5 Months After

I just realized that it's been five months since the cat distribution system gave us two kittens, Bailey Boo and Anakin.

Bailey came to us originally a week after he was born. His Mama, Kaley Boo, brought him together with 3 other litter mates. They stayed for 3 weeks and then disappeared. Kaley Boo brought the brood elsewhere. We just prayed someone was helping take care of them.

Kaley would still visit us to eat, but towards the end of May, she started bringing a white kitten with her. We knew it was one of her kittens. After two weeks the kitten refused to leave with Kaley and he would hide and ignore his Mama's calls. It took awhile, but eventually he allowed us to pet him. That's thanks to the clingy kitten who just came and stayed.

That kitten is Anakin. He just came inside our gate, kept meowing and refused to leave. We have no idea where he came from and since he became fast friends with Bailey we just let them stay.

We already had Brimsley, her 4 kittens (Mando Laura, Grogu, Eevee and Pikachu) living on our property. Then there was Grey (Papa Cat) and Kaley who'd come just to eat. We knew adding two more kittens was crazy, but they charmed us. How can you resist kittens who were more affectionate? 

Fast forward five months later, Bailey Boo and Anakin have grown a lot. They're both healthy and have been neutered. We love them to bits and refused when someone wanted to adopt them. Nope, sorry, they're part of our family now.

We think the cat distribution system sent them because it's been a month since we last saw Kaley Boo. Grey has been missing too the past two weeks. We hope wherever they are they are being cared for by someone. Hugs to these two cats who brought us the kittens we all love.

#BeKind #StaySafe

New Pest Control Provider

We decided to change our pest control provider. The last one did well for five years, but they've been having internal issues which caused us a lot of stress. We did finish our contract with them, but we no longer renewed.

We didn't want to go rogue and do DIY since we had an infestation two years ago. We want to make sure it doesn't happen again especially since there's construction ongoing beside us. We don't want their pests moving to our home!

We reached out the several providers. Got wind that one had the staff of the former company. We selected the one that's been around for 20 years. They have very good reviews and is half the price of how much we used to pay the other company.

The company is really well-established. They sent six personnel to do the treatment. That alone surprised us! And since they didn't finish the alloted mixture for us, they left about 3 liters for our future use. What we just don't want to happen again is have another infestation. 

Whew! Done with the adulting stuff for the week. We just need to schedule our next appointments. Now I can happily do my sewing and sorting. Our cats would be happy to get undivided attention again.

Happy Thursday everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Adulting is Not Fun, but Fulfilling

There's something we've been trying to do for our home for almost two years now. We tried outsourcing it twice. The second set of folks made us feel they were just juicing us. We decided to do it in our own.

Mae from our homeowners association told us just to hire someone to do it for us. We told her it seemed we couldn't find someone to trust and it's been two years since we tried to get it done. The process is indeed tedious, so we set a goal to really work on the task.

After getting the requirements from the utility provider via email we gathered the documents needed. This took awhile since we had to coordinate the paperwork and visit our barangay hall a couple of times. 

Today took us around our city. Luckily, JM the customer care person from the utility company was very helpful. He gave us a key tip to resolve the issue. He also helped us with a future project we need to work on.

After visiting the utility company we headed to city hall. I'm so grateful that our city hall is so efficient, we finished getting our cedula and requesting a document in under an hour. Everyone we needed was still around even at the last hour! Yay!

I'm really tired now, but I feel fulfilled. We hopefully saved over 20k if we continued to outsource the task. Who knows, maybe we'll finish the whole task by mid-November. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Cooked Salted Egg Chicken for the First Time

I miss buying salted egg chicken at the hawker's center in Singapore. I got a curry plant by accident and it's now quite tall, so ai thought I could easily make some salted egg chicken.

It took us two hours, haha. I made the sauce and prepared the chicken. Miggy fried the chicken and then we both coated the chicken with the sauce. It turned out well. I'll post the video how we made it soon.

Aside from cooking, I checked the plants I re-potted. I was also happy to see how much the tea tree grew since I transplanted it six months ago. It has grown new branches and I'm thinking how best to shape it.

The plants I re-potted are doing well. I didn't water them since they are succulents. I'll check in a day or two if the soil is dry. 

Now it's BR time on the couch.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Buddha Belly, Desert Rose and Caladium Bicolor

I'm on a roll After realizing that the plants from Mom's garden were essentially succulents, I decided to immediately re-pot them today. I had been watering them like crazy and realized they might die without proper care.

I was pleasantly surprised with what I got. One of the plants is commonly known as Buddha Belly (Jatropha podagrica). I'm not sure if it's a common succulent, but I was happy to see it had flowers when I saw it in my Mom's garden. It's a beautiful plant and I hope it will bounce back after I've given it some TLC.

Another plant that caught my eye is a caladium or more known as the Heart of Jesus. It wasn't in peril, but I liked the color. It will also remind me of my Mom whenever I see it. 

Last plant I got were two pots of desert rose or commonly known as kalachuchi. I remember Mom didn't like it before because of the smell of the flowers. I'm not sure why there were two in her garden. They both badly needed TLC, so I re-potted them in big pots. Hopefully they recover.

I never thought I'd enjoy gardening this much. It's a lot of work, but it's also a great way to know my Mom more with the plants she kept. She always told me she didn't like cacti and succulents, but most of those I re-potted the past two days are succulents. She probably had a change of heart since they are flowering plants. I'm also enjoy figuring out what the plants are and researching how best to care for them. 

I hope I'll be able to save the plants. There's a gazillion more!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Saving Mom's Garden, One Pot at a Time

I've been working on saving Mom's plants and after going around her garden I decided to get some plants that needed a lot of TLC. 

To be honest, I can only name a few of Mom's plants. Thanks to Google Lens I'm able to identify the plants. Identifying the plant is important so I know what kind of soil, watering and sunlight it needs.

The first plant I worked on is a bromeliad. It was strangely not potted, but had roots. There were mixed views on what kind of soil it needs. I decided to use cactus soil mix (loam soil + stones + perlite). If it survives that's when I'll re-pot it with peat moss. 

By the time I finished gardening, Meredith was probably cross because I occupied part of her bench. She hung on my gardening scissors and refused to give it up. It was her way of saying that it was time fo me to rest.

I had a productive day. I was able to re-pot most of my cacti and succulents. I also took the opportunity to propagate gumamela cuttings. Hope everything I worked on will flourish :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Avocado Update: Leaves, Finally!

Sweetie excitedly told me the other day that the avocado seeds I've been propagating for two months now have started to grow leaves! Finally!

In the past two weeks I increased the amount of honey and moved two of the seedlings with stems to a bigger jar. Sweetie also changed the kitchen curtains. The curtain was shorter and allowed more sunlight to come in. I think that encouraged the seedlings to progress faster.

I've been hesitant to move the jars to another spot with better sunlight because I might forget to top up the water (out of sight, out of mind!). I'm debating whether I should move the seedlings to soil already, but videos said they need to have leaves already. So I'll wait.

I hope to eventually harvest some fruits!

#BeKind #StaySafe