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Zoo BlogJuly 2008Finally I can be bothered to post pictures from the vernal equinox party I tried to have on March 21, but had to postpone a day due to 20" of snow.
So I got to do the "welcome to spring" dance in a nice fresh snowbank. We stratified various arctystaphylos seed by burning pine needles over them, and roasted some marshmallow peeps.
For a springtime yardwork adventure, I dug out one of the way-too-vigorous yellow-twig dogwoods in my backyard hedge and replaced it with a spicebush. I should have bought an axe to cut those dogwood roots -- but I just hacked at them with a shovel and a lopper, then did a "heave-ho" to try to shift the dogwood. Repeat ad nauseum. And while heaving the blasted shrub out of the ground, I managed to heave myself right out of my sweatpants. I hope none of the neighbors saw. I didn't hear anyone shrieking with revulsion or vomitting, that's a good sign. Spring gardening adventures were somewhat hampered by the June floods, which kept me away from Flower Factory. None of my butterfly bushes made it through the way-too-snowy winter, so I've got some space to play with. I've filled it up with annuals for now (cheap ones, from the "leftovers" for sale at Boerner Botanical Gardens) and will start filling in with euphorbias and other tough customers as I find ones I like. On to Zoo news. Naughty Bunny's widower, Mister Bunjamin Disraeli, has finally decided to remarry. Oscar (a.k.a. Bunnigo Montoya) and Princess Queen Bee Empress of the Universe are a hot item and we may hear more bunny wedding bells in the near future. I spent a week in July dogsitting. During which time a totally inordinate amount of my possessions became soiled much dog "output". It was a tough week. Take my advice, don't come down with a sleeping sickness when you're petsitting for 2 crapweasels, 2 dogs, a cat, a stinkweasel, and a turtle. Hm. On second thought, don't ever petsit for 2 crapweasels, 2 dogs, a cat, a stinkweasel, and a turtle. For a while there, I though my neighbor might arrive home from vacation to find the dogs missing and a couple of packages of fresh "hamburger" in the fridge. Raven gave me "The Tick" live action TV series on DVD for my birthday. I can't help but love a TV show where a toilet has a speaking role, and a human gets stuck up a giant robot's behind. I had to work all night on my birthday, oh boo hoo. But I knew beforehand that it was going to be a bad night, so I celebrated my birthday a few days in advance, by buying a used saltwater aquarium (75 gallons) with livestock & equipment. (Just what I need, another hobby!) Tearing down the tank, transporting it across town, and setting it up in my living room made for a fun if exhausting day. (And I finally introduced myself to one of my newer neighbors. The guy with the tattoos and the shaved head, and the bulging muscles suitable for carrying an empty aquarium from a car into a house. He's darn sorry he stepped out of his house just as I was scoping out the neighborhood for "volunteers".) My fun day ended with a bit of a a panic at 10pm when I couldn't get the canister filter primed. So I asked my young friend the internet for advice, but I did not like what he told me AT ALL. "You want me to suck on WHAT?! Not gonna happen!" In the end I got it started MY way, without sucking on anything disgusting. Yechchchch. I got such a great deal on the saltwater tank that of course I immediately had to spend a zillion dollars on equipment upgrades. Like an expensive light for growing corals, and a new stand -- the one that came with was not bad but it was awfully low. And more live rock.
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June 20, 2008Saturday was supposed to be a day of lazing around the house & yard, but Petunia kidnapped me so it became a day of discovery. After I was finished spilling tea on all the silverware bins at the Indian buffet, we determined that the road to Monches Farm was open (i.e. not flooded). Great place. Not as broad a selection as Flower Factory, but there's a peacock and a rooster the size of my car strutting around. The large and elaborate antique crucifix outside the outhouse gave me a chuckle. Then we finally tracked down the studio of the glass artisan Petunia's been hunting for for a year. And just across the street is a bar/restaurant that makes ho-made pizza and pannini sandwiches which smell REALLY good. Then we followed a series of really cheesy spray-painted signs that said
which led to . . . spectacular sculpture. A guy who welds stuff out of scrap metal. Many MANY sculptures scattered all over his property. Some really cool large things. Some not so large. Some not so cool. In the midst of it all, the guy was in his shed welding. He stopped long enough to wave hi. We spent some time wandering around looking at stuff and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. If I ever decide I need a large abstract metal thing in my yard, I know where to go. I also know to take along mosquito repellent next time.
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May 20, 2008The fricken database conversion that has made my worklife "interesting" for the last couple years is at last over and done with (and what a LOVELY Mother's Day weekend it was, thank you for asking). Although it's a cold late spring, my plant orders from Bluestone Perennials and High Country Gardens and Forest Farm are all already in the ground. Still expecting a box of herb plants from Richters, and a small order from Rarefind including some spigelia marilandica. The redbud I put in last year (bareroot from Fedco) bloomed this spring, not much bloom but more than I was expecting! Over the rotten winter the yard rabbits chewed my witch hazel to the ground (also from Fedco last spring). I thought for sure it was a goner but by golly it has put forth a tentative leaf! Bareroot plants from Fedco are definitely tough. I've even made my first trip of the year to Flower Factory. But haven't made it to Heritage Flower Farm yet. Hay for the critters is getting harder to find, one feed mill told me it's because last year farmers plowed up their hay fields to plant corn and get in on the ethanol boom. Fortunately Petunia found me a bale at a farmstand one day. And another friend has a line on a farmer that might have some, so keep your fingers crossed.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ January 2008January sucked bigtime. It snowed 843 inches or something, and I had an exceptionally bad case of the winter blahs, and the blasted foster animals were like albatrosses around my fat neck.
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February 2008February sucked bigtime. It snowed 483 inches or something, and I had to work weekends, one of which was so freaking cold and icey the door to work was frozen shut. And it was so cold that I had to hack my garage door open with an ice chopper every fricken day.
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March 2008March sucked bigtime. It snowed 384 inches or something, but at least I got to send the foster animals home.
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April 2008April sucked bigtime. It didn't snow as much, but dang it was cold. At least I didn't have the foster animals anymore. And Ebert's Greenhouse Village opened nice and early, so I spent a day there refreshing my spirit (but not my wallet) after the most miserable, snowiest, fricken winter in 122 years. And then there was the earthquake at 4:37 one morning. I didn't feel anything but the birds sure did! Beryl the rock pebblar was ricocheting all over the bird room in panic. She smacked her head a good one while flying around in the dark, and knocked out some feathers but fortunately no permanent damage. Fart the red rump parakeet also had a bad panic, he thrashed around his cage so violently he lost every single tailfeather, looked like someone shaved his butt. I had no idea what had gotten into them so was relieved to find out later that there was an earthquake -- not that waking up in a panic at 4:37 AM was going to be the new stylish thing to do at the zoo. I cat sat for Raven while she did the Stevens Point trivia thing. She, uh, "temporarily" took in a stray cat over the winter, and had it spayed. Good thing she did, the vet informed her that there would have been kittens -- guess when they would have arrived? Trivia weekend of course. So I would have gone to Raven's expecting to take care of 3 cats, except there was the "temporary" 4th one, except then there would have been 5, then 6, 7 . . . that would have gone over like a lead balloon. Catsitting at Raven's during Trivia weekend always leads to a trip to Jung's bareroot room. There I picked up couple of bareroot Paw Paw trees, for what is fast becoming a mini-woodland in my front yard.
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