thank david suzuki (my version of god) things are sprouting!

 passing on my love of Coleoptera!

 poor guy was on his way out

 first time i saw him want bites of a sandwich so i just gave it to him! his taste in food changes drastically from week to week

one of the 3 zucchini seeds i planted has started! all i need is one!

I noticed the seeds on the ends of the baby shoots and i think these are the spinach rather than the lettuce.  the smaller round leaves could be the lettuce. oo i just googled it, it is the lettuce!

some of them are quite large already

these are carrot seedlings and that big thing might be a weed again...

put some eggshells down around my tomato plants..supposed to provide nutrients and ward off slugs. my poor tomatoes...not sure how many are going to make it. i didn't "harden them off" properly...they got bleached in the sun. i was leaving them out too long too soon. mostly out of forgetfulness and being busy and scatter brained. i still have a couple in pots inside that i can try again with if these all die

leeks

onions

then i saw a few flying insects landing on the garden...and decided to get my tulle out to protect at least some plants. the wire was from the dollar store and this stretch of tulle was 8 bucks so I think I will get 3 more for the other rows and cover them all like this

I start my experiment tomorrow! We are still doing it, just without the tanks. Instead we gave the ammocoetes a refuge to hide under and sectioned off the tank so that they can either swim around in this small area or hide under the refuge. The swimming time and their behaviour before and after the stimulus is released will be the deciding factor as to whether they can be behaviourally controlled by chemical repellents

after running trials with tanks and no refuge and sand and no sand and lights on and lights off we finally came to the conclusion that this was the best way because they felt safe under the refuge AND we can see them, which was a problem in even 2 cm of sand...they would dig in and completely disappear.

I will most likely be defending the fact that this experiment is artifical and not what they do in the wild, but all we are looking for is a VISIBLE response to a chemical repellent, and this is the only way to find out. Many experiments have tested animal responses in artifical environments and been published, such as one my professor showed me about crabs and their response to predators, which was conducted in a large plastic tank with no substrate.

its JUNE?!

Damien is catching my cold, poor guy. I guess I should have been limiting my physical contact more than I already was. I took this when he was already ill. 

Got through an over 30 hour work week this week, my cold is fading slowly, and I still don't know what I am going to be doing for my honours experiment. My professor said he is "thinking about it." If I don't do the one he originally had for me I think I will get to do one based in a stream and deal with animals in the wild, which would be interesting, but I don't want to get my hopes up. Also, it would be a waste for my prof because he spent a chunk of grant money on a failed experiment.

 He loves doing everything himself, including self shots with my phone.

He made me a heart

The view over his cat, Nancy (she is named after the main character in Nightmare on Elm Street. My  cousin and I saw the remake together as huge fans of the original series and were so disappointed we were angry! I usually like any horror flick to a degree but this one was terrible. So sad too because I love Kyle Gallner, who was one of the stars in it. Anyways, I ended up visiting my husband's cousins with him later that night and they had kittens to give away. Of course, I came home with one. Damien was only a few weeks old.)

More lettuce or spinach is slowly sprouting. Since applying the garlicy spray, the cayenne pepper and coffee grinds there have been no more dog prints in my garden

When my radishes are finished coming up I will have to move them into better spacing patterns

Work fuel

Yes, like so many other people these days i suffer from mild panic attacks. I have read the first half of this book called "discovery" which solidifed my suspicions. reading the symptoms and realizing i was finally diagnosed was a relief. i have always been a "worry wart" and somewhat of a "negative nelly" in that i imagine the worst almost in an effort to prepare myself for it if it is going to happen, instead of looking on the bright side of things. i was having panic attacks at night. my mind would race thinking about something negative that happened that day, bad news, or money issues and my heart would start pounding, i'd get chest and stomach pains and would have to sit up in the living room, exhausted but full of adrenaline, trying to take my mind off of what was bothering me with late night food network shows. one time it was so bad that i was up until 5am, frustrated and crying because i could not calm myself down and i didn't even really know why i was so upset! they have actually decreased since i bought this book and simply realized i was one of many with this problem. i haven't even read the "recovery" section yet for how to deal with it, but am finally finishing it now that i have some time.

This book is full of real life examples that this doctor has collected over the years and is helpful because every child is different and there are so many little tips in each individual story that you can try with your child if you hit a snag training. There is no set way to train and i think this book covers everything, including what NOT to do, how to train developmentally challenged children, children who attend daycare or are cared for by multiple people or households, and ways that busy parents can fit in training. I am personally going to start doing the steps for busy parents. Damien will soon begin wearing underwear with no diaper for 2 hours a day, and visiting the potty 2 or 3 times during this period. You then slowly increase the amount of time spent in underwear if the child responds well.

Damien is 2 and a half and definitely in his terrible twos.

I bought this book a year or more ago as I have been wanting to start a garden for quite some time but always had school or summer jobs to worry about which took up all of my anxiety ridden time haha. It has lovely drawn diagrams of plants and how to do gardening activities from planting to propagating cuttings to transplanting trees to maintaing and pruning, to planting hedges and building things like cold frames, rock gardens, and installing trellis'. Very interesting and easy step by step instructions with diagrams.

A lot of books I buy have mostly common sense explanations that many people wouldn't need books for, or things that you can find on the internet but I prefer having my own hard copy that I can refer to and remind myself with.