Life

Spring is a season of renewal, and while the environmental changes aren't as big here as I'm used to up north, I'm trying to appreciate the subtlety. I thought this would be a good time for a "garden" update!

I had originally planned to plant more, but since I'm moving back to MN this summer (thanks to your help at my Indiegogo campaign!) I'm keeping it simple. Jordan will have to take over when I leave.

The strawberries and rosemary I planted back in December are doing well. You may recall I initially had some trouble with the strawberries.

Freshly planted

A few weeks later

I picked off all the browning leaves and checked on them frequently. I also brought them inside on the rare night the outdoor temperature dropped below 40. They were pretty small with all their big leaves gone, and I thought maybe they were suffering from a nutrient deficiency. Either that, or they were just shedding old leaves for winter. I'm leaning toward the latter. Having never grown anything in this climate before, I didn't know what to expect.

Today

I still get a dead leaf here and there, but for the most part they're doing great! I've been pinching the flowers off the little one (it's so painful!) so it can recover a bit more, but I'm letting the big one produce. It gave me one weird looking berry with a brown spot a few weeks ago, and I thought maybe it was because it was touching the dirt. I put down a layer of aspen shavings and that seems to be working well!

Tiny but tasty!

I should have clipped the flowers on the large plant too, but I was impatient. It has a few larger berries growing now, though I know it would help the roots establish better if it didn't have to focus on producing fruit. I'm a harsh mistress.

Our Sassy rosemary plant is doing well too. I didn't realize how much it had grown until I looked at this old picture!

Freshly planted

Today

Huge! The plant hasn't been entirely problem-free though. I had an issue with white mildew a couple months ago, likely due to over-watering. I took the plant inside and physically washed each affected leaf to get rid of it, and then I sprayed it with a watered down milk solution on a sunny day. Apparently milk can act as a fungicide when hit with sunlight. It's doing much better now, though I may have let it go a little too long without water as some of its leaves got a little crispy. I cleaned it up and gave it a good soak before I took that last photo. (If you click the picture and make it big, you can check out a lady's super long colorful hair.)

A couple months ago I brought garbage down to the dumpster to discover someone had left a whole bunch of  used plant pots and planters there, mostly terra cotta. Jordan accompanied me and we picked out a few.

Free pots!

About six weeks ago I decided to add another little something to our balcony. Our onions got a little old and one of them had a nice healthy sprout, so I did a little Googling to find out if it was possible to plant it. According to what I found, it's possible to replant and eat the same onion. I followed the instructions and stripped off the onion layers until I was left with just the stem and roots, and planted it in one of the nicer pots we found. 

I don't know if I'll actually get an onion, but it's doing well and growing like crazy! There appear to be two stalks. Does that mean I could get a double onion? I know so little about this, but I'm learning!

A couple weeks after I planted that one I had another onion sprout, but rather than plant it right away I stripped it down and set its roots in water. I changed the water daily for almost a week because I didn't make time to plant it. I think it got a little shocked going from water to soil, and it's not doing so well.

After taking this photo I moved the plant off the grill, just in case the sun has been heating up the metal too much. I don't want to cook the onion until after harvest! Maybe if I keep watering it it'll perk back up.

I can't wait to do more gardening in the future. The best way to learn something is to do it!

Moving

Thanks to the support of some of you wonderful people, even if I don't make my Indiegogo goal I should have enough (even after 9% is taken) from the campaign to move back to MN this summer. I might have to crash on my parent's couch for a while, but if that's what has to happen, we'll make it work.

At least I'll be home!

That said, I'm still working to promote the campaign in hopes of reaching the goal. If you receive my home town's local newspaper you'll see an ad in the next one with a link to the Indiegogo page. I'm hoping to generate a little local interest from people who might know me and my folks but are not following me online.

I don't have a moving date set yet, but I'm planning for June to give me enough time to get done what needs to be done. I want to at least make sure all fursuit work is complete so I don't have to haul unfinished costumes and fur back north with me, so they're my first priority.

The Minnesota move will be accompanied by another move of a different sort. When I'm "back in the northwoods" this blog will come to an end. Why? I'm moving to Wordpress and building a website.

After literally years of saying I would, I'm finally building a professional presence on the web. I've seen just how important it is to have a website if you want to make any kind of income online and build a brand for yourself, and I'm excited to start building it. I've already purchased my domain, but I'm holding off on going public with it until the site is more than a skeleton. Exiting stuff though!

I spoke with my mom the other day and she's doing alright. She's been sick from the chemo and has lost her hair, but she apparently has a few fabulous wigs to wear that she was able to pick out for free. My dad almost thought there was a strange woman in the house when he saw her wearing one when he got home from work haha. She's got a fighting spirit, and hopefully this summer she won't need to continue the chemo and she can do radiation instead. That still means a lot of trips to Duluth, which means four hours of driving there and back. 

I'm really hoping I'll be able to afford a used car in order to help with that. The car I was driving in MN was my dad's old, rusty Oldsmobile. It likely can't handle many more Duluth trips. With the rusted out bottom I'm afraid to drive it long distances. If my Indiegogo hits its goal I should be able to afford a down payment on a decent used vehicle, but I know the costs don't end there. Insurance and gas add up quick, so I'll be taking a second job in addition to my work-from-home writing once I'm back in MN.

Big moves, big changes. They're coming. I'm ready. You can help.

