Nature is Revolting

 Okay, first off, the saga of the garden...

SomeTHING got onto the deck and munched a bunch of my plants over the course of a few days.  First, I sprinkled cayenne pepper over everything.  Nope.  Then I mixed up a batch of my Rat-B-Gone (peppermint, cloves, and cedar essential oils).  Nope.  I tried putting up a length of fencing around my tastiest plants, too, but whatever it was climbed right over or went through the spacing.  Sunday, I moved all my plants inside - half in the garage, half in the sunroom.  And I ordered a small (5x5x6.5 roughly) greenhouse from Amazon.  That'll be here Thursday and it's supposedly pretty easy to put together.  I also bought a game camera to keep an eye on everything.  Fingers crossed.  

The plants that got munched... Of my trees: my baby black cherry, my little persimmon, one hickory, three redbuds, and a dogwood are all sticks now.  My buckthorn has two little leaves left about 2" up.  The other hickory has been halved.  Of my produce: all 4 green pepper plants are sticks, one of my fingerling potatoes is sticks, my best pots of carrots had about 2/3rds of the greenery munched off and the other two that were doing well also saw munching.  The one carrot pot that only had a few carrots coming up only has one now.  Thankfully, it left Pedro Potato and the Tomato Trio alone.

Okay, so I've got a fix for that on the way.  One would think I'd be done with critter mayhem, right?  Umm, no.

Last night, about 1:30 a.m., I hear the scrabble of claws on vinyl flooring.  And it's not the usual sound of the cats chasing each other.  I turn to Hubs, but he's not in bed.  None of the lights are on, so I figure he's on a bathroom break.  The noise has stopped, but that doesn't mean anything in a house with cats, so I get up to go see what the hell is up with The Boyz.  I wander into the kitchen to find Finn intently staring at the space under the catfood cupboard.  I get a flashlight and shine it under there.  Nothing.  But he won't be swayed.  We keep a cooler next the cupboard so the cats can jump up there easily.  I move the cooler.  MOUSE.  He was terrified and I was stunned, so we just looked at each other for a minute.  He recovered first and took off, followed closely by Finn.  

Did Finn catch him?  No.  The little bastard ran along the wall, across the space by the front door, and I lost sight of it.  Finn didn't.  He started circling Hubs' recliner like a hound who'd run a fox to ground. 

By then, Hubs had come out to see what the hell was going on.  We upended the recliner.  Couldn't see it.  I tried beating on the recliner, but no sign of it.  We eventually found it on the other end of the room behind the shelf I keep our TV on.  Haha! thinks I, we've got it trapped.  

Nope.  We tried to get it, but it skittered away, ran down the wall, and went into my recliner.  So there we were trying to get it out of my recliner.  Not a sign of the damn thing.  

For some reason, at that point... it being now 2:30 and me being me... I decided to check behind the TV again.  Sure enough, the little bastard had slipped by us and was back where it thought it was safe.  I put sticky traps on either side of the shelving and we debated on how best to get the little bastard out of there, both of watching to make sure it didn't escape again.  At one point, I checked and it was still there.  More debating.  Checked again.  Would you believe it, the little fucker was gone.  

At this point, we had both cats locked up in the office because we didn't need them underfoot, especially considering that Hubs was prepared to whack the little shit with a shovel, and we didn't want the cats to get in the middle of that.  Since the cats were put away, I went around laying sticky traps and snap traps all over the living room.  I made coffee and we plopped down in front of the TV to both settled down enough to go back to bed and to see if we caught the furry bastard before going to sleep.  

It was around 4am when we went back to bed with no mouse caught.  I got up at 6:30 with still no mouse.  We finally put all the traps away and let the cats out at 8 with no success.  We did, however, kill a mouse in the garage last night.  Not the same mouse.  The dead one was lighter than the marauder.  

Neither of us has any clue as to how the furry bugger got in the house.  I've spent untold time over the years plugging every damn hole that would allow ingress for mice.  It's been years, in fact, since we saw one inside the house.  More investigating will occur, but not now.  I'm bushed.  I leave it to the cats to find it and kill it, if it shows its twitchy little nose again.

Unfortunately, Finn did not show prowess at killing the mouse last night and Sawyer, when given the chance, was terrified at the prospect.  I'm revoking their cat cards until they prove their worth.

