Had an oscar delivered this morning. Been bowled up all day. Bagged a run. Baked bread. Planted Kohllrabi and beets. Took the wind-torn door off my greenhouse and used boards for raised-bed borders. Walked to PO, mailed some letters and stopped by to buy a classic lotto on the way back. No, I guess I got the ticket first.
That's when I talked to the City Auditor about the political scene. Said I don't trust old people politicians, need new blood to do something before they get muddied up and on the take or senile and led around.
Found a carrot in my garden that had wintered over (kept growing.) Measured six-inches long and four-inches at widest girth. The flavor is delicate but the consistency is like soft ice which crumbles and melts as you chew it.
My greenhouse is a seven-foot cube of a variety of windows. Cookie said it's a work of art. Paleo said it is constructed on the perfect angle the ancients chose for a habitable cave, with the opening slightly to the east of south to catch maximum sunlight. Five days ago, maybe six, I notice a rabbit gathering clumps of dry grass to resemble big walrus whiskers and carrying them to the southwest corner of the greenhouse. The sense of urgency was necessary as it has rained every day since.
I've heard stories of females finding ways to return at night to feed nestlings even if something falls in the way. And about males eating young. And that a rabbit will abandoned the nest if human scent is detected.
I checked on the nest every day and I've seen an adult rabbit on the outside and I'm certain it stays under the platform porch of the glass house but never saw one go inside until two days ago.
After sunset, the rabbit circled around the structure, hesitating often, before going inside to the nest. The next morning the nest looked the same, still covered with the grass, but with lots of moisture around it.
Yesterday, there were rabbits in every direction. The first one I noticed was sitting up and it looked huge. It was outside the corner where the nest is. The temperature was in the low seventies with intermittent showers and the grass was removed to reveal a clump of newborns.
For the next few hours before dark, as wet as it was, rabbits were all around, across the street, next door, two doors down. They would run at one another and begin a high speed zig-zag chase. Then another would run towards the other two. A couple times I saw the second jump straight up to avoid the rush of the first. They were concentrated in a view from my stool perch window. More than one made the trip into the greenhouse and checked the view as they traveled around the edge towards the nest.
The bobtail cat was in the neighbor's high grass, watching the action. I let the dog out and a rabbit watched her go around the greenhouse, reluctant to move until Zimba was within a few feet before jumping.
I'm only guessing that they were turned on by the perfect nest location. It was definitely more celebration than happenstance meetings.
I have seen no rabbit or rabbits the entire day. The grass is back over the top of the nest.
7May - On Easter Saturday, part of the nest was pulled back and a bunny was exposed. The area was wet and water was dripping, and my first thought was it was attempting to leave the nest but it was still. I called my neighbor who was in the middle of "just out of bed" breakfast with kids and grandkids. She brought her son-in-law and two kids to see. The next day, the nest was recovered, so no Easter bunnies jumping around.
The mother was still going inside the greenhouse every evening and the nest was snug. I kept watching, expecting the litter to stay around, but exactly two weeks from April 20th, the nest was vacated and no rabbits around. That evening, the mother came inside the greenhouse and the little ones followed.
When young rabbits move, they scurry like other rodents. This year's offspring may get less action than all the others since Zimba arrived. Just say "rabbit" and she was headed for the door. She stalked them to jump and was right behind them. Then she learned to hot-track and forced them into the full circle escape route. She still chases but just to get one out of the yard. Still checks out all the past places they used to hide.
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