Poo for You? 23 February 2013

Today I learned some interesting things about rabbit manure, all from the comfort of my bedroom.

And lest that sound like a disturbing statement, I should first clarify that today's learning is a result of Google searching, not hands-on experience.  (I got too much hands-on experience this week already, dealing with a very dirty rabbit's fuzzy backside.)  Although, I suppose the fact that I googled "rabbit manure" at all is pretty weird.

Oh well.

Turns out there is quite an enthusiastic culture of people who rave about the benefits of rabbit droppings.  This culture has affectionately nicknamed the droppings "bunny balls," "bunny berries," and "cocoa puffs."  (Uh, eew.)  On their blogs and gardening articles, they describe how to make a fertilizing "bunny brew," which is a "tea" made from steeping manure with water for a few days and then pouring around plants.  One article outlined using a burlap bag as an actual tea bag, filled with the droppings and dunked into a bucket.  Biscuits, anyone?

Furthermore, there are those who have felt compelled to photograph the stuff; naturally, I was unable to resist a Bing image search and now am compelled to show a photo to you.

This photograph is entirely for your benefit.  I see enough of the stuff every day.  You're welcome.

Some have written articles about how to raise red worms using the poo (a phenomenon I discovered by accident through making my compost pile).  And apparently the cannabis community is also all for using the "berries."

Aside from all of this very interesting information, I did discover two very important, practical facts.  Firstly, rabbit manure is high in nitrogen, which means that I can compost the stuff mixed with their straw litter, and not have to add extra nitrogen to break down the straw.

Secondly--and most importantly to me--these droppings are considered "cold" manure.  Rather like the classification of breakfast cereals, animal manure is classified as cold or hot.  "Hot" means that it has to age/rot/dry for a while or it will burn the plants it's meant to fertilize.  "Cold" manure on the other hand can go straight into the garden or around the plants.

Why is this such good news, you might ask?  Because it means I don't have to have piles of "cocoa puffs" littered around my yard, taking their sweet time to dry/age/rot.

This is also good news for my two bunnies.  They were *this* close to being put up for adoption, when I decided a month ago that I'm tired of feeding the little critters.  But now that I'm armed with this useful information, I think they might get to stay around a little longer.

Plus, now I have the satisfaction of making you think twice next time you walk down the breakfast foods aisle at the grocery store.  You're welcome!

White Stuff, 20 February 2013

At this very moment, my kitchen counters are piled with dirty dishes and one of my rabbits has a clump of dried poo stuck to her furry behind.  But as disturbing as one or both of those items may be, I'm not going to do anything about it tonight because I'm tired from...

...a snow day with the kiddos today!

G has this week off of school (they combined presidents' birthdays or something), so I've been watching the mountain weather.  It snowed at a lower elevation than usual yesterday, so the three of us took off this morning to play.

A comment to my friends who live where it snows all winter long:  I know you don't like it.  I hear the complaints and I'm sorry for your pain.  But I will not apologize for personally feeling that snow is a ridiculous amount of fun!  :-)

This morning, I packed the back of our 4WD car with sandwiches, hot chocolate, and baby carrots for sustenance, along with the compulsory snow pants, boots, mittens, coats, hats, scarves, sleds, a towel, and the kitchen sink.  Oh, and a roll of toilet paper--just in case.  (In retrospect, I probably shoulda left the t.p. with the rabbits.)

The drive through the hills was gorgeous.  I'd never seen snow at that elevation before, and I just kept praising God aloud for the beauty of white fields and powder-capped fence posts.  Today I had a first: I saw cows standing in the snow.  In real life.  Not in Stone Fox or Farmer Boy.

The weather was gorgeous, too.  It was cold, but not bitterly so; the sun sparkled the snow.  A slight breeze blew flakes of snow off the trees, giving the feeling that it was snowing on us!  Magical.

We walked and floundered and sledded and threw snowballs.  And took pictures.

Z and I built a rather lumpy snowman.  (Snowperson?)  The snow was the perfect consistency for rolling snowballs, which I had lots of fun with.  Cartoons always show this ball rolling down a hill getting bigger and bigger--"the snowball effect," right?--but I haven't often been in snow that actually behaved that way.

G and I built what we generously called a "snow fort": basically a short wall to crouch behind while lobbing snowballs at one's mommy.  Yes, I helped build defenses for my enemies.

A fun day, but as I said, tiring.  Better get my beauty sleep so that I can deal with the not-so-lovely chores of tomorrow!

Lost, 09 February 2013

Today I spoke on the phone (thanks, Skype!) with a man from York, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom.  How's that for a pedigree?

Aaaand, I am a typical American--such a sucker for the accent!!!  Oh my goodness.  I think I'd started believing that only movie actors and actresses spoke in such beautiful, lilting tones, and used expressions like "lovely!" and "brilliant!"  But it turns out that real people do too--assuming that the man running our York bed and breakfast is a real person, which I rather expect he is.

I'm such an American!

Today I also discovered a new hole in G's mouth where a loose tooth had been.  The discovery occurred during breakfast, and I explained he must have swallowed it while eating this morning, or perhaps during dinner last night.

He cried!  He was so disappointed he didn't get to see his tooth!  That is NOT how I feel about the matter, being thoroughly--albeit perhaps irrationally--disgusted by the whole tooth-loss thing myself.  I hugged him and cuddled him, keeping my thoughts of "Phew!  Didn't have to deal with pulling it!" to myself.  I assured him that if he wrote a note explaining what had happened and put it under his pillow, the Tooth Fairy would still leave money.  ("NOT the Tooth Fairy," G grumped.  "I don't like playing about the Tooth Fairy.  It's you or Daddy."  Fine.  Have it your way, spoil sport.)  But after he wrote his note, the thought occurred to me that perhaps the tooth fell out while he was asleep.

You wanna know how cool of a mom I am?  I got down on my hands and knees and scanned the carpet with my hand to see if I could find a tiny little piece of my child's mouth on the floor.  Unfortunately for me, I found it!  Eeeeeew.  G was overjoyed!  His whole day got better when he saw his tooth.

But the story doesn't end there.  As he attempted to put the thing into a paper bag (to go under the pillow, of course), he dropped it.  Uh huh.  Until today, I thought getting a carpet that would camouflage dropped stuff was a good idea.  So what did Mommy do?  She shook out the nearby blankets, brushed out the folds of G's clothes, scanned the carpet with her hand...and found the tooth again.  Eeeeeew!  Then, between the living room and his bedroom, as he attempted to deliver the bag to his bed, I heard, "Uh oh!"

You guessed it.  "Mommy, I think I turned the bag upside down.  I can't find my tooth."

Just how many times can the same tooth get lost?!  At least I knew the drill (no pun intended) and went straight to the dratted carpet.  When I couldn't find it, I took the bag from him and bravely stuck my hand into it, where one of my fingers encountered a small, pointy, hard thing in one of the corners.  "G, your tooth is still in the bag," I admonished wearily.  Sigh.

But now that the bag is no longer being moved around or handled, I think the tooth can no longer be lost.

And once it's swapped out in the middle of the night for four shiny quarters, what happens to that tooth is alllllllllll my decision.  You can't have your tooth and eat it too!