“Not in My Yard” Blog: The Gloves Come Off as Havahart® Launches New Nuisance Animal Control Blog

This is a sponsored guest post written by Theresa Flavin on behalf of Havahart. Post powered by Sponzai.

Ahh, spring: The season of new life, new beginnings and, for many, utter frustration as a host of furry critters help themselves to our tender springtime blooms. It’s a near-universal problem for home gardeners, so Havahart® (http://www.havahart.com) has launched the new Not in My Yard blog (http://www.notinmyyard.com), where you can contribute posts, interact with other gardeners and get expert advice on taking your yard back from hungry wildlife.

Not in My Yard blog focuses on total yard protection through trapping and repelling animals humanely but effectively with Havahart products. Do you have a helpful or interesting experience protecting your yard and garden from the onslaught of hungry raiders? Submit it to Not in My Yard blog and let others know what worked. Top contributors are listed on the blog, so the more guest posts you submit, the better chance you have of seeing your name in lights. Chances are, there will be other Not in My Yard blog regulars with pest control problems similar to yours -- and even other gardeners from your region. You can choose to show only their posts so you don’t miss the tips most relevant to your situation.

If posting on blogs isn’t your thing, Not in My Yard blog is the perfect place to learn about total yard protection. Expert and guest bloggers discuss controlling wild (and not-so-wild) animals of all types, including chipmunks, deer, dogs, feral cats, groundhogs, rabbits, raccoons, rodents, skunks and squirrels. You’ll learn about live trapping and using non-toxic, organic repellents to keep wildlife from viewing your yard as a trendy neighborhood eatery. You’ll enjoy interesting -- and frequently humorous -- stories about wildlife in other gardeners’ yards. And perhaps most importantly, you’ll see you’re not alone in your fight to protect your landscaping or garden.

Not in My Yard blog also features the live Havahart Twitter feed with helpful tips and promotional discounts on total yard protection products. You can subscribe to the RSS feed or submit your e-mail address for live updates whenever a new post is added to the blog.

“We’re excited to launch Not in My Yard blog,” said Havahart marketing associate Theresa Flavin. “This is the blog for everyone who has ever watched their tulips become rabbit food, lost their hostas to deer or wished the neighborhood skunks would find a different path to walk every night. We enjoy hearing the lively, fun and informative stories submitted by home gardeners just as much as the Not in My Yard blog readers do!”

Want to become an active part of Not in My Yard blog? Visit http://www.notinmyyard.com and join the conversation. Learn more about Havahart’s humane traps and repellents at http://www.havahart.com. And this spring, watch what Havahart total yard protection products can do to keep your home and garden beautiful.

First Set of Books

My fiance' is a voracious reader and his spare time is spent reading. He reads himself to sleep too. And when he learned that I love to read, he sent me books and below were the first batch of books that he sent me and there's more coming soon, he says.

There's the book from where the title of this blog came from. Three of the books are of a continuing story of the same characters, and "The Golden Apples of the Sun", which whose title came from his all-time favorite poem, just as our blog title came from one of the books, is a compilation of short stories by a great American author.

I can't wait to receive the next batch because I don't have anything to read anymore. When are you going to send them, Honey? (",)

Listen to the Music

I grew up listening to piano chords all throughout the household. My sister was taking piano lessons when she was young and playing piano chords was a ritual, a part of her daily practice. I don’t know how to play piano chords. I was asked if I wanted to learn piano chords, like my sister, but I simply wasn’t interested.

But looking back now, I do wish that I had tried to learn because my sister was able to teach her kids what she had learned and how I wish I could teach my son too. Well, I can still learn if I want too but don’t you think it’s already too late for me? But definitely it’s not too late for my son yet since he’s only 7 years old and I think this is the best time for him to learn. What a nice idea.

Let the Games Begin

My fiancé wasn’t able to make it for our usual chat time today because he arrived home late. He went to do his grocery shopping after work and did some shopping for some of the materials that he needs for the renovation of his home. He also looked at some foosball tables that he's been thinking of putting in the den for him to have something to do whenever he gets free time or during weekends.

That would be a nice idea. I don’t really know how to play it but he’s willing to teach me. He should or he would end up playing alone, and I don’t think that would be much fun trying to play a two-person game all by yourself.

