So, I came home the other night with slug bait. Not the bad kind, but rather the kind that won’t kill any birds that happen to eat the dying slugs, or any animals that might accidentally ingest it. I have lots of wildlife (e.g. bunnies) in my yard, and I’d feel terribly guilty if, in my quest to rid myself of mollusks-without-shells, I happened to kill some innocent furries. Now, I have yet to actually put out the slug bait, and I’m not sure if I should. I came home Friday evening to a veritable flock of birds in my flower bed, and I believe they were feasting on slugs and bugs and other creepy things! Do I put out the bait anyway, or do I rely on my bird friends to take care of the problem? It’s quite a dilemma, I tell you.

In other gardening news (is this all I can talk about anymore? Apparently, yes.)… I’m excited to try a new (to me) technique for a no-till flower bed. I have a space on the east side of my house that I’ve always wanted to plant, and I’m going to try (sort of) lasagna gardening. Sounds tasty, right? You basically layer cardboard and organic materials over the area you want to eventually plant, water it very well, and wait for it to break down. I’ll be working on it over the summer… I’m thinking this will allow me to finally do something with the contents of the bunnies’ litter boxes. I feel so guilty every time I clean litter boxes, because I normally just throw everything away. I don’t think the neighborhood association would be very keen on composting; everyone around here just seems kind of uptight, and the possibility that it might smell makes me think it wouldn’t go over very well. I’ve just never been able to figure out how to get started, and rabbit poo, disentegrated wood pellets, and old hay just aren’t enough to get a good compost bin going… as a single girl, I don’t have much kitchen waste to throw onto the heap, and I have a mulching lawnmower so I don’t have to bag or rake the grass. But I’m willing to give it a try; I’m going to try to find a local compost co-op or something so I’m not wasting so much. I’m also going to look into installing a rain barrel. I’m not sure how I would water plants with it, but it would sure help with the water bill, and since reading about them I feel guilty just letting the rain water go. As if the ground around here needs more saturation. Look at me, goin’ green and everything! Er, trying to, anyway.

Photo by bizrytr, via Creative Commons

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That’s fine. This week I got to work from home anyway… the parking lots at work were so flooded that only essential personnel were required to stay in the building. Everyone else was sent home, and since I have the ability to log on remotely, I won’t have to take a PTO day. For now, until he agrees, we’ll just keep operating the way we have been.

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I thought today I would write a little about my home. About seven years ago I decided to build a house. Interest rates were low at that time, and even on my single income, my house payment was going to be less than what I was paying in rent. I wanted out of apartment living — I wanted room to spread out, to have a yard, to be able to paint any room any color I wanted without having to obtain permission first. I found a cute little house plan I liked, a neighborhood I liked, and I moved in a few months later. It’s just a little one-story ranch, and it’s easily one of the smallest houses in my neighborhood, but I love it. It’s just me, the cat, the guinea pigs and the rabbits, anyway.

In six years I haven’t done much to the house. I have plans — I want to put in wood floors, I want to paint, I want quieter, more energy-efficient appliances. I’d also really love to have real, grown-up furniture. I’d like to make it as cozy as possible for as long as I’ll be here.

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Second, I have a sick bunny. Hazel had surgery almost 3 years ago to open his floppy, loppy ear canals to combat recurring ear infections, but somehow he managed to develop one in the last month that caused some facial nerve damage, leaving him unable to chew properly. He got to the point where he would eat a soft mush on his own, but in the last few days he’s having a harder time with that so I’m syringe-feeding him again. He doesn’t mind it, but it’s just a lot of extra work. Life is much easier when he eats on his own, and fortunately he seems to be back to it as of yesterday.

