I have been looking at Moen faucets every time I go to one of the home improvement stores here in town. I have an idea of what I want and have been watching the prices. Of course, once I got it in my head about the styles I thought I liked I went to my friend Bekah’s house and saw the new faucets she installed. Now I am giving some serious thought to getting one like hers. I think most brands call it a single-handle country pump style faucet. You do not get a very forceful stream of water, but it looks so pretty.

I learned the hard way about being very careful with what I put on my pets to deter fleas and ticks. Although I never skipped a month, I did buy some off brand medications that may or may not have been up to par. Despite keeping a schedule on heartworm medication, my older Greyhound did end up with heartworms. Now, as old as she was and as mild as her symptoms were, there was no need to worry with painful or expensive treatments. She was diagnosed and the vet told me she would die of old age before she died of heartworm related complications.

When I buy Frontline and other pet medications now, I make sure I am getting them from a reputable dealer who is not apt to substitute out of date products or products made in dosages that are meant for countries other than the United States.

Since flying insects will soon be an issue here, the screened in porch is an important feature of outdoor recreation in Florida. I’ve considered getting one of those yard tents for the patio so we can roll up the canvas flaps and catch the breeze from all four sides of the structure. That way, I can just use the outdoor furniture I already have on the back porch and we can enjoy a better backyard experience for just the price of the tent.

I’m not sure I am using the right word, though. As I have been searching online for the product I want, I’m coming across more of the huge party tents one would rent for a wedding. I am looking for a canopy or gazebo type structure that goes up and down easily, but with screened sides.

Last month we brought home an array of solar lighting fixtures for the yard. We put some motion-sensor solar lights in the house out back and bought some very cute strings of star-shaped lights to put in the ficus trees out front. We even got some lanterns that throw off star and moon patterns when they come on. And yes, they are all solar. We found a specialty store down in St. Pete that was having a big pre-season outdoor lighting sale. I wish I had grabbed more of the light strings, because once the prices went back up they became slightly cost prohibitive.

One of the warehouse discount stores down the road has all the usual suspects right now, like hanging lanterns and garden lights that you stick into the ground with pegs. They are all solar and the prices are great, but they just don’t have that unique vibe like the little star lights we sprinkled throughout the trees. There is just something about the slightly blue cast of a solar light that blends into the peacefulness of night while still illuminating the world around us.

Anyway, I think my bed is about to the point where it needs replaced. It is a super mattress, but it’s a twin and was always meant to be used for the time being,. My amazing mattress is a King and it is in my storage unit. I dream about that bed. It is a Springair and it rocks, absolutely rocks.

My sister has a sleep number bed, though, and is always singing its praises. She has me curious. I can admit that. My super-bed, the one in storage, might be amazing but it is still the bed I shared with my ex husband so although it is comfortable – it is saturated with bad memories. I can see the justification of the consideration for a brand new bed when I move the next time.

I want to continue to be the person who gets a great night’s sleep. So, you can bet I will spend what I need to spend to replace my mattress with the best possible bed on the market. I owe it to myself to at least consider a sleep number. Hmm, maybe y brother-in-law would give up his spot for a few nights and let me test theirs.

Anyway, back during that last bad hurricane season my mom’s fences blew down. Her neighbor on one side went halfsies with her to put the fence back up along their shared property line. The neighbor on the other side put up a white fence. That still eaves the two front sections and one curbside of the yard unfenced. The house is on a corner lot, so it actually has five sections that need fencing.

As much as this neighborhood seems private, the lack of a fence in the backyard means I do not like my daughter to play outside alone, I always make sure I am fully dressed when I am out there, and I feel like the world is watching when I am bent over sweating overt the flowerbeds. I want to splurge soon and have the remaining yard sections fenced, but my mother says she prefers not to bother.

