37 Join a book club

 10/23/2022:  3 candidates so uncovered so far from artist date.  

1.  Spanish book club-- the things we lost in the fire.  Need to read 7-10 pages/day to be ready by the meeting. 

2.  Regular book club facilitated by Chris the Librarian-- just picked up the book today.

3.  Arvida movie screening at Frida book club-- Gaiman's Coraline, but they said they would have more of the title I prepurchased by last Thurs and still no dice (Sunday).  

10/27/2022: #3  Arvida still has not received restock of books.  offered to refund yesterday.  Mentioned to Ms. Lynelle and she offered to loan me her copy which I read overnight.  Prepurchased $10 ticket to Frida to galvanize my momentum even though it is as 7 (and it is 5:40 now, I am making Ramen for kid and no sign of husband to cover for me).  

... That was cool.  I didn't stay for the discussion because I was so worried about drowsy driving.  Introducing the Wybie friend changed the flow a lot, you didn't feel like this was a bored + lonely kid.  I liked what they did with creating button eyed doppelgangers though and saying the other mother used them to spy, the Gaiman version was a little too vague on what was going on there.  Also liked the eye candy of having some of it set in a big garden plot and having the workaholic parents be in the planting business.   

10/30/2022:  continuing to chug away at 7ish pages/day of the spanish book.  These are creepy slightly fantastical stories while also being more earthy in their observations about what it is like to be a teenager/new parent/etc.  Are they loosely related or completely stand alone short stories?  I see some names and professions repeat, but not enough to be coherent.  What is the "fuego" that is bringing all these ideas together?  some have smoking, burning buildings, etc. but not all of them.  

11/10/2022: finished Las Cosas Perdimos en el Fuego.  more macabre than I expected lots of ironic/perverse endings I didn't really expect.  Lots of relatable details-- having a hot girl-friend, hiding salame in the hotel mattresses, stupid teenage pranks.  Like the gradual realization that the narrator was unreliable or had become so (end of the road).  Also need to look up more geography of Argentina and what "lock down" they meant-- not the pandemic, surely?  something about dictatorships?  Some cultural things-- the murga, arana de tela table cloths, etc.  

11/18/2022:  I did it!  I went to the book club last night.  There were about 7 people there not counting me and the librarian facilitator.  The consensus seemed to be that a lot of these stories trailed off and didn't really seem "finished."  They also talked about a lot of realities of the poor part of Buenos Aires that were kind of gross to think about-- human trafficking for organs, drugs, dogs eating aborted fetuses, etc.  But I did understand some of the anecdotes-- about how a mom closed a car door on her kid's hand and felt terrible even though that was an accident and how to make sense of the pregnant junkie that got rid of both her kids.  Next up: el secreto.  

In other news, I went to Arvida to see if the Coraline shipment had ever come in.  It had, they had sold all of it without telling me about my preordered copy.  I got the refund I was angling for but declined the first time, thinking I was supporting a struggling customer-oriented LBS.  They don't know what the book club chose to read next, I should check their insta in the next week (as I was supposed to do to know when the shipment came in....)  I like the concept of community building but there is something kind of wonky in the execution here.  

#35 Trap and Fix Feral Cats

 10/11/2022-- I saw the all black kitten ("panther") alone in the yard after cuddling with mom and her + first litter juvenile (panda) disappearing for an errand.  Kiddo and I snuck out to the yard in our jammies to try plying it with wet kitten food (picked up at petstore adjacent to swim lesson yesterday), which worked.  Proto-siamese kitten ate a little off a stick while hiding in the bushes.  Panda came back and growl-polished off the rest of the can, but I think this was a good learning experience for the kittens and they are almost independent enough to take in.  Kinda want to keep siamese and all black and then that calico thing has a personality on it and then baby panda is has so eerily similarly markings to panda, it is tempting to keep them as a colony (fixed!) than to drop them at a shelter...  

10/12/2022-- find adult/juv cat doing weird gymnastics against the garage door.  Turned out the kittens were napping in there when I closed it and they got stuck.  3 left.  Could not find the 4th (black & white) and assumed it was hiding elsewhere.  10/13 AM found very distraught black & white in the garage (after dreaming of dead cat bodies under the truck).  All black joined adult/juv that morning for wet food.  catty cat grey and the paws siamese twin were missing but Paws brought them back later in the morning.  

10/16/2022-- determine these are 4-5 weeks old after watching some cat week by week development (and trapping videos).  Called for TNR pricing 2 days ago and it is hundreds-- $325-$663.  Was worried mom would move kittens after Rho snuck through the gate during breakfast and the garage incidents.  She moved them, but not all the way across the street as I feared.  I think they are set up in a snag of Mexican creeper/derelict perimeter fence/orange tree.  Hope that kept them kind of dry.  Tiny Paws (the siamese looking cat) has come out with Panda as the sun came out, but the ground is still very wet.  

10/18/2022-- Hubby complains of 7 or 8 fleas on him working out in the garage.  Rage visit to Home Depot to fumigate.  Have they bitten me?  Don't think so, seemed mosquitoes were a bigger issue.  Then again, I'm not in shorts and I'm not dwelling in one area more than a few seconds.  Moms never can.  So I spend most of the time kid is in preschool calling around, finding a shelter for the cats (which claims they don't handle Santa Ana cats but SAPD says they are under contract and do...)  Finding the least expensive spay provider ($260/cat).  Plan to get a carrier at petco today after the swim lesson.  oof.  But I found 3/4 kittens without supervisors and got almost a full tin of food into just them while petting them.  Tux was very wary and dragged the container she eventually showed up for into the shrubs.  PTSD from spending the night in the garage alone?  Or maybe already skittish and that was why it was hard to find when we were chasing them out of the garage.  

10/21/2022-- have fed 3/4 kittens in carrier twice (baby panda is very wiley).  Started a photo album for them and placement.  Someone interested in fluffy blue eyed cat.  

11/18/2022-- ok, so many updates here.  The fluffy blue eyed cat went up to potential owner who made a vet appointment same day.  The update was it had a host of problems (ring worm, fleas, mites, herniated disc that needed to be operated on, etc.) they eventually found a shelter to bring it to in LA.  I loaded up the other 3 the next day (this would be 11/11) and took them to our local shelter that claims not to handle Santa Ana cats, while Santa Ana says they are under contract with them.  Right.  So I picked a street a quarter mile away where the north side is Santa Ana and south is Tustin and said we'd found them there.  I keep looking for them to be posted on the adoptions page, but no dice.  Hopefully they didn't have big problems too and are just getting a little older before they get posted as the youngest ones listed there are 10 weeks.  