Third, I’ve been landscaping! I started Thursday night by spreading 18 bags of topsoil on the flowerbed. Naturally it rained on Friday, so I spent the day driving around buying plants and more dirt. It doesn’t sound like I did much those two days, but when I think about the fact that I, personally, moved almost 2000 lbs. of dirt… it’s a wonder I’m still standing! Saturday I got up early and added cow manure and peat to the flowerbed, then turned it all under. The soil here is such heavy clay, it really needs a lot of work. I also bought mulch, and then spread some of it around some existing spots. Sunday was D-Day… I spent the entire day adding another 22 bags of topsoil to the flowerbed, raking it smooth, putting down landscape fabric, planting all but 5 plants, and mulching. I finished at 8:30… just 1/2 an hour before sunset. Phew! My goal was to get it done over the weekend, and it is mostly done. I have a few more plants coming from White Flower Farm, and I’ll be visiting Soules Garden in a couple of weeks to pick out some daylilies to fill in the big bare space. I’m planting all perennials, and most of them are not mature plants, so I’m excited to see how it looks in the next couple of years.

I may join NaBloPoMo for June… just waiting to hear what the theme is. I’m hoping it’s something I can be creative with, but I can say for certain that it’s a lot easier for me to post when I have to… it’s easier having a reminder of sorts.

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Well… RC couldn’t make it. The tiller is in the shop, and… let’s just say he was strongly discouraged from spending more time over here today. It’s not personal; my sister-in-law is with the girls all day, every day, during the week and just needs a break on the weekends. Anyway, I had to press on without him. On my list of things to do:

• Pull the hostas out of the flowerbed and plant them in big pots;
• Dig and turn the entire 100 sq. ft. flowerbed, by hand;
• Overseed the part of the flowerbed that used to go down the sidewalk, the part I’m letting go back to lawn;
• Plant clematis (I bought 2 clematis plants while I was at Lowe’s this morning, and in order to plant them I had to remove the sod around the trellis so I don’t kill them by mowing over them or trimming around them with the weed whacker).

I actually got it all done. I took a break around 1:30 to go find something to eat, and stopped by a local nursery to see if I could find any of the plants I think I want, just to see if they’re available locally or if I’ll need to order them online.

Needless to say, I’m pooped. I’ve taken enough Tylenol to put me down for the night, and I’m already loafing on the couch in my jammies, watching the Indiana Jones trilogy on SciFi. And now, I am done. I might pop out for a Dairy Queen (I passed no less than three of them on my trip out this afternoon, and now I think I need a Blizzard or a Peanut Buster Parfait. Yep, I need it.)

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Seriously. I can barely stand the cute.

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Anyway, Hilo now lives at my house, where she is relearning the fine art of being a well-behaved lady rabbit instead of an utter heathen. For the first couple of months she was here she lived in a little smaller cage with the cage closure in the front, and that did NOT go well. She had become very aggressive about hands reaching in for her, and caring for her on a daily basis was definitely not fun. I’ve had aggressive rabbits here before, but not like her. I count five scars on my right hand alone… all from the Tiny Teeth of Terror. Last month after my rabbit, Angus, passed away I moved her down to the bottom of a 2-story Bunny Abode. She hasn’t been the same rabbit since. No more lunging, no more attacking, she lets me stick my hands and arms into her condo without any trouble at all. It’s so amazing and wonderful to earn their trust, and to see such a big change in such a short time, with so little effort! This is one of the primary reasons I enjoy rescue.

Hilo was originally found by one of our volunteers just hopping around a neighborhood all by her lonesome. She loves to be petted, and will sit by you and lift her little nose to have it rubbed for as long as you’ll rub it. She’s really fun to watch, and as long as you approach on her terms, she’s happy to have you around. I will be excited when she finds her real forever home, and hope she finds a person to appreciate her for the spirited little bit that she is.

If you’re interested in adopting Hilo or any of our other adoptable rabbits, please visit our website at www.indianahrs.org. You’ll find a list of upcoming events we’ll be participating in, as well.

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So, after I finished mowing the lawn, I decided to take a few pictures of the local flora. I would have tried to get some fauna, too, but they all hopped away.

I had a hard time getting a picture of this gorgeous moss that’s growing on a tree root in the yard… it’s surrounded by grass, but it’s so neat that I wanted to get a shot of it.

There were also some cute flowers all over… I love wildflowers. I think the purple is a violet, but I don’t know what the others are. I’m especially interested in the tri-leafed white flower — if anyone knows what it is, please let me know!

There’s a really cool tree, too, but I don’t know what it is. It’s just coming into leaf, and it’s really neat.

Why can’t it just stay like this?

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