, I’ve gone on to more complex stitches, I’ve made one scarf and am part way through 2 more, I made one sock/slipper thing, I have downloaded patterns for snowmen, pumpkins and a bunny rabbit and I want to see if I can find a pattern for a wool diaper cover that I can make with the knifty knitter.  I’m absolutely hooked.  It is truly mindless – hats and scarves you can do while watching TV with no worry about counting stiches or much thinking to be honest.  I would highly recommend one to anyone who has always wanted to be crafty but doesn’t want to invest hundreds of hours.

My first scarf

A hat

Scarf in progress made with fun furr