I'm continuing to feed Pause and Panda and the earliest the low cost spay and neuter place could take them is mid-February.  Plenty of time to get them on a routine and comfortable eating in the kennels, right?  Pause doesn't wander far but sometimes doesn't show for meals or just waits outside the crate for Panda to finish.  Waitlisted to be notified if spaces open up sooner.  

1/31/2023-- Low cost spay and neuter could get us in a few days early which is fortunate because I was worried the routine might be disrupted during Hawaii trip and not have a reliable rhythm for the return.  The cats had been chased constantly for about a week and a half by an incredible number of neighborhood Toms coming out of the woodwork.  Pause power backed out of the carrier so fast I didn't have time to close it.  Panda, a bit braver went back in for food and I locked her in.  Bribed Pause with wet food and astonishingly got her all the way in.  $480 and about 10 hours later, I picked them up from the low cost spay neuter place in Laguna Hills.  We were charged for Elizabethan collars which both had pried off before we got home.  Got some pain meds that I dressed wet food with so hopefully Panda is getting some relief.  Pause slunk off to hide without checking out the offering and had most of an abandoned can of cat food with her in the crate all day at the vet...  

2/28/2023 Cats seem to have recovered fully outside of growing out the fur on their shaved bellies.  We're continuing to feed them twice daily...  

#36 Kraftskiva

 So it wasn't until I got into my 5 year sentence journal I realized that we had done something Kraftskiva-esque on the same day (10/10) last year.  It involved tacos and Eevie coming to visit and garden with Fallon.  This session was 3? 4?  lobster tails with varying intensities of spice as caught and prepared by hubby for visiting grandma Kathy and grandad Pete.  I kicked in a make ahead scalloped potato (seemed overly garlicy) and a cheese plate (oops, wanted Black Diamond, but actually selected Kerrygold).  Fortunately, my splurge on 2 lbs of limes and strategic placement by our not-yet-fizzy carbonated water facilitated aquavit beverages.  Frequent trips upstairs to raid husband's next-to-desk ice maker.  We ran out of Hoegarden, but I think this had more to do with the amount of thirst-producing effort involved in trenching the backyard for a pool yesterday.  Didn't drink to the point of silly songs (we did muster a "special day" and "happy birthday" song at preschool) and the only hat donned today was when kid wore a crown for her special day at preschool, but I think this is a pretty good family tradition!  

33. Visit Tanaka Farms

 Completed 10/5.  

Class field trip.  A lot of fun although at a detail level, it sort of sucked.  I parked somewhere where my pregnant copilot couldn't get the door open wide enough to get out, embarrassing!  Two classmates really wanted to help with spraying sunscreen, so I ended up ghost white by the time I could hide it.  Super cute sharing sunglasses with kid's friend on the hayride and hearing all her dad jokes.  The baby animals "petting barn" really made me cough a lot.  Good convo with Nova Scotia grandma of a classmate and about the relative strengths of the local swim schools with the treasury mom over lunch.  Almost got to use the first aid kit when a 2 day kid got a cut that actually bled.  The kid saying "I'm bored of walking" early on in the Upick portion.  Then she tripped in the radish rows and had a meltdown about being itchy.  Cool conversation with another mom in the Upick line about which is harder, IM or being a mom.  Then an emergency fireman's carry all the way back to the entrance to use the portapotties again.  We managed to pick a small handful of bolted cilantro, 4 very small turnips (objective was 2).  Skipped the 4 carrots and 1 onion.  She did find an impressive cute 2 pound pumpkin and carry it to the cashier.  I told her to be gentle like a baby because she was tossing it, but its stem was dislocated before she got there.  Another melt down.  Her carpool buddy had wanted a white pumpkin, but since there were only oranges, she planned to paint hers.  Kiddo painted hers, too, predominantly orange.  As well as the funky gourd we bought.  

General takeaways:  Tanaka isn't all perfect produce, there's a lot of ugly in there.  Growing strawberries in what looks like rain gutters.  

10. Run another Ragnar

 9/25/22- Pitched a Nov '23 Ragnar Trail to T+C in AZ...  

#14 Start a Business- Harried Potter

 So to be clear: I don't want to do the swing-for-the-fences-sleep-under-my-desk-subsist-on-Ramen-play-divorce-chicken-by-neglecting-my-family enterprises my MBA prepared me for.  My objective is more along the lines of Ryan Holliday stoic writer's sense that my ideal day is one where I have a lot of autonomy and control of my time.  A small business might enable that.  The parameters I'm looking for in starting from "magical" and working my way backwards are a small feel-good-leaving-the-world-a-better-place scoped business.  I want some fellowship and company, but not the stress of feeling people's livelihoods are dependent on the health insurance I provide employees and having tough conversations about performance.  Company ideally also with other knowledgeable specialists so I am learning as much as I am teaching/vending.  I anticipate I will need to run a bunch of concepts up the flag pole, prototype, see which ones get salutes.  It might be the case that I am a "slash" entrepreneur for a while, with my irons in a couple fires.    

One concept I'm drawn to is this idea of a Harried Potter.  The mandrake radishes I started the TCP kids on at kid's 3rd birthday.  The aquaponic pumpkin peas this year.  The salsa garden for Lizette and banana pups.  Blending a love for fantasy with a healthy dose of nerdy science and hopefully opening kid's eyes to a world of healthier more regenerative possibilities.  

A next extension of this I am thinking about is the idea of a Harried Potter stand on swap meet weekends.  I don't love the idea of camping the house to sell, but maybe I can find a way to leave plants out and ask for donations of what they think is fair given the unit cost?  I am a little discouraged there is already a Harried Potter etsy shop, but no matter.  This is so small I don't think we'll be at each other's throats.  Plus she seems more interested in the pottery and I am more interested in the botany.  

So swap meets are 4 times per year  and my very rough sketch of what is "seasonable" by date-- 

December 3-4 2022 - lettuce starts, herbs, peas.  Aquaponics kits?  

March 4-5 2023 - lettuce, herbs, peas, tomatoes, peppers, (salsa pots), cucumbers, possibly banana pups, worm bins

June 3-4 2023 - tomatoes, salsa pots, succulents, succulents, shasta daisies, beans, winter squashes.

September 2-3 2023 - marigolds, pumpkins (jack b little), popcorn, peas, natives, chocolate daisies

(9/25/2022) I should get started on doing lettuce, herbs, peas.  Taking notes on how it goes and notes from local lecturers.  Maybe I can stop by the community gardens as well for fellowship or as an artist date.  My hypothesis is that container gardening particularly of latino foods is going to be a point of interest.  

