Corn Doggie

After a raging battle with a rogue virus of some sort, 50$ from mom and dad, and a new computer nerd friend, I'm back in action! (Virus is gone, really.)

I want to address one thing first, before I go on about any other nonsense:
My first week of nannying went very well. Just call me a baby-whisperer. The thing is small, decently cute, but very stinky. I don't understand why people are so enthralled with these things. They eat a ton, sleep sporadically, and then wake up to shit themselves. Twice in a row. However, its easy work and pays good cash. Plus, since the mom is a chef, she feeds me good food. I get to sit in their beautiful Ikea-catalog/Dwell-magazine home, holding a baby, petting their cat, and making money. I only wish they had horses!

In other news; Trip has finished writing his Master's thesis. He sent the draft to his advisor, needs to make revisions, but he is largely done. He plans to defend either September 18th or 25th. Horray and congratulations to Trippy-Poo!






Speaking of the schmuck, Trip had a birthday on the 21st. Now he's a quarter century old! I couldn't afford a present proper, so I had to make do. I sold a bed frame that was left in our basement, and went to the grocery store. There I nabbed some lamb chops and ingredients for his favorite dessert: ice cream cone cup cakes.














This Thursday I embarked on yet another ball-busting run/hike through the same area as previous: Poverty Creek/Pandapa's Pond. I was running along the trail, feeling great I might add, and after about 3.5 miles of running, I thought I'd turn around on the out-and-back I was doing. Not bringing any water or map, I thought I would take a side-trail that I thought led to the pond for Woodford to cool off after his big jog. The trail, precariously named "Jacob's Ladder", took me up a mountain. Literally. I was almost in tears at the top of the ascent. It was completely absurd. There wasn't even a good view at the top, either. Anyway, I ended up going probably two to three miles extra on my "short cut" to the pond, but Woodford was happy when we arrived. He splashed around and mildly threatened some ducks. When I returned home later that day after some nannying, Trip informed me of a murder of two Virginia Tech students the day before. They were in a different-but-close part of Jefferson National Forest, and the killer has yet to be found. Eeek.
Moral of the story: Lock it up, Natalie.

Anyway, a while ago Woodford found an ugly pot that was going to be given away with the rest of the pots that I received too much of on a re-freecycle. He truly enjoyed destroying the hell out of it. Way to go, Woodford.



The man who came to pick the free pots up brought us some sweet corn in return. It was crappy corn, but again, Woodford truly enjoyed destroying the hell out of it. Corn dog = you're doing it wrong, actually.



This is visual proof that the sun sleeps later in Blacksburg than it does anywhere else I've ever been. Until 8:30 or so, its a white wall of damp. These pictures are taken out of the kitchen window, which I think has the prettiest view in the house.


















I think the best part of being broker than ever before, is finding ways to
facilitate happy for free. In Trip's case; he works. All day and all night. Ugh. NOT for me. What I do, amongst other things: day-dreaming, riding my bike down hills, window (covering) shopping at Target.com, re-reading my favorite Hobby Farms issues, planning my garden, doodling innovative things the world has never seen before, priming our walls for an embellishing they won't soon forget, and something others have thought impossible, but I totally did it. I trained Goose to walk on a leash. I know you think this is doltish. No, my friends, 'tis not! I put her little harness on and she will come to my beck and call, so long as I have treats. Think of all the cool things I can do with a cat on a leash; I could take her to the park, to the vet, and increase my number of friends by at least double. Who doesn't want to hang out with someone that trained their cat to walk on a leash? Next I will teach her to fetch me a beer, or how to stop being so annoying at six in the morning.

Perhaps I could teach her how to do a cat's job, which is planning the ruthless demise of all members contained in the order Rodentia. Tonight we caught our very first in a mouse trap in the kitchen. We have the no-touching kind, since both our animals are so dull they would repeatedly get caught in a trap, regardless. I spied the little lever flipped up, a tail peeking out the hole, and I yelled for Trip. Sick.

And this is why we can't have nice things.

Smells of Happiness

First of all, great news: I got a small part-time job until my technician job starts September 1.
Bad news: I'm a nanny.
Worse news: for a two month old baby.
I realized upon pulling into their driveway that they have power in the Blacksburg area. This is their house:



I found this online for when it was up for sale two years ago (550g...). It actually looks a ton cooler now.

