Oooo that smell! Can't you smell that smell?

Irony is having allergies plug your whole face up to the point where smelling is a long lost friend until you happen past landscapers and suddenly are overcome with the aroma of fresh cut grass. I'm not complaining because I love the smell of fresh cut grass, but what the hell nose? Stop mocking me or I'll cut you off to spite my... forget it.

Things have been happening... kind of. The water bowl we keep outside for the dogs is now called The Bowl of Doom because of how many things crawl into it and drown. I lucked out and a mouse was one of its unsuspecting victims. Remember years ago when I talked about wanting to try the decomposition method some biologist dude on CL told me about? It was how to clean a skeleton off without needing to touch it or own a beetle colony. Not that I am against the beetle colony mind you, but these beetles will eat everything if they escape and need quite a bit of dead flesh to survive. I'm just not into it. I don't have enough land and dragging home roadkill does not appeal to me in the slightest. I have yet to come across a whole animal that wasn't in some way broken or way to huge to try the biologist's method on. Basically it goes like this: You need a dead animal, a tupperware container with a cover, a scoop of dirt, some water, warm weather and time. Lucky me, I have all of those. I almost blew it. As much as I enjoy my dead thing collection just as much as the next guy, the whole freshly dead animal skeeves me a little and I don't like touching them. I was about to have SR heave the unlucky little dude over the fence when my brain kicked into overdrive, got all excited and reminded me about the biologist.

I doubt the bones will be big enough to wire back together. Mouse toe bones, seriously. However, this gives me a chance to try this fun little theory. And if all goes well, I'll be the proud owner of a mouse skull complete with nasal passage bones. I know, right?! Lucky you, I took pictures...

Step one is the not so accessible dead animal. SCORE! (I frown upon killing things for the sake of an experiment)


Put a scoop of dirt into the tupperware container. I want to go on and on about how you have to disinfect it, but I think it might only be hysterical to me.


Add water and dead thing to the tupperware holding the super helpful scoop of dirt.


Put on cover, place in an area where it will be more hot than cold and simply wait.


See, there's all kinds of nasty microorganisms and bacteria (is that one in the same? Yeah, I didn't go to biology school, sorry for living) living in the dirt. Story goes, when you add the dirt to the dead thing flavored water and turn the heat up a bit, they'll rot that dead thing faster than your mom responds to an inviting smile. I'm pretty excited to see the turnout. With the rotting corpse. The mouse. Not your mom. Sorry for any confusion.

I finally got the TabTab into agility! It's in a class in the town next to mine which makes it even more exciting not to mention far more likely that I'll make it to every class on time. Well at the very least that I'll make it to every class. I needed all this stuff to join. The only thing left is the bait bag that will be at my house by the 6th which will complete the needed list of a crate (found a super light soft sided one, thank you CL!), lots of toys, 6' leash and a bait bag. She will be sporting a matching pink collar to go with her snazzy new super soft hemp leash and I am only going to use them for agility so there is no confusion of when we are "working". I'm also really into her looking fashionable and girly. I am PUMPED and I just know she's going to be awesome at this. Just to prove it in some off handed way, here's a little video I took of her at the bogs.



I also started some seeds. Well, I started some seeds poorly. For the first time in a very very long time I didn't read a thing prior to starting the seeds and just went all hey seeds, this is dirt, you guys are going to get along great, in you go! So apparently putting them in your freezer for a week prior to planting helps both of them grow fast. It also helps to start them in a wet paper towel while covering the seeds to much will not help so much. Oops. Here's to hoping right? I started the seeds in egg cartons and if everything goes as planned (not necessarily documented by professionals) they are going to be killer. The Delphinium will be lining the side of the back deck and the Lupine will be along the fence right next to the side gate. Unless of course I am confusing their sun needs and then just switch them around. Either way, they're going to look great. As of right now, they even look great at night!



And for a happy little ending in more ways than one, I leave you with before and after pictures. The after picture could be better, but you get the drift:

before


after