10/10/2022:  Pumpkin Hydroponic Party Favor

Daughter's bday falls in early October, just after her preschool trip to a working farm.  Candy and cheap junk gifts as party favors sort of rub me the wrong way, so we combined these tiny 'ponic pumpkins with slap bracelets, pop it bracelets, stickers to put a face on your pumpkin, and a little led candle to light it up... ok, maybe some of that is junk, but junk kiddo is way more interested in too-short slinkies, cheap defective wind up toys, unworkably small bubble wands, etc.  

Parts list: 

1. 2 packets Tom Thumb peas Baker Creek $8 with 75/pack.  (probably should have done Lillian's caseload and saved $0.50 based on our too-small to be significant aquaponics grow off).  Enough to give about 6 seeds/kid in a 24 pack.  $0.33/unit
2. 24 mini pumpkins $27.  $1.12/unit
3. 50 pack (extras!) 1.8" net pots $13. $0.26/unit
4. 200 1" rockwool cubes (extras!).  $16.  $0.08/unit
5. (optional) tiny plastic bags to hold the seeds
6. (optinal) a tiny amount of fertilizer mix... but I'm not convinced fertilizer dramatically helps given how hard our water is.  An aquaponics experiment for another day.  

So per unit, these work out to: about $2.29/kit which isn't bad as a give away, right?  

11/5/2022 roughly 26 days after planting, kept on a warming tray equivalent dryer, indoors but in full sun, seeing the first pea flower.  

Baker Creek Fall Haul

 32 item order placed 9/14/2022 for $108.84 ...

Cucumbers: Kid's favorite.  Put a reminder on the calendar to start

-West India Burr Gherkin

-Sikkim cucumber- to complete my Nepalese hermitage?  Love the Hooker quote: “So abundant were the fruits, that for days together I saw gnawed fruits lying by the natives’ paths by the thousands, and every man, woman and child seemed engaged throughout the day in devouring them.”

-Dragon's Egg cucumber

-Lemon cuke cucumber

-Mexican sour gherkin- one of the early years at Halladay, we grew these and they were great fun.  Trying to do it again.  

Kales: another kid favorite for "kale parties" at which she apologies for only having one color.  I believe we have a Nero-ish var out there and I vastly prefer it to more conventional frilly kind that seems to shake out a cloud of cabbage flies.  Went for larger, flat leafed vars this time around.  Will try to plate germ in parallel with the lettuces I've got going and possibly sell at Dec swap meet.  

-Thousandhead

-Dazzling blue

-Nero di Toscana

-Japanese Flowering (ornamental)

Lettuce: Branching out from the mix and black seeded simpson (although I should have checked first before ordering more!) this is an attempt to get something growing to avoid Tanamura clamshells in the landfill.  It could also be good for sale at Dec/March swap meets.  

-Black-seeded simpson

-Bronze beauty

-Rocky top blend

-Dock bloody (technically a perennial and more summerish, but MIL's stash was very ornamental last year)

-Chinese Multicolor Spinach Amaranth (also a bolt-resistant summerish var, but looks pretty)

Misc. Cool Veg:

-Lillian's caseload- just to mix it up with the Tom Thumb vars I picked up mostly for a kid party favor and the last season peas we are working through in the yogurt aquaponics.  Mennonite R&D sounded promising, maybe not for this climate, but..

-Chioggia beets- haven't had much luck with beets-- get them confused with radish (freebie!) or don't spread them enough to get much yield.  It is just easier to buy the lunkers in the store.  But these are so ornamental and not available in the store.  

-Radish Japanese Wasabi- hmm, freebie I wouldn't have chosen, but these are quick-growing and they say wasabi itself is tough to cultivate and mostly dyed horseradish anyway.  Worth a shot. 

Herb-florals: 

-Marigolds- probably too late to try these as cool season, but can give it a shot next summer for fall +

-Dahlia cactus flowered mix- love the prospect of these being perennial and hit that 1950's rockabilly hair concept.  

-Zinnia polar bear- the white flowers seemed like a good go with everything cut flower.

-Feverfew- cool that this could be a headache medicine and as a cut flower

-Borage- this was self-seeding and rampant in the San Pedro community garden and I always wondered if I could achieve something similar in our lot.  Also interesting that the flowers are edible and cucumber flavored. 

-Buckwheat takane ruby- have been trying to do more ground cover of buckwheats at a good feeder for native birds and possibly as a grain alternative for us.  This stuff is so pretty it might be even more ornamental than the white variety (though I haven't had much luck with ez mode white variety yet, so...)

-Catnip- because I want to see the mama and panda cat tripping balls

-Thyme- orangelo.  All they had.  Trying to do a homebrew Italian seasoning.  This seemed like it could be a zesty "secret" ingredient.  

-Oregano- wild zaatar.  See above.  

-Marjoram- see above.  I have trouble differentiating these 3 herbs.  One of them has completely taken over a container bed, but I'm not sure which.  

-Basil- Mammolo.  Italian seasoning project.  Annoyed this is not a perennial and throws off the whole balance with proclivity to bolt.  I think this var had reviewers saying it was less likely to bolt. 

-Dill.  Seemed like a good thing to have for yogurty dressings (not that we make many).  Didn't realize I already had bought this last year and not planted much of it out.  

Rando Warm Season Veg: 

-Dishcloth or luffa gourd.  Yeah, I just want to see how these work.

-Pepper Datil.  Freebie.  Extremely spicy.  Haven't put in a hot season veg order, but my general plan was to pick peppers right on the edge of the continuum of sweet to spicy.  Since my record-keeping sucks, I'd figure everything had a little kick but could be used (judiciously) in either domain.  This might mess up that plan, but could work great for salsa garden assembly swap meet.  

#9 Swim in the backyard

9/19/22:  We're doing it.  I should have started this post earlier to have more details on dates, spec, cost.  

So far: kid has picked a tile for the water line that has a detail that matches the gingerbread on the front of the house and everyone loves.  We are trying to match the edge to our Angeles paver border and will probably need to find "ledger" stone for the elevated section that is the spa with 18" rise and a spill over into the pool.  We went with a big integrated jet to make it like an endless pool.  

First challenge was discovering a block on permits because of a city mix up with whether our gate had been permitted.  Husband says he called the city like 17 times to get that straightened out and moved forward.  He thinks they vindictively then questioned whether the AC unit in the plan that we put in in 2013 was permitted.  We have the contract with the HVAC that said they would pull permits if necessary, but no actual documentation of the permit itself.  We'll see what the city wants in order to move forward...

