Why I Oughta...

See that guy in there on the bottom left?  And those other spots on the mesh bag?  That's after just 12 hours of being turned on for the first time.  The instructions clearly state that the bag won't fill up with dozens of mosquitos overnight.  This is a long-term play that takes time.  The summer is long and there's plenty of opportunity for the Mosquito Magnet to fail me, but so far, I'm pleased with the performance.

That's her there behind the cake.  Right next to the Babe.  Who'da thunk she'd be wearing a bikini to her own birthday party outside in March?!?

Last year, we found ourselves coming inside after dusk due to the bugs going crazy with the biting.  That fact, coupled with this crazy warm spring and the dire warnings around the planned mosquito population boom convinced me to take the plunge with the Mosquito Magnet.  Since it is so early in the season, I had to have the guy at Home Depot come by with his forklift to pull the box down from deep storage, but I brought it home this afternoon.  We'll have it set up today and with some luck, we'll have a solution to our problem, and more importantly: our backyard back. I read the reviews and while they're mixed, it seems that if you utilize the Magnet in the right way (it needs to run constantly, not just something you flick on when you are sitting outside), it can effectively disrupt the lifecycle of the mosquitos.  As the box says, there will be some results in just one week, but the larger impact happens 4 weeks (and beyond) after installation.  It runs on a mixture

A few weeks back we went to the Happiest Place on Earth down in Orlando and the Babe met Mickey the Mouse and all of her favorites.  Including the Princesses.  All of the Princesses!

Work on the second in a series of collectible Faux Chocolate Easter Bunnies is underway in the Parrillo household.    This year, instead of hugging/holding a big egg, he/she's carrying it on their back .  I made a mold last night and I'm NOT thrilled with the alignment of the two pieces.  As you can see in the photo above, the noses don't quite line up.  That leads to a bunch of seam problems.  I can either choose to align the noses and mis-align a significant portion of the body or align the body and have a 2-faced bunny.  Decisions, decisions. There's also the question of volume.  Exactly how many bunnies is enough to make?

In this month's This Old House magazine (photo above), I've drawn some inspiration for our 2012 backyard landscape design plans.  I've long desired to install a series of raised beds/planters that will add some dimension and height to our small backyard, and the article about how to "stretch a small yard", which includes a few of said raised beds, is another nudge towards getting these started. In my mind these were going to be more ornate: either with shingles on the sides or maybe even stone veneer.  But, after seeing these simple 6X6 landscape timber walls/boxes, I think I've now settled on going this route.    I can see them going up in a bunch of places in the back, but as with most projects that I take on, there tends to be 'scope creep'.  Have to be careful to not take on too much, so I'm going to (hopefully) just focus on getting one planter/wall installed.  Maybe other ones next year?

The second experiment for this year's garden are these Winter Squash seeds.  They're of the "Boston Marrow" family and - as you can see on the seed packet - they're raised for Pumpkin Pies.  Just 100 days until maturity, so if we want these to be ready in the early fall, I'll have to wait until July to plant.

Last year, my garden had some hits and misses - both in terms of placement/design and selection.  This year, I've decided to pare it back a bit and focus on the basics with fewer experiments.  One of those experiments is going to be carrots.  I've never grown them. I picked up this seed packet at Menards of Touchon Carrots that are described as one of the 'finest' carrots from France .  I'll plant the seeds in Mid-April and just 65 days later (right around July 1), we'll have (hopefully) a bumper crop of carrots.

It is still early March and these Allium in our front yard are way ahead of last year.  I posted a photo on March 30th of last year and they look to be just about the place in development as these.  Another sign of the mild winter/early spring, I suppose.

Per this blurb in the Elmhurst Press , we're gettting a Mariano's Fresh Market on the site of the old Elmhurst Ford.  More choice is good for consumers, so in addition to Mariano's bringing some new things to town for grocery shoppers, I'm hoping that the new competition will keep the Jewel on their toes more - because they're just two blocks away from our house and get (almost) all of our non-Trader Joe's shopping. Here's some video of the annoucement: