Thumper AKA fuzzy butt!

[PaGal]

I forgot, shoot! I saw a pretty good idea on facebook yesterday for those that garden. When you use eggs just crack the top of the egg. Use the empty egg shell to put soil in and plant your seed in that. When you have seedlings you can then just put the egg in a pot or in the garden. The egg is biodegradable. So instead of using starter pots use an egg shell. If you save your egg shells until you have been through the whole dozen then you can keep the egg shell pots in the carton until you transplant.

 

[whitelop]

And as the egg shell degrades, it releases the calcium in the soil to help the plants because egg shells are 94% calcium. They're really good for roses too, they like calcium.

Ellie puts her whole face in her water too and drinks at least a bowl in a day. I like to put cold water in the bowl for her, from the fridge. Since we don't have the AC going right now and just the windows open, sometimes it gets a little warm and I think she likes the cold water better! \

Hahha. If you keep his favorite, you keep your favorite too! Thats pretty funny, thats how it would go in my house too.

 

[Chrisdoc]

It just makes me smile imagining all the buns with drippy faces and licking like mad lmao.

Mine drink from bottles but I have a bowl out for them and although I hardly ever see them drinking from it they do cos I have to fill it every couple of days.

The egg shell trick is really handy. I was watching a programme today about gardens called Love your Garden. People ask them to renovate a garden for someone and they do it all up. The one today was so lovely at the end. They´d planted loads of flowers which are ideal for attracting bees and that birds can eat when the flowers have gone. It was for a 90 year old grandmother and when she saw it, she was so overcome, I was nearly crying. I do so love seeing lovely gardens.

 

[PaGal]

Hubby was holding a kitten last night and for the first time let the dog come see it. Who knew three week old kittens could growl and hiss. It was so cute though. I think I would actually have trouble picking a fav now. I do like the one with silky fur, it has the extra toe we think and just such an adorable face but the lightest colored grey striped kitty is sweet and always comes to the cage door when I start talking to them. It will also probably be the first out of the cage because it stands on it's back legs with it's front paws over top the cardboard when it comes to the cage door.

Hubby tilled the garden today. Before he did we found one pumpkin plant growing so we have that. We're big softies and can't bring ourselves to kill any plants that grow wild from the previous year. We also will not thin after we plant so that's why we had so many carrots last year. We also found a few russet potato plants growing. We planted two long rows of russets. Replanted the parsley from last year and one strawberry plant. We are rotating everything to different spots this year which we usually do every year. Luckily here the whole garden is full sun and in the open. At the other house part of the garden was in shade and some things just didn't do well there.

Hubby found a walnut plant growing out of a walnut. I know it will be a tree but right now it looks more like a plant. I put that in a pot and we'll figure out where to plant it in the yard and then transplant it.

I saw a really big field mouse. At least I think it was a field mouse. It's fur reminds me of a guinea pigs and it was a brownish red color. It was half the size of a big guinea pig and was right next to the house.

I have sun burn even though for most of the day it looked like it was going to rain or storm although it hasn't, at least not yet. I'm too tired to do the work that needs done but I'm also bored. I want to be at the beach fishing and looking for unusual shells, shark teeth, etc.

Thumper seems to be enjoying his renovated town. He has been zooming through his tunnels. Somehow he keep knocking the one out of place. I had to tell him earlier to stop chewing the floor of the one because it is off the ground. Not that he listens to me.

 

[whitelop]

I'm going to warn you about walnut trees, I don't know how familiar you are with them, but they're terrible. My whole yard is walnut trees, other than a few fruit trees, 4 pine trees and a tulip poplar. They grow crazy fast and drop walnuts every year, biannually they drop twice as many walnuts as the year before. Last year was my biannual year, there were so many we couldn't even walk in the yard. Plus they are really really hard to harvest. Last year I didn't try any because the year before I took all the husks off and set them on a table outside to dry, the next day the squirrels ripped me off and took them all! haha. There were over a hundred on the table! Darn squirrels, my hands were totally black and terrible looking for a month because of those husks.
So if you don't already have any walnut trees, I wouldn't start the cycle with them, so I wouldn't plant it!

I've been super lazy today, I've done nothing.

 

[Pipsqueak]

Yeah walnut trees are annoying. Today's been pretty slow, went shopping for flip flops and such. Poor goats are going through a lot of water.

 

[PaGal]

Missy...somehow I missed you up there. I'm glad to know Thumpers not the only bun that drinks like that. I was starting to think it was a conspiracy between my animals as my dog drinks and then walks away from his bowling dripping water all over my floor.

Morgan...I told hubby what you said. We have oak trees here. Oh my gosh the acorns are unbelievable and it certainly explains why we have so many squirrels about. I wouldn't mind so much since they are at the very front of our property but I hate mowing there because the mower shoots them out and they ricochet off the trees and then hit me.

Chris...Thumper has a bottle as well but he doesn't drink out of it. It's just there in case he would dump all of his water while we are sleeping or out.

 

[PaGal]

I took some pics. Only one of the kittens came out well. I had the camera set on the wrong setting. I'll get some more soon.

 

[PaGal]

I wasn't supposed to post that yet...Doh!

The one of Thump's cage is just to show you how hard he works at night!

 

[PaGal]

Thumper's new town...

 

[PaGal]

The garden. I put the wheelbarrow there to give you an idea of size. Also, my dog just because I was taking pics.

 

[Ilovemyrabbit]

Oh gosh, that kitten is so adorable! I'm going to have to cat/kitten nap him some day.

Oh wow, what a MESS Thumper's cage is :shock:. He must have been really working hard in there.

I loved the picture of Thumper eating his hay! He is such an adorable big guy. I love his cute little nose. What a great picture!