I learned that the plaster needs to cure completely done with water in it for about a month which would make it swimable in February if the timeline stays on track.   

1/24/23: pool has cleared its final inspection.  Peppa advent calendar has turned into a countdown to swimming calendar.  

Trying to work out the resource inputs of this and ongoing maintenance and if we can end up semi-neutral by cutting back in other areas (i.e. less ongoing a/c or whole house heating). 

15'x20' with 3' shallow end and a 6' deep implies 10,800 gallons.  

-how much did it cost to fill?

-how much will it cost to keep filled (evaporation, water changes)

-how much does it cost to heat with natural gas?  with pool water used for solar panel cooling? 

-how much electricity does it use?  how much does the swim jet use?  

3/11 completed!  swam for 30 mins at the 1050 setting.  Now to find a garmin metric that is meaningful without using the wall turns to calculate distance... 

#31 See Gogol Bordello in Concert

 Booked tickets at the Observatory Nov 3, 2022, $193.49 as a husband birthday surprise.  Hopefully grands can still come down to watch the kid that evening.  

Mema encouraged to go early to get a good spot, but husband was probably right that the opener was not a music style I enjoyed and since it is standing room only, the extra standing was rough.  Was glad to pass on crappy booze that was over priced and just made the logistics of getting and keeping a good view harder.  A cougar in a floor length dress with impeccable ash grey blown out bob asking her sugar daddy for more modelo's in front of us just didn't seem that chic, without the bottle, 9/10 chic... with it... I dunno, 4?  5?    

Eugene Hutz seems to be the prototype for a lot of quirky soviet block country characters-- Borat, maybe a bit of the upstairs neighbor who runs a circus that I just saw in Coraline.  He's so lanky.  He's got these marching band pants cropped to low calf, and these leather shoes that just make his feet look implausibly long and narrow.  His Ukraine roots influenced a lot of new material about the war, which it sounds like might not even be new material, might be covers/modifications of fugazi and other bands I don't know that well.  Really liked a lot of his band though-- the pirate fiddler, the pipes BBW, even the quirky latinX second percussion guy + front man that showed up clashing in a polo shirt and fila zip up grew on me.  

Here he is crowd surfing on a marching band drum head while swinging a free Ukraine flag in the encore... 

#32 Follow Artist's Way 12 Week Course

 9/18/2022:  Week 1.  

Main activity:  3 hand written daily pages in the morning (using fountain pen on back porch for fun).  

Artist Date:  Watching September Issue and reading this September's issue of Vogue.  

-Not as inspiring as I had anticipated, but did rearrange the furniture in the front room after? 

9/25/2022:  Week 2.

Artist Date: 9/23 went to Fascination of Orchids show at the Zoo.  Picked up a cute $25 Phalenopsis they said was unnamed but a descendent of Schilleriana.  The parent was purple.  This one has 9 buds, with purple stipling in the center.  My pre-shop notes say Schilleriana smell like roses, which I would say was pretty apt.  Phal it seems also like less sun than the Oncidiums and I'm suspecting oncidiums are getting too much sun on the back porch given their yellow leaves and spotting.  Or perhaps I am watering them too much because these guys say water weekly and fertilize every other week or so to the woman in front of me who said she was having trouble getting hers to rebloom as well.  Hmm.  They also have $10 nodosos they could ship.  Orchid Design is San Jose based ad the couple is Angelic and Dave.  I stopped at Sunset Valley Orchids, struck with what I think was a golden yellow orchid with a pink lip at the start-- learned it was a Cattleya $65 and that it would have more staying power than some other varieties because of the waxy leaves of one of its parents.  Many Cattleya's are fragrant as well.  But when I came back to their booth, it was gone, so I guess he sold it?  Other booths had no banners up about which business they were.  The vendors list also didn't help much because some did not have distinctive enough names to be able to find them through search.  Oh well.  Talking to Dave and Angelic a bit was a vast improvement over the quick tour of the show I did last year and went home intimidated.  woot.  I guess that means I've had Sharry Baby for over a year now?  Wow.  

10/18/2022

Week 5 going into week 6.  Procrastinating on artist date of drawing dirty heads lyrics into a coloring book sort of thing.  Skipped ahead to getting info about 3 book clubs.  Getting sick of the morning pages rants about the same topics.  I do it in the middle of the night a lot and I'm not sure if it is helping or hurting my sleep.  

10/22/2022

Artist date:  Tea time Native deodorant sniffing.  Favorite in general-- lavender.  Also OK-- powder, citrus musk.  Meh-- coconut vanilla (can't smell it very well/edible), wildwood cardamom (can't smell it at all, not woodsy).  This felt like a lame date, but we're working out an arrangement where I do something artistic and indulgent daily versus hoping for some big gesture weekly.  

11/20/2022

I've been slacking on the artist dates...  More art in my life overall, but dedicated time by myself to go and do is hard to come by.  This morning, my artist date was to selfie with all my tops in a well lit area.  Get into a rabbit hole of machine learning color analysis (very inconsistent results, but ultimately sounds like I am a soft autumn).  The tldr on this was that I should avoid bright colors-- which includes black?  That my coloring is pretty neutral, perhaps slightly warmish but could pull off cools too.  Lots of purple-pink-mauve and mossy shades in there which is fine by me.  Personally surprised I look good in brown which a youtuber said was trending this season.  White is very electrically bright, maybe it washes me out? but everything does.  The off-whites look equally OK to me and are logistically easier to launder.  Navy and grey are still favorite standbys.  Red and rusty red for a pop of color.  

Messed around a lot with camera filters and decided I am super not happy with baggy eyes -- perhaps the contour concealers I ordered yesterday will help? general skin ruddiness.  and upper lip hair.  Hmm... Oh!  and I made a second pour over with a mint sprig that has all the lift of a peppermint mocha and hardly any of the calories.  Cannot believe that they are out of peppermint at starbucks and how ravenous people were to buy drinks in the "red cups" last Thursday...  Oh, I'm googling it and these were reusable, which makes sense...  it seemed surprising we were so narcissistic that everyone just wanted a disposable red cup for a selfie...  

