Signs of Life

My dogs own my deck.

At my house, the arrival of summer means a spontaneous doubling of living space: my deck becomes the brightly-lit reading, dining and crafting room. My backyard fire pit becomes a second kitchen. My clothesline becomes my de facto dryer. My front steps become my phone booth (real classy like, I know). And on and on.

But I’m not the only one. My dogs are also outside with a vengeance, barking at defenseless older people as they walk by and scavenging for maple tree helicopters and rocks as the mood strikes. They’ve also claimed the deck chairs as their own (see photographic evidence, above).

But that brings me to the matter at hand: Sharing the backyard with Spot isn’t always a seamless endeavor, especially if the human family members want a garden and the canine family members treat the yard like an all-you-can-eat-buffet. There’s also the matter of safety for both pets and humans.

So here’s some advice on how to have a beautiful backyard/extra summer living space that’s also fido-friendly — and safe for all:

1. Say NO to pesticides — Cancer risk is much higher for pets in homes where pesticides are regularly applied to the lawn. Remember, they are putting all four paws and often their noses directly into whatever goes on the grass. They’re also bringing the toxins inside with them (and so are you if you step in the lawn) where the toxins become dangerous indoor dust that everyone in the family breathes in (and even more is getting tracked onto furniture or the bed if you let your dogs lounge in those spots). Avoid chemical lawn treatments and embrace natural weed control instead, including:

• Corn gluten meal — inhibits seed germination and is a pre-emergent weed killer. Apply in early spring before weeds come up.
• Mulch — mulches help control weeds naturally, but avoid using cocoa bean mulch in any area where dogs have free rein. Cocoa is toxic for dogs when ingested.
• Rock gardens — Rocks as mulch are also pretty, and are generally safe for Spot. But if your dog is a serious backyard grazer, avoid them — especially if the rocks are small and your dog is small (big things happen fast in small intestinal tracks). Eating too many rocks can cause intestinal blockage and, in some cases, death.
• Let your yard go natural — this is perhaps the healthiest (and simplest and cheapest) option for your personal health, for your pet’s health and for the environment.

2. Un-treat your lumber — Treated lumber is loaded with nasty chemicals, including arsenic, that can leach into the dirt where Fido digs and sometimes snacks. Stick with untreated cedar for garden borders or fencing.

3. Fix-up burned grass naturally — The backyard doubles as your dog’s bathroom and you can often tell exactly where they go #1 because of the burned grass. Apply Gypsum to the to the affected areas to help minimize burns. You can also try putting a little brown sugar on the affected area and watering. This is said to help attract worms, who in turn help aerate the soil and improve drainage. (Note of caution: dogs may want to snack on lawn care additives that smell like, or are, food. So apply before a big rain or water well to keep them from grazing on your soil amendments.)

4. Plant dense — Dogs have bad depth perception and can’t always see single plantings (which means they are more likely to tear through them). Plant dense to help Spot see what’s coming as he tears around the yard. (Note, this will not help if your dog is simply naughty.) Another bonus: dense plantings naturally inhibit weeds.

5. Get a motion activated sprinkler — Most dogs hate getting wet, so a great way to keep dogs out of backyard gardens is to put a motion activated sprinkler in the bed and wait for Spot to saunter over and lift his leg. He’ll get soaked and saunter off and your garden will get a nice mist. Kill two birds with one stone!

Dolly brings happiness wherever she goes.

Some psychologists have hypothesized that we’re often so busy looking for the “big” happiness in our lives (you know, that abiding feeling of contentment, success, fulfillment and security that will make everything okay forever but which never arrives? Yeah, that one.), that we miss all the little happinesses that accrue every day, and, in the process, further erode our chances of feeling happy.

Nasty cycle.

So I think Fridays should be Small Happiness Appreciation Day, when we list out and celebrate the small, good things that brighten our lives beneath the radar.

I’ll start.

1. Burt’s Bees Lip Gloss (color: cocoa) — It’s shiny and dewy and all-natural. Plus, it’s cheap and whenever I put it on I feel like a movie star. (Pretend you don’t know that Burt’s Bees is now owned by Clorox.)

