K is for ?

Yesterday the Capital Ex folks announced their new fair name...K-Days!  The people have spoken, the vote was a landslide.  Now tonight they are asking what the K in the name should stand for. Huh???  I thought it was for Klondike!?  It seems the fair folks really really don't want to go back to that old theme. 

I don't really care, but what I do know is that if all you are going to be is a skeezy midway with some bad food then you won't be a world class event.  You will just be an amped up version of the rides that do the circuit at the mall parking lots. 

Calgary isn't too embarrassed to have a cowboy and rodeo theme.  Actually it seems that it is a huge success...people wearing their white stetsons and playing cowboy.  It seems to attract tourists and seems to have good recognition.  I can't say I am all that impressed with events like the chuck wagon races but that is a topic for another post.

The point is K-Days needs to develop a theme and stick with it.  Have your midway and fair grounds, but fill it with things for various people.  It used to have gold panning and king of the Klondike, old time dress up and saloon type frivolity.  If that isn't hip enough then come up with something new but stop living in the land of ambiguity!

Anyway here is another blog post that kind of sums it up.

Mushroom Mania

Today was a mushroom kind of day, but not the magic kind.  It started with me filling a bucket with real mushrooms from the lawn.  We have an evil ferry ring which for the most part you don't notice until we get a lot of rain.  Then a lovely arch shape of mushrooms seems to popup over night.  They lay just low enough that the lawnmower just kisses their little heads.

Then I moved into the garage for a concrete mushroom project.  I want to add little things to my garden for interest and everything is so expensive.  I recently watched a video on how to make a mushroom out of cement.  Hey...I can do that!   So it was off to the dollar store to look for a suitable stem and shroom head container.  I found some perfect things!

Then it was off to home depot to get some cement.  I am not sure what to use but know it has to be actual concrete, not mortar.  So the $8 bag of high strength cement was selected.  Luckily Chad was with me as those bags are freaking heavy.

So now back in the garage I am good to go.  I used an old litter tray and my garden shovel to mix the cement.  You just add water so it's not too hard.  I sprayed the inside of my containers with cooking oil which hopefully will help get the shapes out after.  If not the cheap dollar store containers can be sacrificed.

Once the cement was mixed the stem and bowl for the top was filled.  I put some nails in the bottom of the stem to keep it put in the ground once its done.  There is also a nut and bolt embedded to screw the top and bottom together after. This mushroom should be about 14 inches tall when its done and took about half a bag of cement.

Now it's just a wait for it all to dry event. I have them in the garage where its cooler so it doesn't dry to fast which i guess is not good for cement.  It will take a couple of days to see if this worked or not.  I will post an update.  That was fun...next I am going to press a rhubarb leaf and also make a ball that I can decorate with glass. 

I love days off!!!

Cats!

This past weekend the Edmonton Humane Society had a Groovy Cat adoption event which drastically cut the costs to adopt a cat or kitten.  They were over capacity again and every so often need to do this to try and get some room at the shelter.  Well the good news is they adopted out over 200 felines, what a relief.  However just in the last few days they have had another 200 cats and kittens brought in, mostly strays. 

They do such amazing work at the Edmonton Humane Society and now have a wonderful new facility for cats, dogs and other animals in need.  It boggles my mind though that in a rich province like Alberta we have such a problem.  Why won't people spay or neuter their cats?  They let them run around outside unfixed, and often treat them as disposable.  People move and leave them behind even in the harsh winter months. 

 It is good that some people are surrendering their animals to the shelter if they can no longer keep them, it is the responsible thing to do.  There will just not be enough homes to go around at some point if we don't help control the population.  Some day when I am no longer working full time I hope to volunteer there and help out how I can.    I have lots of cat and dog petting abilities that I would be all to happy to use : )

The American Dream?

If there is one thing that I can't stand it's greed.  For some reason it just pushes all of my buttons.  I was reminded of that today when I saw an article about people in the U.S. that were on a journey to build the largest American home - 90,000 square feet.  Sadly for them the economy hurt their little American dream... awww...soo heartbreaking (sneer). 

Now I don't begrudge people a few nice things...hey if its your money then I guess you are entitled to spend it however you like.  However I want to puke when your only contribution to society is to indulge yourself with ridiculous excess.  What is lacking in these peoples psychi's that the only pleasure they can muster is if their faucets are plated in gold.  Is it really that easy to live with yourself when others have almost nothing?  Think of the carbon footprint this one family makes just to heat and cool this monstrosity.

Just think of the good those people could do if they paired down to o say...10 bathrooms and took the money for the other 20 and gave it to a charity!  It bothers me greatly that society often admires people like this and has become so starved for stuff.  I guess there will always be the 1% ...with another 50% wishing they were that 1%. 

How does your garden grow?

Gardening is always a relaxing past time for me.  I love to get outside and putz in the yard.  I enjoy the creative side of gardening, seeing how plants evolve and adjusting to various weather challenges.  This year has been great, lots of nice warm days and plenty of rains in the evenings to keep everything nice and lush. 

When we bought this place it had a lot of ceder and junipers in it as well as rock all over the place.  Although much of it is good to keep, I have been gradually taking some out to make way for more flower beds and color.  I love perennials and anything that blooms.  Last year I planted some rose bushes, and even though we had light snow cover this winter they did great.  Roses are such incredibly beautiful flowers.  Having said that there is a bug that also finds them incredible....incredibly delicous!  The leave are full of little holes so I have been busting out the insecticidal soap. 
Die bastards die!  Ok...back to the serene gardening : )

Honeysuckle Vine

The other thing I planted last year was a vine on the trellis I built.  It has grown like crazy this year and has started to bloom.  I thought it was going to have red flowers, but they are yellow.  That's ok..the bees love them and apparently so do humming birds, although I have never seen one our yard yet.

The side of the garage was kind of bland and is shady most of the time.  I have never really had shade gardens till this house, so I am learning all the time what works and what doesn't.  Really you just have to try things and see how it goes.  I put up these pots this year and they are doing really well.  They get sun in the morning and really like the lack of wind and pounding rain with the garage roof for protection.  Begonias are kind of sensitive so I haven't had the greatest luck with them before, but now this spot is a score.

I also planted lots of little pots of pansies here and there and they are really nice for some simple color.  I love these purple ones with the bright green pot.  

So that's whats blooming in the yard this year.  It a good year to be a gardener : )