12/12/2022 -- well, I've got 100% adherence on writing 3 pages in the morning-- the price for this seems to be that this would be husband's preferred pillow talk time and I sometimes feel like a jerk for popping out of bed and getting started on the to-do list, or when I don't, to resent that decision as I crawl through the day feeling extra behind.  I've been a little more indulgent and less frugal on arty stuff-- the latest project is buying a bunch of scents and starting some candle making experiments.  I didn't do a great job on dedicated "just me" artist dates weekly-- it seems like the family is at a phase where people get sick or the weather takes a turn on those days we had blocked out as mommy break go do an artist date.  But it is gratifying to see the kid taking more of an interest in craft projects.  In general, I'm frustrated that my artistic self seems less accessible than the first crack I took at this program-- sure, I'm a little more in the now, but I didn't unleash a groundswell of possibilities and inspiration the way I vaguely remember my first unblocking.  I am still largely in block and tackle tactical mom-mode.  Cameron has many other books out of this nature, so I think I'll continue doing daily pages as a sort of moving meditation and working through some of these.  

lettuce for days

 As previously mentioned, I have a 4-6 pack/week habit on Tanamura and Antle lettuce.  At $3.99 each, these don't break the bank, but there is the recycling stream to think about with their clamshells.  I also want to be more knowledgable about which varieties I like.   and I think yesterday evening's $100 baker creek shopping spree included some lettuce varieties-- Bronze Beauty and Black Seeded Simpson (already had, check your inventory before seed splurges).  

Today (9/15/2022), we're experimenting (again) with papertowel plate germination, as described by Suburban Homestead.  I love the irony of using grandma's waterford crystal candy dish as a humidity dome for veggies.  Also paired with silicon muffin cups each containing a papertowel fragment and a selection of Botanical Interest TY lettuce mix (purple) and BI Black Seeded Simpson (orange...great, maybe we can have a 2022 grow off when BC's comes in).  Check back in 2-3 days for germination and transplant to containers.  

9/18/2022 lettuces have sprouted.  Moved them into 2 round containers and a 6 pack (red=black seeded simpson, black=mix).  Started to plate germ spinach (orange) and lyrata choc daisy (purple). 

9/22/2022 move the 4 sprouted spinach and 8 or so sprouted lyrata into 2 4" pots -- keeping inside to avoid burn of round one. 

9/24/2022 reload plate germ with spinach (orange) and mixed lettuce (purple)... 

9/27/2022 transplant sprouted mixed lettuce from purple (3 days is almost too late?!).  Replace in plate germ with bloody dock.  Spinach is partially sprouted, could probably go another day or two.  

9/28/2022 transplant the spinach (4 days) and reload with basil.  

10/1/2022 transplant bloody dock (4 days) and reload orange with bronze beauty lettuce.  

10/4/2022 transplant bronze beauty (3 days) and basil (6 days) to indoor aqua tray.  Lower germ on basil than lettuce.  Peas that sit on the dryer seem slightly further along in sprouting-- possibly the heat?  sun aspect?  Moved lettuce and spinach to mister table because running out of space and it is getting v. leggy. (roughly 10 days from transplant).  orange-- cabbage, purple-- kale?  

10/7/2022 transplant cabbage + kale (3 days).  orange-- cilantro, purple-- buckwheat (basic)

10/13/2022 move cilantro (6 days with 1/2 germ rate) and buckwheat (6 days was way too long).  Giving humidor a break to dry out because my "cilantro" bamboo tag was covered with mildewy mold when I went to transplant.  

10/17/2022 let the system dry out a bit but didn't bleach, some mildewy discolor on the silicon containers.  orange-- Astro arugula.  purple-- thousand head kale.  

10/20/2022 transplant-- too long on Arugula (3 days), tried surface casting 1K head kale (3 days) to save the dibbet (?) hassle.  orange-- orangelo thyme, purple-- wild zatar oregano.

10/23/2022 moved blue kale off mister table and into old wine barrel (10/4 start germ, 10/7 transplant).  bonus potatoes in there plus random carrots and shalloty onions?  Also interplant the barrel with what is labeled as Dock, but suspect is actually 9/28 basil.  Maybe it wants to be the next herb pot?  Harvest the last of our persimmons.  

10/25/2022 moved off thyme and oregano (5 days)-- too long and too small a seed, need to direct sow.  Ended up ripping up paper towel to transplant.  Now orange - catnip, purple - dock (try #2 since first was basil).  

11/5/2022 moved catnip and dock (11 days) probably waited too long for getting them established.  Going to take a break from starts because out of potting soil and find I am not checking as early and often as I should

11/21/2022 starting the germinator back up-- watching a Gabriela Camara master class where she's raving about peppers.  I've started some Nardello peppers because the last MC with Alice Waters was raving about them.  Sure, they're not season but the back porch has been burning things and I have been slow to move things out of the starter tray to the yard, so maybe getting a headstart on peppers is the thing.  

11/27/2022 Nardello 100% germination (6 days).  Trying out cozelle squash from a poorly stored 2017 survival seeds set, expecting 0 to low germination.  

11/30/2022 starting germination of all 6 (minimum 4, overpacked for low germination?!) black magic cosmos in hopes of more chocolate scents... 

12/4/2022 3/6 cosmos germinated for transplant (4ish days).  no sign of cozelle germ...  started 2022 Dill Tetra

12/6/2022 2 more cosmos (for total of 5/6ish--7 days) sprouted.  possibly 1 cozelle starting to germ (10 days?) going to continue to observe.  Very few of the dill looking sprouted yet.  

12/11/2022 dill has more than sprouted (5 days) need a flimsier medium than a papertowel.  

12/13/2022 wow, the cozelle are actually sprouting in the potting mix!  trying with 2017 honeydew in the germ tray... 

12/24/2022 very belated transplant of honeydews from the germ tray (11 days) with a surprisingly high take rate for almost 6 year old seeds.  Moved the cozelles into the mud planters outside along the walks in hopes they will harden off and get established with the rain in the forecast.  

12/26/2022 started Robeson tomatoes 

1/1/2023 have transplanted Robeson starts over the following 3-5 days from germination station.  Started West India Burr Cucumber, Amaranth, Datil pepper

1/4/2023 transplanted amaranth (3 days nearly 100% germ).  cucumbers will probably be next.

1/9/2023 transplanted cucumbers and Datil (8 days).  Datil pepper not that impressive germination.  Started Bronze Beauty lettuce.  

1/11/2023 transplant bronze beauty (2 days--perfect).  start echinacea.  Move robeson transplants out of soil and into 2x yogurt pot aquaponics (16 days from starting in germ).  

1/19/2023 moved relatively low germ echinacea and kept the non-germ seeds for a few more days (8 days).  Started Nero kale.  

1/21/2023 a few nero's sprouted (2), giving 1 more day.  most of echinacea up (10 days) so moved to a flat.