2. Cedar Summit Chocolate Milk drunk straight from the bottle — This incomparable chocolate milk comes in an old-fashioned glass bottle. Every time I take a big swig from the bottle, I am filled with pure, kid-like joy. (Also, if you drink Cedar Summit before bed, you will dream the primary-colored, Golden-Retriever-filled dreams of a third-grader all night long.)

3. Chai — Chai tea manages to simultaneously taste like your rural country home, Nepal, and Thanksgiving. I like mine spicier and earthier than most commercial brands (too sweet for me). If you do too, you should try Mischief Maker Chai. A mug of Mischief Maker warms the soul.

4. Comedy that makes comedians laugh — I love watching professional comedians crack up. These are comedy pros, and when something amuses them, it doubly amuses me. Watch Ellen Degeneres bust up while she talks to Gladys from Texas (if you’re pressed for time, just go to minute 2:20 and watch for 30 seconds).

5. Dog lips — Enough said.

6. Dogs with pirate casts — Ditto.

7. Tulips — They mean spring. And spring means warmer weather and sun. And sun means I feel human again.

Photo taken this morning in my very own garden!

8. Watching Halvo do those crazy pull-ups with the extra weights — I’m not so much jealous as I am in awe. The human body can do this? Wow. And, again: Wow.

9. Dolly Parton — Dolly Parton is an angel sent from heaven. Burn a CD of some of her greatest hits today and listen to it on your commute home. When you get to Eagle When She Flies, crank the volume, roll down the windows and sing along. I challenge you not to cry (the good kind of cry) by the end of the song. Put song on repeat until you’re parked in your driveway.

What small good things make you happy on a Friday? I’m going to gather ideas for next Friday’s post.

Frida fuels up for healing.

Reliable studies continue to show the significant role pets play in healing.

(Blogger’s note/rhetorical question: With three dogs and one cat, why am I not the healthiest person on earth?)

This is my first blog. Ever. About anything. And I’ve been feeling a lot of self-imposed pressure to do a great job — which is, frankly, making the job I do exponentially worse: I write an entry; fret over each word; overedit my prose into boring, uninspired drivel; fret again; delete the whole document; start over. It’s been 6 days.

Perfectionism is the bane of blogging.

So, it would seem, as I debut a blog about personal development and quality of life and it’s myriad components — easing stress, finding happiness, being creative, lifelong learning, learning to let go, finding that perfect spot on the couch (you know the one where you’re bathed in afternoon sunlight, a fat, lazy cat wrapped around your head) — I have some personal development of my own to work on. I need to let go, not worry so much, intentionally spell a word rong or something to give myself permission just to write.

So with that: blah blah blah and, also, blah. What’s more, yada yada yada. In conclusion, phht.

In the movie of my life that plays in my head, I’m fully self-actualized. In my life as it actually happens, I’m awash in a sea of areas to improve — and what a relief to admit it. The second I gave myself permission not to be perfect — to write a blog filled with blah and phht and not spontaneously combust of anxiety and shame — I started writing. I was getting somewhere. Embracing imperfection proved both cathartic and productive.

What tosses a monkey wrench in your best-laid plans? Fear of failure? Fear of success? Lack of inertia? A paralyzing case of perfectionism? Another Project Runway marathon? How do you de-monkey wrench your plans? What works? What doesn’t?

What other questions, perspectives and interesting detritus from your life would you like to blog about with imperfectly-blogging me?

Let me know because I’ll be writing here regularly about what is bubbling up in the culture about how we live, stay healthy and build the lives we want. Without your input, you’ll be stuck reading about whatever is on my mind, which disproportionately includes wondering what I will make for dinner and whether or not my youngest dog has fetal alcohol syndrome (see photo).

I’ll also be reading new (and some old) books and articles on everything quality-of-life related, from time management to finding happiness to stomping out perfectionism to how to talk to people at cocktail parties about books you’ve never read — and I’ll try out the theories in my own life and bring all the highlights, lowlights and just plain weird happenings here. Watch for me to be fully self-actualized in a few short months. (Just kidding — mostly).

Imperfectly,
Laine