Snapshots

A lot is going on lately, in little silos. Not enough for a full blog, but enough of them that maybe I can just throw them all together.

So here are some things I’ve been up to.

Roxy

Without a doubt, everything in our life pales in comparison to Roxy’s rehabilitation right now. We are almost 4 weeks post-surgery on Roxy’s knee. She has $1,200 worth of titanium ($300 of which is just screws) in her leg.

Her cast is off, and the stitches are out, and for the most part she seems to be doing quite well. Still limping and learning to use it. But getting there.

We are quite confident we made the right choice. We would miss this dog considerably more than we are missing the money.

But the hardest part of recovery is just beginning. That’s when she thinks her knee is OK, but it’s not. When a human has a major surgery like this, they understand the need for physio, rest, etc even as they start feeling better. It’s harder with an energetic dog who gets very excited about random things.

There’s still another 4 weeks before we’re even close to being able to say she’s healed and is allowed do things like run and jump.

So we still have a road to walk here, and every time she acts like herself we have a small heart attack. But she’s doing well so far.

Trapping

Our pest trapping is going well. We have 6 rat traps and 3 possum traps working in a small patch of our bush. Collectively they’ve taken out 21 possums, 6 mice, and 21 rats so far.

In the last couple of months, we’ve had two rat traps break. That caused me to go look up their (5 year) warranty. After contacting the company who supplied them, I was sent some new triggers. These parts were simple to replace and we’re back to having a full-set of working traps again.

It’s not great they broke in the first place, but I do love that I only had to replace one small part, and Enviro Tools were really great about it.

I head out there and check them at least once a week, which is a good after-dinner blood sugar walk. I remove and record any captures and re-bait the traps, then bring the bodies home for burial.

I’ve figured out a system for burying bodies in the garden. I dig a hole, cover the body with garden lime and soil, then pin a piece of chicken wire on top to stop the chooks (and dogs) digging them up, and then plant into that.

It means my gardens are full of bones, but the worms are happy.

New product!

Last year I had an idea. And somehow that idea had enough momentum that it has turned into a Kat’s Nip Catnip Toy Craft Kit.

I’ve been making and selling cat toys for almost two years now. I’ve made hundreds of catnip-filled woolly balls. And they’re not that difficult to make, but they do take time. If I’m being honest the current price is in a really hard place between “too much for a cat toy” and “not enough to pay the minimum wage”.

But as I thought about it, I figured that a lot of people who own cats might also like to craft. And I don’t know about you, but I love a practical craft—a purpose for the thing I am creating greater than just being pretty. Maybe people would actually like to make their own cat toys.

Inside the box is everything you need to make four catnip balls. I even show you how to make multi-coloured balls.

This project had so many parts. I wrote and designed a full set of instructions, and designed a special card for holding felting needles. They were both professionally printed.

The needles, wool, boxes, new postage bags for the boxes, and stickers all needed sourcing and supplying (over the Christmas period, no less!)

Then I got to work and made a series of videos to show you what to do, just in case the written instructions weren’t clear enough.

I released them to the Kat’s Nip mailing list earlier this week and they started flying out the door, but there’s still a few left in the first run if you’d like to have a try yourself.

Up-levelling

Next month I start working towards a New Zealand Certificate in Māori Business & Management Level 3.

I like Level 3 and 4 qualifications. I hold a Bachelor of Arts, but over the last decade I’ve added a number of (mostly free) certificates here and there to expand my thinking and knowledge in new directions. Level 3 and 4 are an achievable path to gaining new knowledge, without taking over my entire life (not to mention creating student debt) like a post-grad probably would.

And I think I could do with upskilling around business practices. I’d like for Kat’s Nip to be more than a side-hustle, but I need some help getting there.

I chose this particular course because I’m hopeful it looks at commerce differently to your average intro to small business course. There are a number of practices in business that I find—for lack of a better word—really scummy. And I cannot be scummy. It makes me feel scummy, which makes me not want to work on or in my business.

I’m already selling an entirely unnecessary bougie product in an economic crisis. I don’t also need to be an asshole about it in order to succeed.

But I do need (and want) to change the way I do a lot of things. So I’m looking forward to getting started!

In the garden

I’m applying my “mulch-method” to the task of planting out spring bulbs—doing a little bit whenever I find some time to hopefully plant out our previously-grassy verge at the top of the driveway.

The temperature has dropped noticeably this week, and it won’t be long before we’re harvesting the potatoes, kūmara, and peanuts. So the shallot, garlic, and sunflower seed harvests will need tidying up in the storage area to make room.

The winter brassica has been planted out, and I’m looking at filling some of the empty beds with green manure while I wait to plant the garlic and shallots again.

I am still studiously avoiding weeding the beds which are getting increasingly out of control. I really need to get onto that sometime soon.

It’s a lot to juggle. Sometimes things fall off as others take priority. But I’m moving forward, bit-by-bit.