Other great news includes; the lawn guys finally came to clear brush. Its not totally completed, as there were so many briars that they have to spray and come back later to pick up the dead stuff. You can compare for yourself:












Trip wanted me to add two things to the blog on his account. One; that he fixed the mower, and he wanted everyone to see how he did it. Apparently this is a big deal for a man. He had to rig this little metal thing where a clamp used to be. He is very proud of this.
Two; last week we were eating a lovely breakfast on the front porch swing when we were greeted by a resident Carolina wren who was in clear view. They make a weird pepper grinder noise when irritated, and it kept doing this repeatedly because Goose was about. Trip was perturbed (his usual state), and decided to make a terrible screaching noise every time the wren started making it's noise. The wren called once, stopped immediately, and tried again. Trip was relentless. To both our surprise, the wren stopped all noise and movement. He was absolutely stunned. This bird did not move for at least three minutes. All the while, the look on his face was of maximum confusion. He was literally speechless. I felt bad, Trip didn't.Eventually the bird flew away, silenced. True story.




Today I took Woodford and a dog-walking client's dog, Turtle, on a serious ball-busting hike. We hiked up and down and all around mountain-y foothills of Poverty Creek's trail system for several hours. I even ran some, just to escape bugs. But I kept running even after I stealthily escaped the bugs because it felt good. My quads have been feeling itchy lately. Any distance runner knows this feeling. Woodford of course had the run of the place, but Turtle was to remain leashed by my side. Oh, Turtle. Here you see Woodford amongst a grove of wild rhododendrons. They make you feel like you are in the Lord of the Rings.
Amongst the trail system is Pandapa's Pond, where I took the dogs to cool off after hiking around all day. Its very pretty.
They turned out to be pretty good friends. Both excitable and retarded.


Some more great news; we just got all the fencing supplies we could ever possibly need for FREE on freecycle! 12 rolls of the type of fencing that we needed, which is much more than we needed, and many U-posts. This will save us SO much money, that I will feel compelled to buy a MILLION chickens! Nuggets for e'erybody! The same people also were so kind to donate to us and our up-and-coming garden project, probably around 300 pots. Some are the crappy kind that should have been thrown away years ago, but some are actually really cool. I'm excited to use them.









One last thing, I wanted to show you what the house looks like now that I cleared out the beds next to it. Scroll much further down for the "before" pictures. Oh and yes, Dad, I did cut that shrub next to the basement door down. With a hand saw. All by myself.












After the lawn guys do their thing, we plan to move the railroad ties. We're going to put our herb garden next to the oil tank, by the steps, and we want more of a fluid edge to the bed, rather than ugly wood. We (I) also speculate that it will cut down on the amount of spiders and pill bugs that make their way into the house.

Thats all folks!

Blue Monday

Yesterday, I did something that I have never done, but have wanted to do my entire life. Not jumping out of a plane, eating a guinea pig, or falling in love with the man of my dreams, as these things have already been accomplished. I painted a room a real color. Its blue. And I did it all on my own. This is huge. My entire life I've wanted colorful walls, but I never had the opportunity. Let me take a moment to blame my mother, because she is absolutely PETRIFIED of pigment. She's the interior decorating equivalent of Henry Ford; "You can have any color of paint you want, as long as its white." Moment over.

Anyway, I documented the process:




Goose-approved hue of blue!





We've been doing quite a bit around the house lately. You would be surprised to see what the yard looks like now that I've got it under control. I hand-tilled all the beds around the house, extracted literally SIX grocery bags full of daylily bulbs and gave them away using freecycle.org, which is a marvelous tool. Trip showed me a while back, and I am thoroughly obsessed with it. Yesterday I found us a really nice Kohler kitchen faucet from nice people for absolutely free.

Also, the other day, Trip and I formulated the novel idea to mouse-proof the house before it gets cold. Ah-Duh. So, because two basement rooms still have dirt floors (disgusting and creepy), we got mold/mildew killer, and he sprayed the entire basement. We are planning on (hopefully soon) filling in the dirt floors with some cheap Quikrete, as thats where the mice are coming in. There are big holes, where possibly a miniature Sasquatch of sorts have passed through. Or perhaps this house was part of the Underground Railroad. He also put new tight-fitting door sweep things in the basement doors, to keep heat in and keep unwanted four-leggies out. What a handy man!

