We gots critters!
It's official. We are harboring lapins! A few days ago Ebony flushed something from a long-neglected bed in the back yard. Bigger than a mouse, but without the movement unique to rats, it shot past me as I stood in the back door.
Today, just as I sat down to wake up my laptop and eat my lunch, a baby rabbit appeared at the edge of one flower bed out front and hopped over to the one next to it. Since then I've seen it (or them, there could be more than one) coming and going several times between the three main beds out there. So cute! Of course, I need to be alert to damage they might do to my plants, but I use a product called Liquid Fence in the spring, and if I have to reapply it I will.
I got a full cubic yard of mulch from the town today, and brought it home in my truck over as many back roads as I could, to avoid spilling much and/or annoying people around me. Now I have to shovel, shovel, and rake to get it all in the garage. It will last me a season and a half. What I don't use before fall we'll shovel into garbage cans and store outside for the winter. It's amazingly inexpensive, too: Eleven bucks' worth fills the entire 6-foot bed of my truck well above the sides, and it's primarily hardwood, since that's what the town took out so much of in the past two years.
My lunch today was pork stew I made from my Mexican cookbook, I want to say at least ten days ago. Not only was it not spoiled, the flavor had actually improved in that time. It was pretty close to divine. The book's author states that many dishes in there improve when they're stored for a while, and she wasn't kidding. Oh. My. God. I also have a theory that highly-spiced dishes like that don't grow moldy as soon because no self-respecting bug can grow in them. Too bad, little dudes!
Today, just as I sat down to wake up my laptop and eat my lunch, a baby rabbit appeared at the edge of one flower bed out front and hopped over to the one next to it. Since then I've seen it (or them, there could be more than one) coming and going several times between the three main beds out there. So cute! Of course, I need to be alert to damage they might do to my plants, but I use a product called Liquid Fence in the spring, and if I have to reapply it I will.
I got a full cubic yard of mulch from the town today, and brought it home in my truck over as many back roads as I could, to avoid spilling much and/or annoying people around me. Now I have to shovel, shovel, and rake to get it all in the garage. It will last me a season and a half. What I don't use before fall we'll shovel into garbage cans and store outside for the winter. It's amazingly inexpensive, too: Eleven bucks' worth fills the entire 6-foot bed of my truck well above the sides, and it's primarily hardwood, since that's what the town took out so much of in the past two years.
My lunch today was pork stew I made from my Mexican cookbook, I want to say at least ten days ago. Not only was it not spoiled, the flavor had actually improved in that time. It was pretty close to divine. The book's author states that many dishes in there improve when they're stored for a while, and she wasn't kidding. Oh. My. God. I also have a theory that highly-spiced dishes like that don't grow moldy as soon because no self-respecting bug can grow in them. Too bad, little dudes!