1/22/2023 started japanese flowering kale (ornamental), the last 2 seeds of big leaf tong ho, and the last 2 purple magnolia pea seeds (seems to go really high before setting peas)

1/24/2023 transplanted japanese flowering kale (2 days).  started borage

1/29/2023 transplanted borage (5 days-- wow this grows fast with high germ) and 1 tong ho into an aquaponic pot with dill (7 days, underwhelming).  Started mexican gherkin cucumbers

2/1/2023 transplanted mx gherkins (3 days-perfect).  Started '17 boston pickling cucumbers

2/19/2023 back from hawaii and massive seed start haul.  amish paste tomato, matador spinach (aquaponics got overrun with aphids), calendula, dahlia, marigold, zinnia, lemon cuke, dragon's egg cuke, sikkim cuke (joseph hooker famous find) 

2/25-2/26/2023 welp that was way too many things to start at once.  Lots of sprouting, lots of delaying because busy and big rainstorms.  I've got some cukes direct seeded in aquaponics pots, some in soil pots, the amish tomatoes in a big soil pot, the spinach in a  pack soil, and the flowers semi-direct seeded in yard.  (calendula under the pool sink, marigold by the front fender of the truck, and dahlia interplanted with dill along the cinderblock fence).    

10 things I don't waste money on

New challenge to be a bit more mindful with attention investment in social media (aka Youtube): I'm going to take a stab at how I would answer the prompts I find most tempting to click on when they bait my feed...  

Immediate inspiration by Gabe Bult (but also many other minimalist bloggers over the years), 10 Things I Won't Waste My Money On.  Here are my 10:  

1.  New Cars, leased cars, changing cars before the maintenance cost exceeded their utility to us.  Never bought one new and drove it off the lot.  I've always gone the pre-owned route, and when possible, consolidated to a shared vehicle or no vehicle (i.e. Sex & the City early 20-something season, DINK cohabitating with coworker carpool the mid-30's season).  Paradoxically, our last 2 vehicles are worth more now than when we bought them, but I never thought of a car as an appreciating asset and this is probably due to inflation, supply chain issues, and increased incentives to move toward EVs.  ($4K+/year) 

2.  Extra kids.  I never pictured my adult self as having a backseat full of kids.  Sure, there is a little pressure to "cheaper by the dozen" to justify my existence as a SAHM and what some have called the "motherhood penalty," in gender-based wage differences.  But at the end of the day, the one kid we have is exactly what we wanted and we love her to bits.  I also totally respect the folks who choose to be childfree, but would say I massively discounted the personal growth I experienced (not to mention ability to function under chronic sleep deprivation) pre-kid and if you're growth-oriented, seeing how fast a kid learns up close and personal is humbling and inspiring.  Future me may wish there were more heirs to help us through our dotage, but I'd rather take the money we would have plowed into more kids and plow it into building up savings and investing in our health to mitigate those risks as best we can.  Now, arguably, some of this savings is wasted on keeping an aging pack of 2 "fur kids" but hey.   ($24K/year)

3.  In-store grocery and Target shopping.  Case in point: put toddler into the shopping cart, wheel her into the store, in her rear-facing position, she immediately sees a strategically-placed $40 toy on the shelf next to the entrance.  Now to be fair, that toy has kept her occupied for more cumulative hours than the equivalent hourly investment in a babysitter, but was it a necessary purchase?  No.  The same thing happens routinely with Target (and to a lesser extent, pharmacies)-- the only thing that isn't an "LoL Surprise" with those throw away toys she heat-seeks to is their $10 price point.  Both our favorite grocer and closest Target have very affordable/free drive up Pick up services post-pandemic and I take full advantage of them...  Should I be tipping these shoppers?  So awkward to know with instructions to keep my windows rolled up.  Although some sources claim 50% of grocery is impulse, which would amount to $5K per year, that seems high for us-- possibly because there are things a shopper can find that I would skip if I had a melting down toddler in tow-- taking a number at the deli counter, tracking down some obscure new product in one of the many possible fridge cases, you get the idea. ($1.3K/year) 

4.  Books.  I can be a reader without having shelves groaning under the weight of books and then having to figure out where to donate them when they lose their luster, or where to hide the embarrassing ones when we have intelligentsia company coming over.  I've found it is way more satisfying and convenient to constantly have a couple books for me and the remainder of our book allotment for the kid checked out of the library.  Maybe once every couple of months, I'll find something the inter-library loan catalog doesn't have, has a 50 patron deep wait list, or was so phenomenal I want a copy to keep for personal reference, but I've gone from a teenager in the heady days of early Amazon buying about a book a week to buying maybe a book a month.  ($600+/year)

5. Meat.  Full disclosure, our household still consumes, but without me dishing it onto my plate, the overall quantity is reduced.  I've been on and off veggie for most of my life.  The latest bout started with the slaughterhouse shutdowns and grocery store stock outs during covid and I figured "hey, I don't actually miss this that much, let someone else eat my share."  You can completely over-run this savings if you insist on expensive plant-based processed food copy-cat versions of old favorites, weird dietary supplements, etc. but in general, I've found it is easier to start with whole foods that are cheaper and more versatile to combine into varied dishes or serve as sides to carnivorous family members...  And those family members were the first to concede that Impossible/Beyond ground beef is as tasty and more convenient than going full carnivore. ($1K/year)

6.  Booze.  So one of the books splurged on in #4 was Carr's Easy Way to Quit drinking and I haven't quite gone all in on the tee-totaling yet.  Something about being plant-based and blanket-declining cocktails makes me feel like my social life would suffer too big a blow.  But realizing that my metabolism isn't what it once was, I can't drink like a fish and roll out of bed feeling like a rockstar the next day, I started scaling back.  It also helped with eating expensive, not very nutritious snacks, often at restaurant price points and screwing up what could have otherwise been a restorative night of sleep.  So I've scaled me back from being a moderate drinker (1 beverage/night) to maybe one beverage a week, if measured in $3 Franziskaners, that works out to...   ($1K/year)

7.  Mortgage interest.  Another debatable one because we could have invested in the market and taken advantage of pretty low interest rates when we bought the house.  We also take on a whole lot of maintenance costs which might have been passed on to the landlord if we had been renting, sure.  But I can't believe I would have had the discipline to calculate let alone sock away the interest component of our monthly mortgage payment and allocate it expeditiously to performing investments rather than languishing in a no-interest savings account until I got on another personal finance kick and took a hard look at the balances.  I also can't believe that we are in a worse spot having discretion over what remodeling and maintenance we can do on our money pit compared to being assured we would lose our entire deposit on an Irvine Company apartment regardless of how careful we were and scrupulously we cleaned and know that we will have to do this (plus the hassle of moving) repeatedly because the rent was going up another 20% every time the lease comes up for renewal... and to not be able to invest in soundproofing in the interim? brutal.  Pay off the home loan asap and live with the peace of mind your only big ticket costs are going to be property tax and renovation projects.   ($4.7K/year)

