A rock garden wouldn't be such a bad idea. I'm sure some landscaping rock isn't going to be terribly expensive. Once the roof and gutters provide some extra protection, the kids could turn it into a fairy garden. I'd hate for them to invest their time and money into making a fairy garden just to see it washed out with a heavy rain. At the very least, there's no point trying to use that space for permaculture if it's going to be under water all spring and every time it rains heavily.
We are scheduled to meet someone tomorrow with Violet and Vesuvius. Hopefully one of them will find their forever home.
Earlier this month I responded to an offer in a seed forum I am a part of for a SASE offer. I was hoping to get some of the varieties that have been on my wish list for some time and I've been struggling to track down. I also won an auction for a couple seeds of a new variety of okra I don't have yet. I've been diligently checking the mail every day, but as of today, still no seeds. I also emailed someone else about a possible seed exchange, but they never got back to me either. I'm a little disappointed. Hopefully I will be able to share about new seeds arriving next week.
I think after tomorrow's meeting with the rabbits, I'm going to go through some numbers and see about possibly keeping some rabbits back, and really pushing to sell the rest. I know Fella and the V litter definitely need to go, but I wonder about keeping Wisp and Boon back as a breeding project. They're both going to be bigger than a normal lionhead. Show standard for a lionhead requires them to weigh 3 pounds, 12 ounces or less. Boon already weighs in at 4 pounds at three months old, and Wisp is 2 pounds at two months old. While I have always liked the look of angoras, I am deathly allergic to their fur. I've been spending a good deal of time these past few days, snuggling with Wisp, and my allergies are not causing issues. The lionhead fur seems to be a safe in-between! Their bigger size means they're more likely to survive a harsh Minnesota winter outside. It's the best of both worlds. Adorable lionhead manes, but on sturdy bigger rabbits that aren't so fragile as a dwarf breed. Still, that means dedicating more cage space to "pet" rabbits and less to "meat" rabbits. But if that's what it takes to sell enough to pay the food bill for the others, then perhaps that's a good move.
I'm looking forward to winter sowing season. If I can keep up on house chores this week, we can start playing in dirt this week or next week! Whooo!
Yesterday #5 wasn't feeling well. He was scheduled for a well child check up anyway, so we went. No high fever, not throwing up, and he was keeping hydrated by drinking water, so we weren't worried. I just felt so bad for him as he was laying on the living room floor... I had just dressed him and he looked at me and said "My insides are telling me I have to lay down." Poor guy. Fortunately he was bouncing off the walls by dinner time, so we're thankful whatever he had was a quick bug. He did complain that his leg hurt. Bad enough that he was fast asleep and woke up screaming in pain. He's done this a few times before, and I have no idea why. Some children's acetaminophen gets him back to sleep and then he's usually fine the next day (sometimes complaining of leg weakness or minor pain, but not the crying pain). Weird. And of course it hadn't happened for so long that I didn't even think to bring it up at his doctor appointment.
Tonight we had the worst experience at the local pizza place. The salad they gave to #4 (she got a free pizza and salad for meeting her reading goal at school) was 3/4 lettuce, a pinch of diced green bell pepper with what looked like cracked black pepper over it, and 1/4 diced onion. It was so strong she refused to eat it and I had watering eyes and burning throat and couldn't finish the tiny bowl either. When we placed our order they said they were out of one kind of crust, so the kids picked something else. Then the kitchen workers started making comments about our order. After waiting 20-30 minutes, they came out to tell me they didn't have any bacon, and I'd need to pick some other ingredient. Sure, let's do chicken instead. More waiting. And I mean, we were in there a full 45 minutes before we got anything besides drinks and onion salad. By then I had two kids starting to get whiny about the wait. Let me also add that there was only one other person there, and she wasn't eating, but just chatting with the employees. We were the only people there eating this entire time! Finally the waitress came out and said "here's your bacon lettuce tomato." and plopped a pizza in front of me. A pizza with lettuce chunks stuck in the cheese. Now, I really have to wonder about this waitress at this point. I'm lactose intolerant, and I hate having to eat out at pizza places because I always have to order something separate. This particular place has wraps available, so that's what I ordered... A BLT wrap. Not a BLT pizza. Who puts lettuce on a pizza? And now I realized why the kitchen staff were cracking jokes. But after 45 minutes of waiting with kids escalating, unable to get the onion burn out of my mouth and throat, and now facing a meal I can't eat, I had enough. I had reached my breaking point. I took the keys and went out to the car. I was on the verge of tears. Seriously. We don't eat out very often, and to have so many problems in one night was just too much. Of course #1 points out that service is usually spot on and we've never had an issue before... but still. After I left they did make the BLT wrap (with chicken because they had no bacon) and even gave it to us at half price. It's in the fridge now. Maybe I'll eat it for lunch tomorrow. Tonight I was just too beyond upset to even consider eating it. I wound down by watching a movie instead.
Fried Green Tomatoes... If you haven't seen the movie, please look it up! It's a great movie (Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Jessica Tandy with Chris O'Donnell for a little while). Motivated me to try the food too (and boy they're delicious, but if you eat to many you'll make yourself sick). Looking forward to fried green tomatoes (the food) at the end of the garden season when we pull in all the unripe tomatoes ahead of the first fall frosts. Maybe in the future I will plant green-when-ripe tomatoes for fried green tomatoes. For now I think they'd just get lost in the shuffle.