Between the mysterious plant-muncher (packrat, I assume) and the nighttime visitor, I'm about 75% wondering what I did to piss Nature off, because I think she's staging a revolt.  Pray for our safety.  There are more of them than there are of us and we're getting to old for this shit.

Marketing Monday - Rumor Has It

Amidst the throes of garden woes, the show must go on - which means Marketing Monday.  This week, I'm putting RUMOR HAS IT out there for your free book downloading pleasure. Enjoy!  

Starting today, RUMOR HAS IT is totally free. (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Step back in time with this gritty noir mystery now. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZNXQKPC

And if you enjoy it, please leave a review, then head over to buy the next book in the series - THICKER THAN WATER.  It'll be a win for you and it'll help fund my fight against the critter noshing my plants.  

Sunday Update - Whatever Week It Is

 Hey all, I know I'm extremely late.  In fact, I'm taking 5 in the middle of dinner to type this.  Suffice it to say, there isn't much to talk about.  Well, except for the fact that some bastard critter saw fit to climb onto the deck and ravage my garden.  I spent the morning moving all the remaining pots - some alive, some possibly dead - into the smoking porch and the garage.  After that, I wasn't motivated to do anything.

I've since ordered a small greenhouse to put on the deck for plant protection and a game camera to see if I can catch the little bastard.  I'd kill it with my bare hands if I could.  All that work... Blerg.

Anyway, I hope your day was good.  Feel free to talk about it in comments.  :hugs:

Totally Forgot Thursday

 LOL, Totally Forgot Thursday should be a thing and it should always be posted on Friday.  I could make it a list of things I totally forgot, which would be long... if I could remember to write down all the things I forgot.

Pedro Potato fell over yesterday.  I totally didn't think about staking him up and how does one stake up a potato plant that's already a couple feet tall without staking potential potatoes??  I managed it, I think, but time will tell whether I harshed any spuds.  Anyway, he seems fine this morning, so no harm done, I guess.

I went out of my way to hit the other local thrift store and while they did have a lot of books, I only found two I wanted.  What a waste of gas.  The books, you ask?  The Surgeon by Tess Garretson and a three book volume of 87th Precinct novels by Ed McBain.  Cost?  75c.  I would've made out like a bandit if I'd been into Danielle Steel or James Patterson, but alas, I'm not a fan of either of those authors.

Sawyer woke us up this morning at 4am.  He was trying to jump to the top of the big chest of drawers.  He missed... he always misses... but he managed to knock the bottle of antacids on the floor.  Scared the crap out of himself and woke us both up rather rudely.  Sometimes... to the moon, cat.

I hate when I get an email touting 'free shipping' and it's only on order over a certain amount.  This last one seemed like it was for any order and only for a limited time, but it's their regular free shipping amount.  Dirty pool, chaps.  That's one way to get me to not buy anything from you ever.

Sawyer's being a picky eater right now.  Turd.  I mean, Finn's always been a picky eater, but Finn also doesn't bitch when he doesn't get fed his favorite foods.  He simply chooses not to eat what he doesn't like.  Sawyer?  Nope.  'FEED ME... I don't LIKE that... FEED ME SOMETHING ELSE!'  He's my problem child.  We do love him, but ugh.  (And before you wonder, he's fine.  He's also not in danger of starving to death.)

Ugh, I meant to take a shower yesterday, but I wasn't in the mood.  I figured I could take a shower when I got up this morning.  This morning?  Thunderstorms.  Blerg.  That'll teach me.

Okay, that's probably enough out of me.  Any snippets of wisdom from you?  Anything you totally forgot that you'd like to mention?  Comment away.

Monday Marketing - Wish Hits The Fan

Good morning!  It's time again for another rousing round of Monday Marketing, with your host - B.E. Sanderson.  

Heh.  Yeah, I've been up since 4, the coffee isn't cutting it, and I'm a little loopy.  Anyway, it IS Monday and it is also time to market.  Today, WISH HITS THE FAN is up on the block.

Starting today, WISH HITS THE FAN is totally free. (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Get this snarky, fun, paranormal suspense now! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075C7FCXG

This is the one that wraps the whole series up.  There are thrills and chills and spills.  There are difficult choices to make and a world to save.  Questions are answered and lives hang in the balance.  What's not to love there?  Trust me.  Go grab a copy while you can.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 15

 Here we are again at the beginning of another week.  Time to look at last week.

