The War Against the Fungus Gnats

One (or more) of the plants I bought in Austria came with a free gift: fungus gnats.

For the past 2 weeks, my house has smelled like unwashed feet because I have set out apple cider vinegar traps for these demons. I was catching some – but not enough. And the problem seemed to be getting worse.

I have googled every variety of “DIY fruit fly trap” I could think of. I also bought moth paper because I thought it was fly paper (which reminds me, I should do an entire post on “things I bought by mistake because I can’t read the labels”).

Today I found the primary culprit, which was equal parts disgusting and also exciting. I doused every single plant in vinegar-and-dish-soap-water, and put the worst one outside on timeout. Hopefully this will end the battle.

And maybe one day in the near future my house won’t smell like apple cider vinegar anymore.

Coach Updates

In other news, Coach is doing really well. Last week, she rolled in her second rotting mouse corpse in two weeks! She is having the time of her life.

Sarcasm aside, she is actually making really great progress. From the day she got here, we have been working on her leash manners. It took about 6 weeks before it clicked for her that there will always be treats if she walks by our side. But then it clicked, and since then, she’s been so much better!

I do want to point out that there are no squirrels here, and because of my work schedule, I am able to spend literal hours per day training her. I’m not sure she would ever have gotten to this point if we were in Texas.

Almost every day, we go on a long walk. If we’re in the mountains, and it’s relatively quiet, and there are no other dogs in sight, she gets to go off leash. She walks about ten steps ahead of me and then turns around and runs back to me for her treat.

At some point we will get her to do it without treats, but I’m just excited that for the first time in eight years, I can let her enjoy herself outside.

She is also doing a lot better about barking inside – she rarely barks in the house anymore and is quick to quiet down when we ask.

Other News

Last Friday marked 3 years without alcohol for me. I’m mentioning that here because being sober in Liechtenstein is a massive accomplishment and I’m going to pat myself on the back for it at any opportunity.

To celebrate, we went to the National Museum in Zurich. I learned a lot about Swiss history, and bought a bunch of books (of course I did).

Fun fact: my (Austrian) German tutor told me that while all German-speaking cultures value punctuality, they use the saying “on Swiss time” to mean really punctual.

She also told me that I am one of the only students she’s had who is better at speaking than they are at comprehension (this was not a compliment), which will not surprise anyone who knows me one bit.

And Finally…!

Our stuff has officially made it onto a boat! It is supposed to arrive in Germany in a week or two, and then it will have to clear customs, and then they will have to drive it from Germany to Liechtenstein. So it’s not coming any time soon, but at least it’s not in the US anymore.