of course, martha stewart would have thought more about water displacement.

here's an update to the birdbath blog/how to.

so, you know how there's the optional top bowl, and the optional fountain? if you go that route, there's one more step you need to take.

either, you need to glue a PVC sleeve (about 2 inches tall, 1 inch in diameter) around the drainage hole of the top bowl, to make the water level high enough to keep the pump submerged,

or

get 2 sets of 1 inch tall nylon bushings, and use the caulk to glue them to the 1/4 inch bushings you've already attached. put the pump in the bottom tray, and position the top bowl over the pump, so that the water squirty bit pokes through the hole. attach your fountain head.

i'll have pix of this stuff later, after our trip to see the out of town grandfolks.

in the meantime, here's a few action shots of the pump just in the bottom tray of the birdbath (testing to make sure it works. it TOTALLY does.)

what you can learn on the internet

it's interesting. i google all sorts of stuff (in fact, i might even be addicted to the google.) from baby soap ingredients, to amino acids for treating depression. i figure, i've learned more in a few years on the internet, than i did in most of my formal schoolin'.

since i had peanut, i've gotten involved in a few 'mommy boards', like babycenter, and mothering. (mostly mothering these days. more hippies, and a much wider selection of information.)

from mothering, i learned about researching vaccinations, not circumcising boys, breastfeeding till they're old enough to tell you it tastes like strawberries, and not beating the shit out of your kid. there, i found a community that gave voice to those things i was thinking, but never seeing put into practice in my social circle (since i was the first to get knocked up, that makes sense.)

anyway, after peanut was about 9 or 10 months old, i finally ventured out beyond the 'baby' forums. i discovered a 'dreadhead' tribe, and lurked there pretty intensely until i decided to lock. (and so now i'm getting to my point.)

today, i did a deep clean on my locks, soaking them in apple cider vinegar and baking soda, tea tree oil and lemon juice. (this gets any shampoo build up out, which is nice, since even 'residue free' shampoo leaves some reside behind.) anyway, i've done this 3 or 4 times over the lifetime of my dreds, but i've never bothered to write that shit down. so i ventured back into the dready tribe, to find the proportions to make the soak.

and here's what i learned on the internet today.

i learned that some significant others are assholes, and won't 'let' their partners have dreadlocks. or, they keep quiet during the locking process, and then make passive agressive snarky remarks about the immature locks.

i learned that even though sometimes, i want to strangle gene for being too nice (esp. when it comes to his job), i am really, truely fortunate, because i get to spend the rest of my life with someone who's biggest 'flaw', is being a sweetheart. because not only does he say nice things about my hair, he helps me maintain it, and he did all the backcombing and stuff to get them started.

so, on the internet, i learned one more reason why i love my babydaddy.

damn hippies.

so, spring has sprung, and all that. we're in the process of pulling our yard together, and raking up all the leaves from over the fall/winter. (and there are a LOT since we have like, 10 oak trees.) rather than taking all these leaves to the dump, and taking up more than our fair share of landfill, we've decided to start a compost heap. we figure, since we've got half an acre, if we do it at the back of our property, it's not a huge project, we can just, literally, make a heap. i learned today, that, in addition to fruits, veggies, and coffee, you can compost paper towels, shredded black and white newspaper, toilet paper tubes, tea bags, leather watch straps, and all sorts of other totally random stuff. which is awesome. i mean, we use a dishcloth, mostly, but for grody bits, like chicken juice, i do revert to the papertowels for wiping stuff up. so, it's nice to know that i can do that, and then compost the paper towel, thus keeping it out of the landfill. woohoo!

and my mom is back to doing some gardening, so today, she and peanut planted 3 new azalea bushes out front. peanut is turning out to have quite the green thumb. i'm sure this makes my mom happy, since it totally skipped a generation. (altho, to that end, my cacti from last mothers day aren't dead yet, and we got some more over the course of the year, plus my aloe is actually, like, bigger, and even needed to be repotted. yay!)

and in the process of learning about compost, i discovered rainbarrels. now, the commercial ones seem absurdley expensive. it seems to me, that if i can find a plastic barrel, like those old batter barrels, with a lid, then we could get a plastic shower drain thingy, drill a hole in the lid, fasten the shower drain to it, and put a spigot down at the bottom of the barrel. we've got left over caulking from the birdbath, so i'm betting we could do the whole thing for less than like, 30 bucks. anyway, the idea, is that you put the bucket under your downspout, and when it rains, the water is caught in the barrel, and then you use that for watering your plants, washing your car, watering the compost heap, washing off outdoor furniture, or whatever. since we're actually, like, using the yard and stuff, i can see the benefit of having some non-hose water to do stuff with. i like my 17 dollar water bill, and i'm all about keeping it that way, right?