Book marketing was done.  I moved 52 copies of Fertile Ground.  From previous marketing, I had page reads of Dying Embers and Song of Storm and Shroud.  Oh, and Wish Hits the Fan goes on freebie starting tomorrow.

Reading is still going slow, but I am reading, so I have that going for me.  I'm about a third of the way through Leadership by Rudy Giuliani.  It's really interesting.

No baking.  Which is good because my EWA doesn't need the calories.  

I was pretty active this week.  I did a hard target walk, vacuumed, worked on the deck garden, and planted trees in the woods.  I haven't weighed myself, though, so whether any of that is starting to shrink my ass?  Dunno.  

Speaking of gardening, Pedro Potato is getting tall.  I have another pot with tiny potato plants coming up, too.  One tomato and two of the peppers have flowers.  The carrots are growing right along and need thinning again.  Then there are the trees.  They all seem to be doing well.  The one unknown tree has been identified as a persimmon, so yay.  Thank you to whatever squirrel or bird planted that seed in my garden last year.  

Speaking of trees, Cecil and Clyde went into the woods.  They're my oldest two cedars and it was time.  When I turned Cecil out of his pot, it was obvious he needed more space.  He was getting rootbound in there.  Clyde probably could've spent another year on the deck, but like I said, it was time.  I can still see Cecil from the house, so yay.  Fingers crossed that nature doesn't harsh my babies.

Pregnancy abounds in the deer herd, so yay.  Lumpy is still rolling along, but does not appear pregnant, which is a mercy.  We also have phoebes nesting under the deck and chickadees using our birdhouse.  I love Spring.

Other than that, life is pretty boring here.  What's up with you?

Thursday This n That

On a short continuance from yesterday, let me just say that I did not have roaming hippos in Columbia on my bingo card. (Was talking about it here a HIPPO violation?  ROFL)

Yesterday, I removed the 'feather bed mimic' topper thing from our bed.  The dang thing was lumpy as all get out.  That and the constant fluffing of it were getting to be a pain in the everywhere.  Last night, I did have a devil of a time getting to sleep, but I must've slept better.  We'll see how it goes.

Getting old blows.

Okay, I'm old.  (Yeah, yeah, not as old as some.)  I was thinking the other day about my grandmother and how she was.  I realized I will never be as old in my head as my grandmother was.  Then again, Grandma was never as old as I thought she was.  Hearing stories from Mom about her tell me that I was mistaken about her on several points.  Oh, she was not a pleasant woman and would never be mistaken for the warm and cuddly grandmas some people have.  I was talking with my sister and we agreed that Grandma was a bitch.  But really when Grandma was younger, she was a tough, pants-wearing, hard-working chick who liked parties and doing things women weren't supposed to do back then.  Maybe she was bitchy because as she got old, she couldn't be the woman she knew herself to be, which would make anyone bitchy, I guess.

You hear all the time about men withholding stuff from the wives during a divorce, but I just read a case where it was the woman.  She's in jail now until she forks over the stuff that the court already said belonged to her ex-husband or pays him the value of those things.  Equal rights for women means being equal in this shit, too.  Good for the judge.  Feminists wanted everything equal, where there ya go.  Choke on it.

Pedro Potato is getting tall.  Go, Pedro!  I'm not sure if he's actually making potatoes under there.  The only way to tell is to dig him up, the thought of which makes me sad.  It'll have to be done eventually, but until then, I'll enjoy him as the healthy plant he is.

We had a hell of a storm last night.  Thankfully, I'd already moved all my pots under the eaves, so they got at least some protection.  At around 2am, it got really nasty and I wondered if I did indeed hear a train in the distance.  (We have no tracks anywhere near here... by train, I mean tornado.)  I checked the yard this morning and all is well.

And on that note, I have to go make my daily call to Mom.  Have a great day everyone.  Peace out.

Wild and WTF on Wednesday

I see a lot of wild and WTF things on FB and X, so I thought I'd share...

Someone tried to use the phrase 'molon labe' - basically an ancient Greek phrase meaning 'Come. Take.' (referencing gun rights) - but autocorrect changed it to 'melon lube'... ROFL.

Someone made an AI photo of Trump eating McDonald's with Jesus.  Now, there's a section of people with their undies in a wad.