It's Been...

You might be wondering what I am talking about but you will know in time. It's just so early to talk about it now, I guess. Besides, thinking about it makes me anxious. I am not certain of its outcome and nobody is certain actually. But I'm really praying that everything will fall into place the way we wanted it to. It's not easy I know and everything is in their hands. But we are open to any disappointments along the way. It's inevitable I should say. As my fiance' would often tell me, we just have to deal with it and everything that comes our way. Yepper! That's the best thing we can do. But we're definitely hoping for the best. My fingers are crossed not only now but always. (",)

Flowers For Me, Maybe?

Just a few more days to go and we will be celebrating Mother’s Day once more. And I’m certain that my fiancé is going to use his credit card again to get me something special. Knowing him to be generous, it’s no doubt I’ll be having another bunch of sweet and special goodies on that special day for us mothers. He is such a spoiler and he’s been spoiling me from the start and he loves doing it.

I do wonder, though, what I’m going to get this time? A basket of flowers perhaps? A dozen red roses to be exact. Hmmm…I so love roses and I can’t wait for Mother’s Day so I can have them. (“,)

Life on the Road

I was browsing my friend’s pictures on Facebook and I saw a picture of RV trailers and motorhomes that she took. She and her family live in a trailer park which also has an area for RVs and motorhomes to park and hook up. It’s my first time to have seen mobile home trailers lined up like that and I found it really nice, but I was a little confused about the motorhomes for I'd never seen anything like them before. They're rolling homes on wheels, allowing people to travel wherever they wish. They have beds, a bathroom, a kitchenette and even TV, allowing people to travel without need of renting a hotel/motel room. And there are many places on the road that cater to motorhomes, renting spaces at a reasonable cost with hook ups to electricity, water and sewer.

That would be a fun way to take a vacation, not having to make reservations, making you way across the country at your own pace, stopping and sightseeing whenever you wished to. The only problem I see is if you had a breakdown. Then you'd need motorhome towing to get you to the repair shop, but what fun is life without a little adventure. Maybe when my fiancé and I get married, we can rent one and take our honeymoon on the road, in search of new adventures to begin our new life together. (",)

DINNER IS SERVED!

My li'l cutie Anghel fiancée has this habit of taking photos of food and blogging about them. Well, seeing that I'm learning this craft from the best blogger I know, I'm going to jump right in and do the same thing.

This was my dinner last night, a 12" pizza. But not to be confused, this wasn't a call-in order delievered to my door or picked up at the franchise. I bought it at the grocery store out of the freezer case and prepared it in my oven in 15-minutes; quick and simple, as well as cheap.

If I had ordered this pizza it would have cost me a minimum of $10.00, and with the added toppings I put on it (pepperoni and black olives), the price would have been at least $13.00, not counting the tip I would have given the deliveryman. But this particular meal cost me a grand total of no more than $4.00, toppings and all. How is that so, you may wonder? 'Twas simple, as you will see.

This brand was on sale when I did my shopping last week: three pizzas for $9.99, $3.33 apiece. To top it off, all I had to do was buy a large can of sliced olives and a package of pepperoni, enough to prepare all three pizzas, both at a low cost, and, viola, I was good-to-go! And don't think that just because of the price that it is of a low quality. This is a well-known name brand product which not only satisfied my appetite but was pleasing to my palate. And even better, I had three pieces left over that I can pack and carry for lunch at work next week; it gets no better than that.

This just shows that you can indulge, yet be frugal at the same time, with tasty results. And now that I think about it, I'm hungry right now. So why bother saving the leftovers to carry to work next week? I'm going to chow down right now on my cheap culinary masterpiece.

Wanna Bet?

My fiancé is a die-hard baseball fan, the Atlanta Braves being his favorite team, and he makes it a point to watch them on TV whenever he can. And if it happens that he has some errands or important matters to see to, he records the game on his DVR and watches it at a later time. He loves football too but not as much as baseball, but guess what? He was once into football betting and that’s because of the influence of a friend who is a football fan and die-hard betting man. And he really got into it big time by having got lucky and winning a bunch of times and enjoying its rewards afterward. I know the feeling of winning for I was once into betting, too. But it was basketball, I was into. And it wasn’t something big; we were just having fun with some friends and family.