8.  Bananas.  This one is silly, but wow, after buying two tiny trees and setting them up on drip lines or laundry to landscape grey water, it seems that we never want for bananas.  In fact, when racks come ripe we are desperate to give away the surplus.  Stick a popsicle in them and cover them in chocolate and they seem to be an effective substitute for the $5 pint-sized containers of ice cream I was inhaling in the middle of the night when I was 3 sheets to the wind.  OK, sure, there is some physical labor with cutting the stalks down (... cheaper than a gym membership?) and their latex will destroy your favorite clothes; I guess there's no such thing as a free dessert.  ($100/year)

9.  House cleaners and Cleaning products.  Most of the savings here comes from deciding not to re-up the house cleaners biweekly visits during covid.  Sure, it means I am spending some of my "daddy daughter play date" time resetting the house and never quite feeling like I was as thorough as a team of experienced people with fresh eyes on our mess would be.  But I'm also not breaking things as much and I'm not having to make a plan to take me and the kid and the dogs out of the house to hide from the cleaners for an indeterminate number of hours on a given day.  That said, the cleaners were totally worth it in the season of life when we were worried about a rug rat being exposed to lots of lead paint dust and I was already OCD wet mopping daily and sheltering in public places most of the day to reduce her exposure, but she's past that phase and we've encapsulated most of it.  As I've gotten in the swing of things with DIY cleaning, gone are the days of specialized window/glass/floor cleaners.  My rotation now is almost entirely white vinegar and water.  OK, maybe some bar keeper's friend, bleach, Bronner's soap, lysol spray, and mineral oil-wax conditioner for butcher block.  And sure, I'm experimenting with brand name solution in the steam vac until I get my sea legs under me and find a diy alternative that won't break the machine.  So things could be simpler.  But keeping cleaning streamlined reduces the overwhelm and desire to over research (i.e. procrastinate) when it comes to house tidying.  I also don't get weird headaches from fragrance in products the "eco-friendly" cleaning team were using--possibly just to signal to me that they had been there?  I don't have an under sink storage area overflowing with partially used bottles of stuff that seem to have slightly overlapping domains to intrigue my inquisitive haphazardly-supervised preschooler.  Life is good.  ($6.5K/year)

10.  Makeup.  Can't say this one was ever a bank-breaker for me.  But the silver lining of finding my aging skin is still prone to breakouts is that I can use very few products on it if I want it to stay clear.  Those products are so super basic, they aren't expensive (i.e. vaseline!)  But this is a truth I find I need to remind myself of frequently as I notice another age line and wonder if there is just some miracle product I haven't tried that would instantly make me look like I had gotten another 4 hours of sleep and added 10 years to my driver's license birthday.  ($1K/year)

Yogurt Pot Aquaponics

 So I have a 4-6 lettuce pack/week salad habit, preferably Tanimura Artisan Lettuce.  I've tried sticking the spent heads in the ground or a water bath asap to propagate more, but haven't seen that work that great.  More like in situ composting for rolly pollies.  Kiddo is a pea fiend and I don't know if this has always been true or is a sign of the changing times but it seems nearly impossible to find good fresh peas in shell in the stores, in the farmer's market, anywhere-- it isn't even clear when they are "in season" because they are so hard to find outside of a couple baggies of stir fry mix in the prepackaged convenience food section.  

So I attended a UCCE MG zoom talk about aquaponics.  The speaker suggested using nut containers painted black, but I figured since hubby already has a 2 container/week yogurt habit and we buy nuts in bulk in plastic bags, we would start with yogurt.  Bonus points, not having to paint the sides to exclude algae growth.  

In the spirit of KISS, I also ordered a 20 pack of rockwool, 3" slotted mesh cups, and wicks $16.99; 1 pound Calcium Nitrate $12.99; 1 pound Master Blend $14.99.  So $45ish crafting outlay, somewhere around $1/ yogurt pot if I had saved up a full 10 weeks worth instead of just 6 containers before getting started since the fertilizers could make hundreds of gallons of solution.  Not factored in: cost of 32 oz yogurt $4.79 (we were buying it anyway), hydrocorn experimental medium (already had some), epsom salt (already had some), sugar magnolia pea seeds $4.29 (already had some we wanted to use before germ rates suffer in the following season).  

 

Right, so 9/4/2022 craft:  

1. clean pots and lids
2. mix 5 gallons of fertilizer in solution (2.5 tsp master blend, 2.5 tsp Calcium Nitrate, 1.25 tsp epsom salt)... also in there a bit of kelp extract I was using to try to presoak the peas
3. "drill" holes in the lids to fit the 3" mesh cups through.  Hubby found it easier to use an exacto knife. 
4. thread wicks through bottom of cups.  I used a crochet hook, snapped a couple but didn't seem to impact the structural integrity.
5. install cups in lids in yogurt containers filled to base-ish of net pot with fertilizer solution
6. install plant into rockwool into net cup (I did 2 pea seeds/wool cube)
7. ... hem and haw about whether this will exclude mosquito access with the rockwool not really swelling to take up the full net cup.  Top dress with hydrocorn.  Continue to doubt self.  Keep inside by orchids to monitor and limit mosquito access until plants start to germinate... 

9/7/2022 (3 days later) sprouts emerge in 4 of 6 yogurt containers.

9/13/2022 (9 days later) 2 containers have double sprouts, 1 has normal single sprout, 1 has a stunted single sprout, 2 did not germinate.  The sprouting ones have enough tendrils and length I will need to find trellised homes for them asap.  Kid enjoys raiding their lids for hydrocorns, big mess.  

I took apart the non-germinating 2 and soaked them in bleach.  I allowed most components to dry, but the rockwool was still pretty wet and bleach-smelling 2 days later.  I've tried reloading these with more peas to see what happens-- they have a few hydrocorns to distinguish from the other 7, but not enough to obstruct plant growth.  Also added 5 more  2 pea each containers for a batch 2.  All of these had a streamlined process:  roughly 1 part epsom: 2 parts each of the other ingredients amounting to 1/16th-ish to 1/8th-ish of a tsp in each yogurt container which is probably still way too dense, but I wasn't going to bother with a 5 gallon bucket and then casting around for where to dump the leftover solution.  Didn't kelp or pre-soak these peas.  

9/14 (10 days later) moved the 4 sprouted containers out along the chicken wire fence line by where the pecan tree had been (removed yesterday).  Within a few minutes, the single healthy sprouted one had been taken apart and dragged to middle of area (dogs?)  will see if it rallies when repositioned and anchored with a cement plant border fragment.  