I love Thumper's town! I'm sure he'll have a blast tearing that place apart. Ash would love to have something like that. It just reminds me, I need to start saving up on cardboard boxes to build one of those for Ash.

WOW! I LOVE your garden!!! Haha. What an awesome garden spot that's going to be! Its so BIG! I wish I had that much space to grow things on here. I guess it might seem small to you, but for me, its gigantic! I don't have a very big garden spot. And the soil we have here is so rocky and its clay soil. Ugh, there is barely any grass growing here, it just makes me want nice soil SO bad seeing your picture, I really want more grass to grow here.

Your dog is so cute! How do he and Thumper get along?

 

[Pipsqueak]

Oh my goodness that kitten is so cute! Is that the one you're thinking about keeping? Thumper's a stinker! I love his town.

 

[PaGal]

Elise...that's one of the three grey striped kittens. He has a dark nose where the others don't so I can tell him/her apart.

That's typically what his cage looks like in the morning although it was a little worse in that pic.

Thank you, the garden is bigger than what we had planted before last year but it doesn't seem so big once everything is growing well. We had clay soil where we used to live. here it is more of a sandy soil. Not completely sand but a mix. It does a good job of growing so we are happy. We have more weeds than grass although the far end of our yard is bare from everyone riding 4 wheelers there. That's the downfall with sandy soil it's easier to tear the roots out. Except in the garden, the weeds there are still difficult.

Thumper and Redd get along fine. We just have to watch when they are together because our dog gets pretty crazy when he gets excited to play with someone else. When he gets too excited I make him lay down just because I worry he might accidentally hurt Thumper playing. Thumper likes zooming past him, jumping over him and trying to sniff his tail which isn't easy because it's always wagging when Thump's around.

Emily...no that's actually not one of the ones we are thinking of keeping. Actually I would keep them all but although we could afford the food and litter it would be the vet bills that would make it impossible

 

[whitelop]

Oh yeah, getting them all spayed and neutered would break the bank! haha. UNLESS you have a low cost spay/neuter clinic near you. I have one, which is where I got my two outside cats fixed, it was $75 for the girl and $65 for the boy, they needed shots too. It would have been like $45 for him without shots and $55 for her without shots. Thats a pretty good deal, because even my regular really great vet wanted like $180 for each of them because they weren't technically strays.
But where the vet comes in is where it gets really expensive. But I don't take mine to the vet very often, to get their shots I take them to the Mobile Vets we have around the area. They charge like $7-10 for their yearly shots, give me a rabies tag and I'm good to go. Its SO much cheaper because I'm not paying exam fees for them. I don't know if you guys have those up there, but if you do; its MUCH cheaper than a regular vet.
But I still have a great relationship with my regular vet and I have a separate rabbit vet.

I'm super jealous of your garden plot. I'll take a picture of mine...its SMALL. haha. I think sandy soil does really well to grow things. It drains really well, and watermelons LOVE sandy soil. Also, if you were to get lavender, it would love your sandy. haha. Our soil is this black, soft soil, its like you poured it out of a bag into the ground, but its just there. Its great. My roses love it and so do I!

 

[PaGal]

I can't remember what our regular vet cost for a spay but they are one of the least expensive around. Plus they are really understanding. I called about getting Isabelle her shots and of course they tell you about everything available like having them tested for feline aids but then they also inform you of what you should absolutely do like rabies. They also do wildlife rehab and board animals not that I need that.

I know they do the rabies vaccine where they charge I think $8. We might have a low cost spay/neuter place in the city but hubby would have to do the driving as I always get lost and then I freak out like crazy. Last time I had to go to the city he swore he'd never make me do that again. Ha!

I'll have to check on the mobile vet. Someone we know was talking about that in the town near us but if it is who I think it was that was talking about it I won't know for a while. His wife passed very recently unexpectedly so I wouldn't bother him now.

Your soil sounds really good. It brings to mind potting soil. That stuff I don't like though as the seedlings always seem to grow so quick that they are thin and die easily. I add some soil from the garden whenever I use potting soil now. I'm sure yours isn't that fine though.

I planted lavender at the other house since I love the smell and purple is my fav color. I'll keep that in mind for here as I was planning on planting some here since I like it so much. I was planning to plant it near our shed and am waiting till we build a permanent ramp to the shed.

As big as the garden is I know if we planted everything we grow it would need to be bigger. This year one girl asked to plant her own garden for Christmas. I know she won't plant much but we have to figure out whether to give her a section of the big one or her own little space.

 

[whitelop]

I would totally give her her own little space. I've read that its really good for kids to have something like that to take care of themselves.
I don't really like potting soil that much either, I can totally relate to what you're saying about the seedlings growing too fast and not being hardy enough. Thats what happened to me last year. I use the dirt from my yard to do anything now. My soil is really dark like potting soil, but its not as fine and fluffy as potting soil.
The stuff that I dug from under my compost pile was black, it was so dark and it looked SO good. I planted my veggie garden in that soil, so hopefully it does well.

 

[PaGal]

Well hubby will probably decide. If we give her a spot of her own then it will require some tilling just to help her deal with less weeds and digging. I guess it might depend on if we feel we'll have some extra space in the big garden or not. I don't think she cares either way she just wants to be able to plant and grow herself. They do help us in the garden with everything but tilling. One year we even planted a small section of nothing but small, more ornamental sunflowers.

Well it sounds like your soil is good to begin with and adding compost should only make it better.

 

[Pipsqueak]

Yes I think it's a good idea to give her her own little patch. My dad let me plant my own garden box every year since I was 8 lol, it was one of the things I looked forward to every summer.

 

[Chrisdoc]

That would be so good. We had a little patch in our garden when we were little with our own veggies which we had to look after although we used to help with the flowers as well. We did used to love it, strange how things change duh.