Snakes are my livestock

I was cleaning boa constrictor bins today and I started thinking about homesteading (I do that often), and I realized that these snakes are my first livestock. I may not be raising them for food, but I am going through all the other motions. I feed them, clean them, give them water, mist them to keep their humidity up, take them out for exercise, treat them when they're sick, strategically breed them, and sell their offspring. 

I have purposely put male animals with female animals and brought new life into the world. I didn't realize it until now, but breeding boas has been an odd sort of introduction to the lifestyle I most want to live. Someday alongside boas I'll be breeding chickens, goats, rabbits, and possibly pigs and reindeer. 

Snakes aren't most people's first pick for pets or as animal breeding projects, but that's partly why I was drawn to them. I have a passion for misunderstood creatures and I celebrate their place in the world. Snakes have had a bad rap for far too long, and so have rats, spiders, insects, bats, and to a lesser extent wolves and skunks. All of these creatures are beautiful. If people could get past their irrational fears and learn a little bit about the animals that scare them, they probably won't be so scary. If you let your fear turn to hate, that's unfortunate because you're missing out on a fascinating part of our world. Sorry for the mini-rant, but I'm passionate about the topic. 

Admit it, he's cute.

Ever since I learned what a snake was I enjoyed looking for them and attempting to catch them. I brought a garter snake to show and tell at school in an ice cream bucket with holes poked in the top when I was in 2nd grade. When I got my corn snake Nathara in college (November 2004) I was smitten.

I still have her. :)

Nathara was a great introduction to keeping snakes and provided me with some great lessons, such as the fact that baby snakes can disappear in an instant. I lost her in my dad's Suburban after she sneaked (snaked? haha) out of my sleeve on the way home from college, and she was found in a rolled up poster tube three days later. Or rather, our dog Rosie found her on the grass after she fell out of said rolled up poster. She was cold but otherwise fine!

Boas are my true snake love though. They have personality and style, and while some subspecies and localities can grow to 10+ feet, they're not unmanageable and tend to tame easily. Mine are considered dwarf localities originating from Southern Mexico and Central America and they tend to be darker and not get as big. I love all the different color and pattern morphs there are, with many more yet to be discovered. The idea that a new, never before seen morph could come out of a boa litter is very exciting, but baby boa day is exciting no matter what.

You may notice I said litter and not clutch. Boas give live birth, which is another plus in my opinion. If I bred corn snakes like Nathara I would need to get an incubator, but mama boa grows her babies while coiled up by the heat source in her enclosure for four months. It just seemed easier.

I'm not breeding anything this year, even though my male boas really want to and I feel bad denying them. I don't want to ship pregnant snakes and have to worry about babies this summer when I have moving to think about. My finances are still rocky so I'm working on downsizing what I can before I head north.

If anyone is interested in a boa as a pet, I have care sheet information available as well as baby snakes for sale. I can ship to any of the lower 48 states as soon as weather allows! Feel free to toss me an email - aurorawolf@gmail.com. They start at $100 (includes the $50 shipping fee).

Snakes are wonderful, misunderstood creatures and I will do what I can to spread their beautiful message.

Tiamat

Dreaming

Jordan and I are sitting on the back porch, sipping home-brewed apple cider and looking out at our property - a modest homestead on eight acres next to a forest. A few chickens walk about the grass, picking at bugs and other tasty things they find. They're entertaining to watch - "Farm TV" they call it. I don't even miss cable. The sun is going down and they'll be in their coop for the evening soon. I'll need to latch the door to keep any weasels or foxes from stealing our food.

I finish my cider and tell Jordan I'm going to do the last round of chores before the sun goes down. I get up and my dog, a beautiful Llewellin setter, also gets up and accompanies me on my rounds as he always does. I head over to the shed to get food and water for the rabbits. We have several meat rabbits and a couple pets. I check and refill their food and water as necessary, and give them a few handfuls of dandelion greens. On the backside of the shed are two honeybee hives, and I take a moment to watch a few bees come in from the fields, legs full of pollen. 

I make my way over to our small barn and the goats greet me loudly in their run, ready for supper. I feed them and give them fresh water, and add some more hay to their bedding area. It's going to be chilly tonight - even summer nights in northern Minnesota get cold. 

On the other side of the barn is Officer Bacon, our big female breeder pig and her young ones. I fed them earlier when I brought out the day's kitchen scraps, so I just lay down some fresh hay and give the big girl a pat on the head. She's been an amazing mama, and while her young will be raised for food and sold, she'll always have a place here. 

I close up the barn and meander past the edge of the meadow toward the chicken coop. Wait, is there something out there? Someday soon there will be reindeer on this hill, but in the fading light I can make out the shape of a whitetail doe and her fawn. They're a beautiful sight, but I can't help but think of hunting this winter. We still have a few steaks in our freezer from Jordan's 8 point buck last year.

I check the chickens in their coop and everyone seems to be settled. They have plenty of water and food, so I latch their door and bid them good night.

Walking back to the house I pass the garden. Everything is doing well, though I make a mental note that I need to pick some strawberries in the morning for breakfast. Soon I'll have enough to sell at the farmer's market, but not yet. I pick one and eat it, enamored by the sweet, fresh from the earth flavor. 

Walking back up the steps I can hear Jordan inside playing a video game, but otherwise the farm is quiet. I call the dog, distracted by an interesting smell next to the deck, and he bounds up the stairs and comes inside with me. It's time to get some art done.