plus, this last week, i went through peanuts toys. cuz, really? she had a TON of shit. i seperated out the baby toys that we can reuse with niblette, and then purged THREE giant green garbage bags of toys and books. the salvation army is going to need a whole corner, i think. the interesting thing, is now that she has less stuff, she plays more. aaaaaaand, she's better at cleaning up without step-by-step instructions now. no more 'pick up the elephant. put it in the basket.' now she knows she's got a snuggly toy basket, and a hard toy basket, and a blocks basket. and she puts stuff away where it goes! hurrah! (she does still make me play bananaphone while she cleans, tho. and so i still want to rip my ears off and stick them in a blender. but at least her room is clean.)

and, round of applause, i'm caught up on my laundry! (thanks mom!) i moved the uncomfortable-while-pregnant clothes out of rotation.

oh! and, gene's mom LOVED her flowerpots. which, now that i type that, i don't think i blogged that project. for mothers day, peanut painted some flowerpots (and we decoupaged one, but i'm attached to it, since it was her first decoupage, so i kept that one) and we went to lowes and she picked out the flowers she wanted to send to her gram. we're supposed to be going to visit them in june, so maybe she'll get to help plant them.

all in all, i'm feeling the crunchy love vibes. (and i think i'm nesting. but shh.)

so now, i leave you with a random assortment of pictures, focusing mainly on yard work, and flowerpot creation. but some cuteness has been added for good measure. cuz, who can resist that grin?

martha stewart is so jealous. (so's her mom).

some of you have been privvy to my incessant rambling this last month, about solar fountains, terra cotta pots, and the best waterproofing stuff that won't kill birds. and finally, after hours of internet research, painting, decoupage, waterproofing, and batting my eyelashes at gene so he'd do the measuring/centering and the caulking, the birdbath is done. here is a combo blog/tutorial, in case you feel inspired to make your own.

first, you need supplies.

2 terra cotta trays. (available in the plant dept. at lowes and other fine stores.)
4 8 inch terra cotta pots. (also lowes.)
1 optional dish garden style tapered bowl with drainage hole.
--if you go with the dish garden, also get 1/4 inch nylon bushings (4) (also lowes)
acrylic paint
waterproofing sealant
rubber gloves
construction adhesive (caulk, preferably clear)
foam brushes
*if you choose to decoupage, you also need groovy paper, mod podge, and foam brushes*
10 lb free weight plate (optional, but recommended if you live in tornado alley or hurricane country like i do.)

okay. now that you've got your shit together, here's what you do.

paint your trays and pots. i used 1 bottle of yellow acrylic paint, watered down with maybe 1/4 cup water, to give it a texturey wash sort of look.



if you are artsy-fartsy, you could like, paint flowers or something. i am not artsy, so i just painted them yellow, cuz it feels springy. we used a combination of paper-towels and finger/hand painting to get that texture.

after you get the stuff painted, decide if you're going to decoupage the inner tray and optional bowl. if you are, get your groovy paper, and cut out little squares, or whatever. we used squares of about six coordinating patterns. get your mod podge, and your foam brush. paint a little mod podge in the tray, stick the paper down, and repeat. then, when you've got it all down where you want it, go over it again with the mod podge. let it dry (while it's drying, if you chose the optional bowl topper, start decoupaging that.) and then add a second coat. make sure you press out all the air pockets.




once you have it painted and decoupaged, and everything is all nice and dry, (24-48 hours, depending on how humid your climate is) get your waterproofing sealant, rubber gloves, and foam brushes. (not the same brushes you decoupaged with. clean ones.) make sure your little ones are occupied for at least 45 minutes. (i recommned noggin, for all your brain deadening needs.) paint the waterproofing sealant on the insides and outsides of the pots. paint each piece once, and then go back and do a second coat. use even strokes, cuz some of that stuff dries so you can see the brush strokes. let it set up for 24 hours. (make sure if you leave it outside, that it's not going to get rained on. try keeping it in a garage, or shed, if possible, just in case.)

then, take your top tray and one 8 inch pot. use construction adhesive (caulk) to attach the open/rimmed edge of the pot, to the center of the tray. (this is where measuring comes in handy. find the center in whatever way works for you.) set those 2 pieces aside.

take your bottom tray, and (if using the optional weight plate for a weighted base, use your caulk to glue the weight to the INSIDE of the tray. wait at least 30 minutes (or however long your caulk advises) before flipping the tray over.) take one 8 inch pot, and find the center of your tray. caulk the open/rimmed edge of the pot to the tray. take another 8 inch pot, and caulk the closed end/bottom of the pot to the closed end of the pot on the tray. then, take your last pot, and caulk the open/rimmed edge to the open/rimmed edge. and then caulk your top pot/tray (the bit that you started with, and caul the closed/bottom to the closed bottom.

so, it goes upside down tray, upside down pot, right side up pot, upside down pot, right side up pot, right side up tray. let your caulk set up for at least 24 hours, away from rain. (shed or garage, or, cover it with a tarp.)

if you decide to do the optional bowl, caulk the 1/4 inch bushings to the bottom of it, to allow water to be in both the bowl and the tray at the same time.

fill bowl with water. wait for birds.