9/17 both bleach rebooted rockwools have sprouted 4 days later.  3/5 pot germination of the new peas with one double germination pot.  Outdoor plants look ok and twined in the fence immediately, except for the stunted sprout scenario.  

9/22/2022-- I think the weather got too hot for the newly sprouted peas I put in the yard.  One double was completely dried out.  Since some had started twining through the wire fence, I improvised a shade structure in front of them with a box.  

10/1/2022-- heat wave over, have moved the improvised box shade structure and still have a decent number still standing.  Moved the 3 functional indoor starts out to the planter bed along the fence line.  The 2 that got a head start on growing have flopped sideways but might put up more vertical runners.  Also rebooted 1 pot with sugar magnolia and started a fresh one with fertilized sugar magnolia.  Used remaining 4 new pots to start a pea seed grow off in fertilized solution of 2 seeds each Tom Thumb (for '23), lillian caseload ('23), sugar magnolia ('22), and tendersweet ('22).  

10/7/2022-- first place in height: 1 Magnolia sprout.  first place in germ rate/second in height: Lillian caseload double sprout.  3rd place: tom thumb-- one, maybe 2 starting to sprout?  4th place: tendersweet.  Noticed that these are a couple days behind the 2 general ones I reloaded with Magnolia and left on the dryer-- perhaps it warms them a bit?  Or they get more/better sun aspect through that window vs. the east desk window.  

10/14/2022-- reloaded the tendersweet peas to see if they would sprout.  put a piece of mosquito bait in all pots.  The most-bad ones were the ones along the gate.  Not sure if that is closer to foot traffic or because I topped them off with contaminated watering can water.  

10/30/2022-- very unimpressive 1.5 tendersweet sprouts.  prepped 8 more yogurt containers but was out of large net pots half way, so trialing two 1.5" nets in the remaining 4 yogurt containers.  

11/3ish?  put some thousand head kales (4) in the pots.  Also created 3 pots with two 1.5" nets each and a tom thumb pea in them + 1 similar spec f-up that has only one 1.5" net.  None of these have wicking rope or mozzie donut in them.  Excited that the special day pumpkin project has put up a flower.  And that Glen Tanaka mentioned in the MG meeting today that he runs strawberries pretty much vert-aquaponically in rain gutters because there is a disease in the soil that severely shortens their productive life.  

12/28 moved the Nardello peppers (plate germ: 11/21.  repotted to dryer soaking tub: 11/27) into 4 yogurt pots from the yard that had failed-- mostly the pea trial.  Failure was more in execution-- some had gotten buried in mud while the pool was excavated, others had tipped by kittens and not been refilled quickly enough.  So the pea trial is not at all scientific, but the Tom Thumbs seem to be doing the best in small spaces with really compact distance between their leaf nodes.  All of them seem to make a few peas and then begin dying off-- I'm not sure if this is a nutritional thing, a verticulum/bacterial thing, or my general negligence.  I noticed the pots with wicks kept the grow medium more hydrated, so I used those first.  But I also think happy plants quickly grow roots down to the water so these may not be necessary if the pot is filled to the brim at initiation and the plant takes off within a few days.  Also rebooted 2 pots (one with a wick, one without) with 2 of the Albion strawberry bare roots.  Idea would be to gift something like this to Cat and Ivy if we ever make it out to AZ.  

1/19 Nardellos are looking good.  Strawberries are looking good.  Added a 2 hole with Burr gherkin seedlings and a 2 hole with the few dill survivors (Fallon learned they were edible and snacked on them several times a day from the seedling tray).

The Anti-sensory bin

In empowering kiddo to brush teeth with the Brush Monster app overlaying funny filters, multiple styles of toothbrush, multiple flavors of paste, a (very smeared) mirror and shelf in easy reach, her bathroom started to look more like a splash pad.  It seemed easier to rinse by spitting into the potty than getting on tip toe to use the sink.  I *think* the water flow was only going one way (sink->toilet) but worried about the tides turning when she was not being closely supervised.  The current hack is to drop a toilet bowl cleaner in the potty to very clearly distinguish between the water types-- this one indicated it was not toxic to dogs or children (but that neither should be drinking from the potty on a regular basis...)  

Still plenty of room for improvement-- she mostly pretend brushes with her finger without paste while testing out the brush monster filters.  She also mostly throws her wadded up clothes at the nearest parent after using the potty rather than putting them on for herself.  

Bedwetting Hacks

 So we started by bunking a Kura Ikea bed that started as a floor bed-- also bolting on an ikea Trofast staired storage in lieu of a ladder, adding climbing holds, and eventually turning the largest compartment into a hanger space for clothes.  Beyond feeling a little anxious about putting a barely-walker up there with all the safety labels about her needing to be 6, this worked ok in the diapers overnight phase. 

Once she was flat out refusing to wear pull ups, we had some success getting her to just move from a wet upper bunk into a dry lower bunk.  However, as our aging dog started having incontinence issues and our unneutered dog felt this was the perfect environment to lift his leg around, I started to doubt whether the lower bunk was acceptably clean between weekly sheet washings.  I also found that the big fluffy duvet covers took up a ton of space and unbalanced the washing machine which would start hopping around the laundry area with its midnight load.  

So we swapped bulky duvets for 2 lands end cozy plush fleece throws on sale for $13 each.  I also found after repeated washings, the waterproof/resistant mattress protector on the main mattress soaked completely through.  Lots of baking soda, vinegar, and sun treatment with vacuuming for that mattress to control the damage.  Given the incontinent dog, I had large up&up dog pads on hand and started sticking one of those between the mattress and the mattress protectors, just in case.  

So here is our current set up:  mattress+dog pad+emergency sheet+dog pad+mattress protector+normal sheet+fleece blanket.  I clip the mattress protector, normal sheet, and blanket together at the foot of the bed to easily pull it off if wet.  I keep the backup fleece folded at the head of the bed (with hand towels because wet hair makes an unacceptable "splatter" on the pillow).  

Stuff that still isn't great-- the dog marking situation.  that she needs to have someone read to her until she is completely asleep.  there are still a lot of stuffies and other stuff to move in the middle of the night (but putting them in a grandma beanbag poof keeps them out of the way).  that she needs to have a goldfish snack in bed and then spills it and creates intractable grease stains on her sheets.  

10/9 still bedwetting.  Have discarded the clip system.  Have added a second layer of lasagna, so now she could wet the bed 2x and still have somewhere dry to stay.  Ordered Goodnites Moana and will see if she is willing to wear them.