I must mention that we scouted on craigslist some cheap yard tools in Roanoke that we have been desperately needing. Its a little drive, but we headed over on Saturday afternoon to meet these people and see what they had. As it turns out, they are moving from a huge beautiful house to a smaller condo, and are getting rid of most all of their things. The entire family was spectacular, the son saw Woodford in the truck and yelled "Ya'll can bring him inside, thats fine!". Mary, the mother/wife/ex-Fuji blimp pilot absolutely adored Woodford as he just walked around and wagged and played with their disapproving sheltie, Macy. Anyway, Mary showed us all these tools and basically just gave them to us. She was such a nice woman, and she knew we were just starting out with things. Her husband, Bob, sold Trip some much-needed man stuff for quite cheap as well. After describing the house and upcoming projects to Mary, she lit up and handed me 10 gallons of unused paint in every color I actually wanted. I couldn't believe it! Now I can paint the whole freaking HOUSE! It was such a profound gesture that I actually wanted to cry. The past few weeks have been hard. We have very little money, and we have to stretch it like Armstrong. I never thought I would be so happy to receive a pair of garden gloves, but I was, and I am so thankful. But anyway, Trip and I sent them a thank-you card with a Polaroid picture of Woodford for Macy to remember him by. :D

A couple nights ago, Trip fastened our stationary bottle opener in the kitchen. This truly makes our house a home.


Other parts of the little farm house that could:















And this is if you miss Woodford:

Embarassment is still the cure.

Basically, all I really wanted to do is tell a small story of my own humiliation. Yes, I know what you're thinking, it is a rarity, but it happens. It goes like this:

The other day Trip & I went to a small store where they sell paintball stuff and fire safety crap as well. It is kind of strange, but all I needed was an O-ring for my gun so I can sell it on eBay because I'm busted. Anyway, as the guy is emptying my CO2 tank, I lazily leaned upon a display of cases of paintballs next to the counter. After about two seconds of this, the shelving collapses. Did I drop four $40 cases of paintballs? Yes. The real issue, though, was the display of fire extinguishers underneath them, that I didn't know about. I heard a "PFFFFFFSSST!" and this stinky, bad-tasting yellow crap goes every where.
Of course, at the beginning of this fiasco, we are the only people in the store. However, at the peak of drama, two fat old dudes walk in and are like "AHH, whats that smell." The owner of the store could give no cares, however. After this happening, he immediately retorted "Man, I knew when I put that up it was gonna fall down!" So I helped organize the cases back together, and put the extinguisher upright. Whoops.

Also, I found this fruit leather stuff on clearance at Target a while ago. They're organic, all-natural and taste like a fruit roll up. I am mostly bummed because I ran out of them yesterday.



Yesterday Trip and I toured the town of Radford. It is small and the same kind of crappy like a Charleston, only Radford University is much prettier than Eastern. All the buildings match, anyway.

One more, I am considering chopping Woodford up and throwing him into a body of water that contains sharks. He won't stop getting on our new and ugly couch! Every time I come home, he's slowly and lazily flobbing himself off it, yawning as he goes. But this picture is cute, and makes me think otherwise.



Now, lets hope that the lawn guys are going to come back today like they said they were going to. When they clear that stinking brush, I can get my garden planning on, FULL SHWING!

Time settles all, except the clogged drain.

Its been a few days. Not a whole ton of things have happened. However, Trip and I did celebrate our first happy year together. Conveniently, it is also our first year together in general.

Some things have been crossing my mind, lots of things. I am out of the city limits of Blacksburg. This opens doors for me, and my plans to farm. We are gearing up for a few chickens in the spring. We (I) are also looking into a goat share program. We would be interested in Nigerian Dwarf goats, they are dairy goats used for a variety of cool stuff. Some extra help keeping the lawn in check would also be a benefit.



They're pretty cute, huh?

Anyway, some pretty cool news; we got a couch. It is the ugliest couch known to any human ever. However, it was free from Trip's new advisor and his wife. Apparently it is from 1973, and its in absolutely mint condition. So now we have to make a TV stand, because Trip is pretty picky about his furniture, and wants to make stuff instead of buying it. Other than that, we're going to put together some hanging shelves, which look pretty cool. We may be done after that, aside from some painting. Trip had no problem modeling the couch with his two favorite companions, Woodford and PBR. Also, you can see Goose and how she approves, snoozing amongst her guardian's hairy feet (not mine).






We attended Blacksburg's town festival; Steppin' Out. Its a horrible name for a pretty cool little gig. Lots of music, locally produced goods. I had to buy some soap from the soap lady because ours fell down the drain and clogged it. We took showers and it would be stagnant for hours. A whole bottle of Dran-o Professional Strength later... Gross.

Lawn: CONQUERED!!

