Bold Bunny

While I was busy this morning, we were going to go over to Lindsay's house this afternoon to help Christopher remove a couple of pine trees.  A downpour this morning washed out that idea; taking down damp trees with power tools is not my idea of healthy living.

The sun is out now, so with luck we will dry things out and be able to cut trees tomorrow afternoon.  Until then, I have been tending the gardens around our own house.

Our neighbors to the south (corner duplex) both have wooden decks slightly raised above ground level.  Wooden decks tend to attract wildlife such as chipmunks and rabbits.  This leads to the following formulas:

Wooden deck = rabbits seeking nesting areas
Papa Rabbit and Mama Rabbit = lots of hungry baby rabbits.
Front garden = luscious, succulent new hostas.  (For the past two years, rabbits have eaten one particular hosta down to the ground.  This year, I transplanted a hosta from the back yard into the front garden in the hopes that the larger plant would be strong enough to survive an occasional nibble.)

The results:

Almost all of the leaves are nibbled off the transplanted hosta,
so I had to surround it with a chicken-wire fence just to protect it.

Within the last few days, I have discovered that if the rabbits cannot eat the little hosta, they will go after the larger bushes:

Note the chewed off leaf tip and the large hole
the rabbits have snacked on in the adjacent hosta.

This morning, Rick opened the front door and called me to see what he was viewing.  I saw the following:

Basking in the sunlight, the nibbler in question boldly rests his latest meal
right next to the bushes he now is eating!

Not only do the rabbits have the audacity to eat my hostas; this one in particular decided that he would sun himself right next to breakfast so he would have have to travel too far for lunch.

My mother tells the story of being a kid in the 1930s and playing outside with her three brothers.  A rabbit was eating my grandmother's garden, so the boys were trying to scare it away by throwing stones at it.  They all missed and the brave, stubborn rabbit stood his ground.  Then my mother picked up a stone, threw it as hard as she could, hit the rabbit squarely in the nose, and watched as he immediately dropped dead.  Of course, she felt terribly guilty afterwards.  I am not sure, after seeing my vegetation destroyed, that I would experience those same emotions.

So where is Mom with a good rock when I need her?

Tickles, Turtles, and Dishwasher Traumas

Bad weather, lots of distractions, and just plain not feeling like doing much all have somewhat turned us into sloths.  We need to shake out of this feeling.

We have started that this week by watching Owen for two mornings while Chris and Lindsay were at work.  What a wonderful imagination a four-year-old has to share with the world!  We built forts with blankets in the living room, cut down low-hanging branches in the back yard (which Owen hauled up the hill to the curb), shot off rockets in the park, had tickle-festivals, colored many pictures and created a few original art works, studied a HUGE turtle from a safe distance, supervised Grandpa while he installed a dishwasher, and snuggled for a little quiet time after lunch.  We had lots of giggles and fun, and everyone slept well at night!

This turtle crawled up the side yard and crossed the street.
It was at least 10 inches across and over a foot long from head to tail.

The big event on Wednesday was the new dishwasher.  The people who lived in the house before Lindsay were elderly and cheap, so no one was surprised that the dishwasher started to give them trouble.  They knew a new one was in order, so they bought one a couple of weeks ago, and it was delivered on Wednesday.  We had gone over to their house on Tuesday to remove the old one (which, thankfully, the delivery men hauled away), so we were ready to go on Wednesday.

A job always goes more smoothly with a good supervisor.

The new machine came mid-morning, and complications with wires, plumbing, and the fact that the dishwasher is NOT located next to the drains by the sink all resulted in a "one hour" installation turning into an all-day affair.  Frustration!  When we finally left on Wednesday, the plumbing was all in place, but a "sassy screw" (according to Owen) refused to let Rick access the electrical box.

We returned on Thursday morning, and while Owen supervised, Rick finally was able to open the electrical box and to wire in the dishwasher.  Success!  (Owen's supervision must have been the key.)

The other success we had this week was installing new sun shades on the south side of the back porch.  The shades give us relief from the sun and a little privacy from our neighbors now that the large trees between the houses are gone.  We don't want to keep the shades down all of the time, but when we are eating or relaxing on the porch while they also are outside, the privacy is great to have again.

The new sun shades give us a bit of privacy from the neighbors.

A little landscaping has our backyard trees trimmed so they do not mug us while we are mowing the lawn, and my lilac bush, once again, is shaped the way I want it to look.

Next week we will tackle taking down two pine trees in Lindsay's back yard.  The weather is supposed to be cooler, and as long as we don't get a lot of rain, the task should not be too daunting.