Granted, most of the money you spend in a fencing project is the cost of the fence installation. I could go to Home Depot and buy the sections and a post digger and a bag of concrete and set the fence myself, but I would probably do a flimsy job. If I could recruit a few friends it might work out better. In the end, I know that paying someone is the best way to go because if they are putting in fences day after day, they more than likely have the technique down to an art. That is way it kills me that I am not stronger and handier around the house. Living without a man in the house can be bliss due to the lack of conflict and negative make energy, but at times I wish there was a handy guy in the other room who could go out and complete talks for me. Of course, when I was married my husband was absolutely useless ant home projects anyway, so I am not sure what I am bothering to complain about.

A depression could not be far off. Now, think about stories you have heard from people who were alive in the depression era. My grandparents are mostly dead, but I do have one grandmother who is still around to tell me stores of how she and her family survived. Also, my parents were both raised depression-era parents and were instilled with values of frugality and self sufficiency. Thank goodness they passed those values down to me.

Up north we always kept large gardens. My mother canned fruits and vegetables. I see now the value of growing as much of my own food as possible and “putting it away” for later use. I am ready to learn how to can. However, I live in Florida now and I have to re-learn how to grow a successful food crop. I know I am going to have to have good soil brought in. I will need to build a tarp to make sure my crops do not burn up in the sun. I will need to learn about planting season here and what foods do the best.

Fruit is an easy option to start. We have a large yard and although the grapefruit tree was cut down a few years back, the star fruit tree we trimmed to the ground this year will be back within two years. We have lemons and oranges in pots that are ready to go into the ground. We have apple trees of a variety that grow well in the Florida climate. I have looked online and found suppliers for Blueberry and Blackberry plants that should do well here. All of these things can be canned and will also provide a good deal of fruit to be eaten fresh.

Yep, it gets pretty hot in Florida. And while we don’t actually hot some of the high temperatures that the southwest and the northeast experience in the summertime, our hot season lasts a lot longer.

You adjust to the heat down here. For example, I don’t really have a winter wardrobe. I can wear summery clothes most of the year. Most homes around here have ceiling fans in pretty much every room. You learn that painting your house a dark color is rarely a good idea. And, you take seriously what sort of window treatments you use. What you use to cover your windows can make or break things when it comes to your energy bill in the summer.

While I want to keep the white hot sun from heating up my house via my windows, I also want to make sure my home looks great. Solar Shades come in all sorts of styles, including very trendy Roman Shades. You can make sure your room looks just right and at the same time keep your energy costs down, block UV rays, and insure that all important insulation that ultimately means your rooms will be more comfortable – even in the searing heat of an early afternoon in July.

I was wrong.

I absolutely feel the lack of a security system here, even though this is historically a safe neighborhood and I know most of my neighbors. We also have two neighbors closely who frequently host the sort of parties that means a hundred drunken people using our streets as a social hangout. Plus, with every month that passes in our current economic times, I am hearing more and more about the increase in robberies. People are becoming desperate. Well, I don’t want their desperation to mean the loss of my belongings or danger to my family. home security is worth quite a bit to me.

On ADT’s website, I see that I can get a system installed for under $100, after rebates. Not bad. After that, all I need to fuss with are the monthly monitoring costs. It’s worth my peace of mind.

The focus of my fascination when it comes to gardens has always been when people come together in urban spaces to create a community garden. Not only is that garden going to brighten the neighborhood, but it also facilitates relationships between neighbors that may not otherwise spend time together.

I’ve been reading tonight about one of the coolest grant projects I’ve ever heard of. It’s called the Fiskars Project Orange Thumb grant. What this grant does is provide up to $1000 in green goods and up to $1,500 in Fiskars gardening tools for garden projects in the United States, Canada and Australia.

Gardens or gardening projects that focus on community involvement, neighborhood beautification, sustainable agriculture, or horticultural education qualify – and that includes schools! As soon as I read through the site I immediately thought of my daughter’s school and the HUGE courtyard area they have in the middle of the campus. Some of it is bricked, but there are these patches of grass that are perfect for a school wide gardening project.

Of course, not only future projects are eligible. You can apply for the grant if you have an existing garden or gardening project that qualifies. I just printed out the main page of the site to send to the school and I want to encourage all of you – my readers – to apply for projects in your community. The application deadline is February 17, 2009 so you have plenty of time. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that others at my daughter’s school will be as excited about this as me.