For two ENTIRE half days, I had a mission. I was going to cut down the lawn if I had to do it with scissors. We have several projects lying in wait, depending on this lawn to be mowed, and Virginia ain't goin to stop rainin'. Luckily, the previous slobby tenants left us a pretty nice mower, so I was able to take on this task with confidence.
So, I started on day one with the front yard. Its easy enough, relatively flat, and the grass is shorter and thinner, as it is under a huge oak tree. Unfortunately, the little thingy that keeps the one thingy pulled so that it moves on its own busted. So, basically it lost its power steering. I had to push the damn thing up and down and all around. Not a big deal in the front yard. However, Dad would probably still be proud. After he laughed.


Look at that determination!

Fast forward to the next day, after a little help from Trip fixing the mower. I awoke with zeal, knowing that day was THE day. I was going to make that grass regret that I ever stepped foot upon it. Trip made his near-daily run to the hardware store, and came back with a surprise; a sickle-looking thing. Its ugly, its sharp, and it works. I sickled the entire back lawn, nearly chopping off Goose's head several times, with abandon. This is reality, Goose.



THEN I mowed. The thing was boggin' down about every ten feet, but Trip showed me how to let the bladed beast "breathe", so it could do it's job. I don't know if you've ever pushed a 50 lb mower up hill repeatedly, but it sucks. It was hot, I was sweaty, but this grass needed to go. My future garden, temporary fence for Woodford, and my chickens all depend on it!

So, here we are today. I finished, I ate a boxed Asian meal of black bean rice, and I drank a Sierra Nevada Hefeweizen. Life is good.

Virginia is for lovers...and drunkards alike!

This morning I awoke, our ninth day in Blacksburg, to the dense valley fog that plagues every a.m. kiss of the sun. We've been here over a week now, and we're getting into the swing of things. Just yesterday we got the internet hooked up at our little farmhouse. Instead of browsing craigslist and facebook for the past week, we've been doing what people did before those two things came around: working on stuff and drinking a lot of beer.

Let me start by saying that the drive to Blacksburg was largely uneventful. Woodford slept in the truck with me, and Goose perched on Trip's shoulder in the Penske truck the entire way. Also, Woodford threw up on me when we were literally less than 20 miles away.

Upon arrival, at a very late hour, we decided the last tenants left the place in a very subpar condition. There was so much dirt, cat hair, and mouse poo that it made piles everywhere. So for the next four days, we cleaned. We cleaned more, then we cleaned. We figured out the best way to cope with so much cleaning was to drink during such acts, so we drank. We drank more, then we drank.

These are the kinds of surprises you find in a dirty farm house. He really bridged that gap! ^

After a few days, we did some shopping for house goods and more exploring of the area. It is WONDERFUL here. The entire community is full of farmer's market/small-business locality. They have bumper stickers all over that read "Buy local. Eat local. Be local." Everyone rides their bikes everywhere, therfore, there are bike lanes, bike paths, and sidewalks everywhere you turn. I can't wait. Woodford and Goose are also pleased, but still enjoy nap time together about 18 hours per day.

We went hiking at the Poverty Creek trail system, where we were rained on, but the views and reality check of our out-of-shapeliness were quite worth it. Over the weekend, we drove to the very small town of Shawsville to see the EastMont Tomato Festival. We ate BBQ chicken, met a duck named Rover, which prompted my purchase of one dozen home-grown duck eggs, bought some goat's milk soap, met some local CSA (community supported agriculture) farmers, and bought some of their DELICIOUS beef. Read about them here. Apparently they ship their Ancient White Park cattle yummies to NYC and Washington, DC. We made burgers, and they were absolutely marvelous.

Anyway, so, what we've been doing. Our largest projects have included, but are not limited to: machete-ing the hell out of our overgrown lawn, learning how to inappropriately rig a dryer to get its' duct out the window, overhauling a futon we bought because we were not communicating at our finest, hanging Roman shades in Trip's office, and re-screening a door with a Woodford-made doggie entrance (who knew he was so crafty?). Also, our ongoing project; testing the plethora of microbrews that are abound in the area. There is no end in sight.

But I'm sure you want to see our cute little house. I'm not taking picture of the inside yet because, frankly, it looks moronic. We have very little storage, so we are still coming up with innovative ways to place things around other things. However, you can see the exterior of our little slice of peace and quiet, along with our view from the front porch swing.

Recently, after clearing some brush, we realized we had a side "yard", though its more of a huge field that I desperately want for my own. I took a little video clip of Trip and Woodford playing in it, maybe you want to see it for yourself.

For right this second, thats all.