I get asked about pest control tips a lot from friends and family, since I work for the leading pest control company in the U.S. And someone in the naturalliving community on livejournal asked about some natural spider control, so I figured I’d post the tips here as well.

Soapy water is one of the best ways to control various pests in your home. I recommend it for most anything. Add citronella oil or other strong oils such as peppermint or tea tree. This is only a temporary solution though, and in order to actually control spider infestations, you’ll want to do some preventative control as well.

- Dusting regularly, which helps discourage them from building webs.
- Remove existing webs, sacs, etc with a vaccuum.
- Keep control of the moisture and humidity in the basement, which will be hard, so I’d suggest a dehumidifier.
- Keep debris (leaves, woodpiles etc) away from the foundation of your home. This will also help with termites as well, since they will feed on any sort of wood related debris (including cardboard boxes in your basement).
- If you have a high pressure water hose, you can spray the siding and crevices on the outside of the home.
- Eliminate their prey, flies, ants, cockroaches will only encourage them to come feast.
- Seal up gaps in window screens, etc.

I have not had new towels since highschool. I had forgotten how soft and fluffy they are. So comforting against the skin. I just want to lay in a pile of brand new warm towels.

I’ve been so used to scratchy old towels with holes large enough to put a foot through….I had forgotten.

So I wanted to use the Enthusiast script for part of my Witches Weekly site, but I wanted to use the same template that I use in Wordpress. In order to do that I had to use the following:

For the Header:
<?php
require(’wp-config.php’);
include_once(TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/header.php’);
?>

For the Footer:
<?php
include_once(TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/footer.php’);
?>

An Interesting Link:

Cute Overload - An overload of cute pictures.

I think there were 4 gunshots total. Two off in the distance, one a little closer, and one that sounded like it was right next to our house, or at least in the driveway. I jumped outta my deskchair, dad jumped out of bed, we both snuck through the darkness in the house, peeking out windows, but couldn’t see anything. I crawled around on the floor and unplugged various night lamps and lights my dad tends to keep on. He loaded his shotgun, I found my way to the back porch and was able to feel my way to load the .22 there. Not as powerful, but it would have given me more shots rather than the single-barrel shotgun of my grandfathers.

Everything was quiet, well, except my breathing. Nervousness probably. I was scared. I suppose that’s something I’ll have to work on. Dad camped at the front door and I stayed at the back crouched close to the floor.

My Son heard something, he growled like I’ve never heard him growl before. Which was probably the most scary part of the evening. That deep throaty growl that he’s never shown to strangers invited in, because he’s such a lovable little beast. So something was out there that he didn’t like.

But nothing happened. We saw nothing, we heard nothing else. I slept with the .22 under my bed, what little I could sleep.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m just too paranoid.

As far as other festivities, I did get to see my sister. She was very happy with the gifts I had gotten for her. Figuring out what to get an 11 year old isn’t easy. She gave me some earrings, some candles. My father gave me some DVD’s, which I spent the rest of the day watching. I had nowhere to go, no interest in going out, so I stayed home. It was not my holiday, it was for my father. Last Samurai was great. The ending was a bit off, but I loved the scenery if nothing else. And of course, the swordfighting

My camera came late last night, finally returned from the repair shop. So of course today I decided to go crazy with it. I mostly took pictures of my fathers decorations. One of his simple pleasures in life is decorating for Christmas. And now we have a way of saving that for reminicing later.

Our Christmas tree and garden during the day
Our Christmas tree and garden during the day again
Just the Christmas tree during the day
An old lantern and pitchfork of my fathers
Some of his various decorations
The living room mantle
The coffee table and My Son
The chimney
His indian nativity scene
My father dressed as Santa
Our outside lights
An outside nativity
A rather interesting tree with lights
Our house lit up in red
Our tree at nighttime
The garden at nighttime
The garden again at nighttime
The tree again at nighttime
Santa leaving to go visit his brother

I also took pictures of my solstice altar:

And two others: #1 #2

A lot of blues and whites usually this time of year. I tend to incorporate a lot of stones on all of my altars, since I’ve always had an affinity to them. This particular one contains clear quartz, blue quartz, chrysocolla, malachite, malachite with chrysocolla, celestite, blue lace agate, azurite, and a mother stone.