I saw a video of a cat whose owner was deaf.  The cat had learned that meowing doesn't work, so it figured out how to signal its owner by tapping his arm and then tapping its mouth when it wanted treats.  

Just now, someone shared a video out of Japan - a JAWS bath bomb.  It looks like a boat.  Then you drop it into the water, it starts to dissolve and turns the water blue, then it starts to bubble.  Then it releases what looks like blood and a shark's head floats to the service.  The head has a piece of boat in its mouth.  Too funny.

Another video... Beagle terrifies alligator and makes it run away.

No, the IDF didn't put 60 P-people in a garbage truck.  The P-people used a garbage truck to try to sneak into somewhere to do bad things and the IDF caught them.

Some dude (in Pakistan, I believe) said woman shouldn't be (aren't allowed to be?) educated. Fuck that shit.

The pope is more concerned with how Muslims are being treated than with how Christians are being treated.  Let that sink in.

Diets are now racist.  

Yale gathering applauds a guy who said America deserved 9/11.

Japan loves us.  And they have a word for Leftist nutjob - Payoku.  Funny, I never thought I'd love Japan more than I could ever love Australia, but one is becoming awesome and the other is becoming a leftist shithole.  So there ya are.

And with that, I'll let ya go do whatever it is you do out there in the world.  Me?  I'm doing marketing posts and then I have to clean.  Woot.

Marketing Monday - Fertile Ground

I'm creating this post on Sunday, so hopefully nothing screws up and makes a liar out of me.  

Starting today - Monday, I mean - FERTILE GROUND (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FOPNE9Y) is free and will be through Friday.  This book portrays a SCIU agent, who was once a victim, pursuing a serial rapist.  Like all the SCIU books, it swings between the POV of the MC and the antagonist.  It does not get into the gritty details or descriptions of rape, but it does show the mindset of a psycho who's committing these crimes and how a rape victim can rise above her trauma to hunt the fucker down.  She has choices to make and she makes the right ones.  And in the end, justice - not revenge - prevails.  

Anyway, it's free as you're reading this and it'll be free 'til the end of the week.  I hope you enjoy.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 14?

 Well, crap... it's Sunday again, isn't it?  Since I can't figure out what day it is most of the time, you shouldn't be surprised that I'm not sure what week it is.  Anyway...

Nope on the writing / editing.  I'm having stern talks with myself.  I may banish myself with my Kindle and my notepad to the spare room until I finish editing the damn book I should've finished editing months ago.  I think the main problem here is I'm stuck in the 'I suck and I hate this book' mindset, so it's hard to make progress on something you're pretty sure stinks.  And if you suck, how can you fix something that stinks?  :shrug:

Yep on the marketing.  Not a banner week, but still, something is better than nothing.  No clue what's going to be on the block for this week.

No reading.  Seriously, I don't think I even picked up my book last week.  Derp.

No baking happened, but I did make ham & bean soup yesterday.  It turned out really yummy and it used up the last of my Easter ham, so yay.

I was pretty active this past week - mostly with the deck garden.  I did take two hard-target walks for 1.75 miles.  I also did some cleaning and furniture moving.  I'm also trying to eat better - more salads, less crap.  Unfortunately, I stepped on the scale yesterday and had gained two pounds.  Derp.  Weight: 179.4

As for gardening, I have all my produce seeds/plants in the ground now - potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and green peppers.  We'll see how those go.  I realized yesterday that I fucked up with Pedro.  I was supposed to cover him with dirt while he was still small - to encourage root growth.  But I was so pleased with Pedro's growth, I totally forgot to mound him in dirt.  He is pretty spectacular.  I'll mound the other potatoes.  

I spent some time shopping this week - Tractor Supply and Wallyworld.  I do love Tractor Supply, and they had dirt 'buy one get one 50% off', so I had that going for me.  Yes, I am a redneck.  Wallyworld was Wallyworld.  

Oh, I saw Beauregard the Broad-Winged Hawk twice this past week.  One time, he flew beneath the smoking room windows, so I got a really close view of him.  He's pretty awesome.  On another bird note, the Barred Owls have been hanging out close to the house, so we've heard them hooting for a few nights/mornings in a row.  This morning, one of them must have been in the yard because the hooting was really loud.  Awesome.

