Daily Archives: September 22, 2008

9 year olds make BAD babysitters

and by babysit, I mean, be responsible for a 2 year old for more than 2 minutes. There should be a rule, that unless you are taking the World’s Fastest Pee, no 9 yr old should ever be left with a 2 yr old unsupervised with a FRIEND in the house.

Want to know what that might be?

It’s known as the World’s Best Cat Litter. Flushable. Biodegradable. And as any cat litter might do, makes a flipping mess all over the floor when a 2 year old decides to use it as a sand box.

Our cat Delilah, has her litter pan hidden in Bryce’s bathroom. The bathroom has a double door, and the one is gated so Brinn cannot get in. The cat, however, can jump the gate to utilize her precious pan. I am telling the God’s honest truth, this is some GREAT cat litter. I’ve had a cat my entire life, and there is no product that compares to this stuff. But there’s also 1 negative to it. It doesn’t smell foul. Most cat pans smell disgusting, like ammonia and toxic dust. Not this stuff. There’s no smell, it absorbs that wretched cat pee. The only hint there’s poo in the box is if you catch a glimpse of one.

So back to the story….

my mom’s cat, Shady, is staying with us for a month while my mom is in Europe. Delilah really wants to kick Shady’s ass. I decided I’d put the extra litter pan, and poor sweet Shady in my room to keep her safe this afternoon. Maeve and her little friend went upstairs, and she was supposed to keep her eye on Brinn. About 10 minutes later, Brinn cruises into the kitchen and she smells like…what is that smell? hmm. Almond. Why does Brinn smell like almond scented…soap…… CRAP! I ran upstairs and there it is. The mess. This big, scary, almond scented sand box all over my bathroom floor.

My Dr. Bronner’s Almond Castile Soap bottle is mixed in cat litter ALL OVER MY FLOOR.
And then I see something interesting on my dresser, next to the open bathroom door.
An Empty Oreo Cookie container.

Those girls had been in my room. They played with the cat. They left Brinn, in my room, ALONE, once the oreos were gone.

Maeve!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
I hear screaming outside, and see her and her bff running up the street from the house.
I stick my head out the window, “MAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVE“.

Head down, she turns around, heads home. She knew!

An hour later, Maeve had put my bathroom back together in all it’s gloriousness. It smelled mighty good too. Kind of like one big Italian, Almond cookie. Sweet.

Next time, I need to remember to take pictures of Maeve with her full blown tear induced drama-fest to go along with this.

By the way, get some of this if you really love your cat.

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Maggots, Composting, and Diapers

A year ago, I invested in a compost bin. Anyone who knows me, is aware that I try to be fairly green. I am obsessed with recycling everything, and try to donate anything I can for reuse.

The more I read about composting, I realized it would be easy to do. I spend so much time recycling and breaking down my trash, why not save all of my compostable items, and make some really awesome dirt for my gardens?

Bob put the bin together, I save all of my compost bin friendly kitchen scraps, and usually the kids run them out for me.

After 6 months, it was kind of cool noticing that my trashcan didn’t smell so bad on garbage day. It was also interesting to see that I had less trash IN my can. Bonus! That is the goal- less crap! The junk in the compost bin was breaking down pretty quickly, so it was a “live” trash bin that was surviving off my garbage!

Living in the Carolinas is fantastic, especially in the summer. Who doesn’t love the fresh fruits? Watermelons, a peach and strawberry picking farm less than 5 miles from the house. The kids love corn on the cob, and luckily we live in an area that is plenty “rural” for fresh veggies all year long. Everyday, giant bowls of fresh produce were going out to the bin, and breaking down at an unbelievable rate!! Amazing! But, I was not going to mix it up. I didn’t want to “see” just what was making my leftovers disappear so quickly. I barely popped the top off to dump things in, and I rarely looked inside scared of the truth.

One afternoon my mom and her man, Richard, were over for supper. I asked Richard to run out to the bin for me to toss in the leftovers from making salad. They have their own compost bin as well, but they don’t use it as a trashcan the way I do. They tend to put yard items in theirs, and obviously, their compost doesn’t break down as rapidly as mine. Can you see where this conversation is going?

Richard came back in the house, face pale. He may have even been sweating. My mom asked him, “what’s wrong?” 1 little word. Who knew this little word could freak out the masses.

“MAGGOTS.”

We all go to look. Yep, big, brown, curly maggots had risen to the top of the pile. The sound that came from the bin at this point was like zombies rising from the dead. A wet, wrinkling, soupy noise, just hearing it might make you gag. Thousands of thick, swollen maggots, almost like a caterpillar without fuzz. Slimy, slippers, creepy maggots wriggling in and out of each piece of food. Layers and layers of them. Of course my mom is totally disgusted, and ran inside. She gave Richard a bottle of salt to take to my bin, and said to kill them. My mother insisted that my bin should NOT be covered in maggots. She kept asking me questions, “are you sure you didn’t accidentally dump in something oily, with fats, meat, bones….” NO, NO, NO! I know better! But thanks for asking. Honestly, I knew there was something gross going on in that bin, but I was fine ignoring it. My kitchen garbage was disappearing!!

We argued over dinner if compost bins should have maggots or not. My mom, the “avid” gardener, and former President of her nerd herd Garden Club never talked about maggots in open air compost bins. BUT, mine is not open air!

So I spent the next week or so researching the maggots and flies. The maggots are larvae of black soldier flies. They are incredibly ugly, and amazingly useful!
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/verm/msg09092026510.html
http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-51_black_soldier_fly.htm

If you’re busy, you don’t have to bother checking out the links. I’ll will post the most important thing you will ever hear about these maggots-

They are scavengers and will eat pretty much anything in a compost bin.
They reduce odors.
They reduce waste. 100 pounds of food waste become 5 pounds of rich soil.
They get rid of pest flies, like house flies.
Larvae is healthy for birds and fish.

Needless to say, my mom is now singing a new tune. “Maybe I should come over and get a bucket of those maggots for my bin?”

So I’ve covered the maggots and the composting, now you must wonder- diapers? No way.
I have been using cloth diapers on and off with all 4 of my kids. I recently made an investment in G Diapers. Normally, I use disposables for those days when we have to run errands, but I really hate them and feel guilty even purchasing them. (I prefer Earth’s Best, or Seventh Generation) But I decided to give the G Diapers a try because I read that you can COMPOST them! Yep, so I am going to give it a shot!
http://www.gdiapers.com/happy-planet/composting101
Now I will have to report back and see how my maggots like Shaye’s compostable diapers. Pee pee…diapers, that is.
 

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