The lovely Joanie sent me a book called Dead Snails Leave No Trails for Christmas.
She’d introduced me to the natural pest control methods of Loren Nancarrow and his field notes, at which time I determined to purchase one or more of his books. She beat me to it.

As Joanie wrote so eloquently, and forgive me for paraphrasing:

It’s called conservation and stewardship of the earth. God made us stewards of the earth and the animals because we are “higher” functioning.
While I don’t believe in most “environmental” groups, I do believe that true environmentalists are those who look to minimize our impact on the natural world.
We ARE responsible for the land, the seas, the skies, and the animals that dwell on or in them all. It’s our duty. Too many have forgotten though.

I agree completely; I’m just not capable of saying it so well. I do try to steer clear of pesticides but sometimes it doesn’t seem possible.
Enter Loren and his wonderful publications chock full of wisdom.

Everything in the book is straightforward, commonsense stuff dispensed in an easy to read format. There’s an index, bibliography, glossary, pictures and pull quotes of salient phrases and tips.

I love his take on chameleons; they mesh so well with my own. We live in south Florida, so I welcome chameleons and house geckos inside. If I see them, I know there are insects in the house. If they disappear for awhile, then there aren’t. Simple.

Not simply a home and garden pesticide book, with this you can mix your own brew to keep stray dogs, cats, possums away from your yard and garden. I give it two thumbs up!

And thank you, Joanie. You are a wonderful friend. {{Hugs}}

Keeping in mind that I’ve dropped my cell roughly 752 times, I took these with its piss poor camera. Pretty soon all it will take is shapes and shadows…

Wha…? What is that? OMG, it’s another dog!

Wait for me! Come back!!! I want to pull your stuffing out just like I do my babies!!

I crack myself up.

It is so fricking hot out there.

I wonder about people like Youngest Daughter and how she eats while I’m buying groceries.

I stopped into Whole Foods yesterday for some Ginger, juice and steel cut oats. I’d already decided on chicken for dinner, so it was a short trip over to the meats counter to ask for a skinless, boneless breast.

The man wrapped it up and laid the package on the scale, then looked at me and asked: “Do you believe that?” It read $9.86. I replied: “Yep, sure do” and beat a hasty path to the checkout.

One protein portion in one meal for two people. Ten bucks.

That’s insane, and why I don’t shop at Whole Foods very often. Yes, it’s organic. But in this case it’s quantity over quality, thanks.

Food prices have risen exponentially over the past year. People are picking and choosing more now. What to buy, what to leave. Luxury items are staying on the shelves, especially in my neighborhood.

There are two things I have never denied myself regardless of ready cash: Air Conditioning and food. Both probably because of my poor sweaty southeast Texas upbringing. But I will eschew the ten buck breast in favor of the 5.00 Publix special.

This little box is long gone into the USPS system, on its way to Joanie in California.

The tag is the thing… I’m making my own tags this year with the help of a Creative Memories Tag Punch.

Whatcha think? I love it! I’m not usually this creative but I was so sick of the ‘To/From’ stickers! Only thing… hope they don’t come off in transit…!

Creative Memories is surely not the only distributor of these magnificent tools… but it’s where I bought mine.

I upgraded to WP 2.7, thus making the comments wonky. Please bear with me; I’ve contacted Jay, the wonderful theme designer and he promises to work on it! Thanks!