Anyway, my fiancé stopped betting when his friend transferred to another state. I think he just really wanted to have fun with his friend and that’s why he went along with him on the betting. I do wonder though if he's tried baseball betting. He hasn’t mentioned anything about it so maybe he’s not. Most likely, since he loves his Braves so much, he rather not jinx them by betting on 'em. But if ever he does, it’s okay with me as long as he’ll share the rewards with me. LOL.

Brand New Look

I've been wanting to change this blog's layout for a while now but there's one thing that has been stopping me from doing it. I was afraid that this blog's PR might be affected. But after staring at the old layout a lot of times today, I had this itch again to change it and give it a new look. I had saved one layout that I found online and it has been sitting here in my folder for months and waiting to be tapped.

So, I put a halt to my itching fingers and changed the layout this afternoon. It only took me a few minutes to do it. I've kind of mastered this craft already, you know. Hehe. Here's the new layout! I'm trying to tweak the header but I always get an error response. I was supposed to put a link to "Home" and "Page 2" but I was unsuccessful, and I eventually gave up after a few tries. I'll just leave it like that. It's not going to hurt anyway.

What do you think of the new layout? Better than the previous one, I hope. I am hoping too that this blog's PR won't be affected. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. But if ever, then so be it. They can have it. LOL.

Fascinating Old Church

One of the tourist attractions in the Visayas (one of the three main islands that constitute the Philippines) are the old churches, some of which were built as early as the 15th century. Though some of them had been destroyed during the war, still, some remain standing until today. And this one here is an example.

This church is located in Bohol - the place famous for the Chocolate Hills and Tarsiers. My fiance' visited here in September of 2008 and he took this photo of the church. I was fascinated when I saw old churches in Iloilo when I was there in 2001 and so did my fiance'. I think anybody who sees an old church would really be in awe.

I love seeing the bricks being used as walls. It looks so strong that nothing can't seem to destroy it, even a strong earthquake. Unfortunately, I haven't had photos of the old churches in Iloilo. I'm just glad my fiance' shared this photo with me and I wouldn't miss sharing it with you. So, here it is...

I Can't Wait To Learn These Yummy Holiday Baking Recipes!

I’ve always been honest about not being a good cook. I can cook, but only simple dishes and not the type like those culinary experts do which is something that I dream of learning someday. So, when my fiancé shared with me the photos of the food that they had on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve which his sister-in-law prepared, I couldn’t help but be envious of the delights she put upon the table. She doesn’t just cook well, as per my fiancé who has been enjoying her cooking for years; she also has this special creativity that she always adds to her food preparation – a touch of creativity that really made me delighted. I’ve included photos here for you to see. See those marshmallow snowmen she made? And those ginger bread cookies? They are simply awesome.

But not to worry, because I know for certain that she will share her Holiday baking recipes with me pretty soon. That’s one thing that my fiancé assured me. He’s going to ask his sister-in-law to teach me her cooking and baking skills – something that I really look forward to knowing real soon. I really admire her ability to prepare sumptuous dishes like that. She hasn’t gone to any culinary school at all. Some of it she learned herself on her own and some were shared with her by her family and friends in the old time tradition of southern mountain cooking.

I do wonder though if I will already be able to sample her cooking by next Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. If the processing of our papers will fall in the right place the way we've planned it to, then, most probably, I’ll be enjoying such succulent dishes at my first ever Thanksgiving celebration. Just thinking about it makes me really giddy with excitement. I can’t wait to celebrate those special occasions with them as well as enjoying the food.

Thanksgiving goodies

Christmas Eve food galore

My Silhouette

We visited this place called Isla Parilla during my fiance's vacation here and if I'm not mistaken, it was during his 12th day of being here. The place is famous not just for it's sumptuous foods but because of its pleasant surroundings too. The word Isla is the Spanish word for island which is why the place is called because it is a man-made island and surrounded by a pond which they grow fishes like milkfish and tilapia for visitors to eat or consume, whenever they feel like.

Anyway, this picture of me wasn't intentionally done to be like this. My fiance' had requested me to stand there because he likes the view of the pond so much not realizing that it was against the light when he took it, thus, capturing only my silhouette. But it's not bad at all, wasn't it? We were actually amused of its outcome.

See the body of water behind me? That is simply beautiful, huh?