And that's about it for me.  I need to figure out what I'm going to do today and try to avoid sitting in front of the TV for the majority of it.  A walk is in order, definitely.  The rest?  Time will tell.  Have a great day wherever you are.  

Thursday This n That

 I forgot what day it is.

Tuesday, we voted in the municipal elections.  One measure on the ballot failed by one vote.  ONE vote.  Never let it be said that your vote doesn't matter.  It does.  If we hadn't voted, it would've changed the outcome.  (And we'd be paying more in property taxes this year, which we do not need.)

Why do people vote to raise their own property taxes???  I mean, yeah, I could see if it was something important, but this wasn't.  

Yesterday, there was a squirrel in the yard that was acting like it was having a stroke or something.  We didn't go anywhere near it, but we kept an eye on it from the window.  First, it was just laying there in the sun underneath the hickory tree.  The next time we looked it had moved into the shade.  The next time it was back in the sun.  Then Hubs saw it from his bathroom window and another squirrel had walked up on it and they were jumping around at each other, after which it went right back to laying under the tree.  A little while later, it was stumbling toward the water pans and got itself a drink.  Then it was right back under the tree - about a 15 foot distance - where it was digging with its front paw and then eating what looked like some kind of root.  After dinner, it had moved to the backyard and was again eating some kind of root.  By then, it was looking decidedly better.  I wonder if those roots have medicinal properties.  Anyway, the next time we looked, it was gone.  Either it got better and went away, or the fox got it during its dusk rounds through our yard.  Still, it was all very weird.  

What does one do for a messed-up squirrel?  I'd call a rehabber, if we had any anywhere near us.  The only good one I know of, though, is in OK and they can't take out of state animals.  Bummer.  I thought about going out there with a net and catching it, but then I'd be violating some wild animal ordinance or something.  Around here, the wildlife better get better on its own.  I just wish the critters would stop having medical dramas on my lawn.  If they're going to die, they need to do it in the woods and far enough away that I don't see it.

Okay, time for me to go take a walk... which is what I was getting ready to do when I realized I hadn't posted today.  Derp.  Have a great day, wherever you are.  Peace out.

Monday Update - 2026 Week 13

 Yesterday was a holiday, but let's face it, I can't blame Easter for my totally forgetting to post.  I'm late today because I overslept because cat-antics wouldn't let me sleep and then I was up until after midnight.

Let's not talk about writing, eh?  Although, I did think about writing.  For some reason, a story I started years ago but never finished popped into my head late last night and wanted me to write it RIGHT THEN.  But I was trying to get to a place where I could sleep, so I ignored it.  I take the fact that stories are demanding to be written as a good sign, but so far, that's all it is - a sign.  

The big marketing a whole series thing last week went okay.  It looked better than it was because I had three books being downloaded, but per book, it wasn't great.  Today, Song of Storm and Shroud is up for a 5-day freebie.  (SONG OF STORM AND SHROUD - an epic fantasy for kids and adults alike - is free today through Friday. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09W745M6P)  Unfortunately, I woke up late and haven't really done any marketing beyond posting to my pages on FB.  :shrug:  I'm tired and unmotivated.

Not much reading this week.  I really am a toad.

In baking news, I made applesauce bars (B-) and raisin-apple bread pudding (A-).  Plus, I baked the ham for Easter (A+).  

On the activity front, I took two walks for about 2 miles. I also did stuff in the deck garden - moving pots, etc.  Last night, I moved a bookshelf and all its books, so that was active.  (Sawyer was being turd and using it as a springboard to get onto the TV shelf.)  After all the ham I ate yesterday, I'm not going to weigh myself, but when I weighed myself last Tuesday, I was at 177.4.

Ah, the garden.  It's rolling right along, as you could see from my post last week.  I did plant more carrot seeds to replace the ones that pooped out on me.  The feed store has their tomato plants in, but I have to wait until I'm flush again before I buy those.  Later this week... I hope.  None of Pedro Potato's kinfolk have come up, so I'm getting ready to plant more taters.  :fingers crossed:

Other than that, not much going on here.  I did mention I was a toad, didn't I.  

Pedro Potato and The Produce Posse

So, I went out yesterday and took pictures of where my garden is at right now. First off:

Pedro Potato!

Next:

The Pepper Quartet

And then there's...

The Carrot Gang

I'll leave the pics of the trees for another day. Needless to say, there are a lot of pots on my deck right now. LOL