daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
Sunday afternoons are perfect for a bicycle ride. The hike and bike trail isn’t crowded, so I don’t have to navigate around families with small children and dogs taking up the whole width of the trail. Despite signs advising people not to walk more than two abreast, this rule is often ignored. However, on Sunday afternoons, I don’t have to worry about it. 😁
This year, our pepper harvest is abundant! The early start seems to have paid off. Over the next few weeks, we’ll enjoy jalapeños, scotch bonnets, ghost peppers, Brazilian starfish peppers, and what appears to be banana peppers (although I’m not entirely certain). ️️️
My friend and I went to the theater tonight to watch When Marnie Was There. I remember thinking it was very good, but now I’d rate it as “excellent.” Such an emotional film… it might even be one of my favorite Ghibli movies now!
I’m now practicing the song “Fine On The Outside” which is a strumming song, and something I haven’t really played before. Fun!
I’ve been battling fleas in the house for several days now. To combat them, we bought a couple of flea traps. The night light lures the fleas, and they get stuck on the sticky cardboard. It’s working pretty well! I’ve also sprinkled Diatomaceous Earth on the carpets to dry out any fleas living there. I’m cautiously optimistic that my efforts will win the war within a week. It’s good timing, as I’m alone in the house while the rest of the family is on vacation.
June 29 update I haven’t seen a flea for several days now, and the traps aren’t catching any more fleas! The combination of Diatomaceous Earth application, vacuuming almost daily, flea drops for the cats, and the flea traps seems to have been very effective!
Here’s exactly what I did to get rid of the fleas in our house that we share with two indoor cats.
First, we applied Advantage II flea drops to each cat.
Secondly, we vacuumed the house. After emptying out our vacuum cleaner into the trash (it is a Shark brand vacuum cleaner with no bag), I’d spray the trash bin contents a couple times with some flea & tick spray to kill any fleas that were vacuumed up.
Next, I spread the Diatomaceous Earth powder on our carpets using a food strainer, and then gently worked it into the carpet fibers using a broom. I left the powder in the carpets for about 5 days, which was not a problem since the rest of the family was on vacation. After that, I vacuumed all carpets about every other day. The vacuum cleaner got very dusty at first because of all the Diatomaceous Earth, so after a couple times I’d have to clean the filters.
I would check the flea traps daily, and it seemed the amount of fleas getting caught was less and less. After two weeks I replaced the old sticky cardboard with a fresh one and it didn’t catch any more fleas. So I’m confident that we’ve won the war!
