a rescue, spring yard work, and no politics

SHARE was very slow on Thursday, I think we had maybe five clients for food. Slow days are boring but I did chat with some of the other volunteers some, something I don't ordinarily do. I figure the less those people know about me the better.

When I got home, Emma the cat was laying by the back door and about 18” away was a dead baby squirrel. Bad cat and poor little baby. I scooped it up and tossed it out in the field. A few hours later I heard a small animal screaming and looked out to see an adult squirrel attacking another baby squirrel on the ground at the bottom of the tallow tree. I ran out, scared off the adult and the injured baby scrambled around the tree. Well, damn. Injured baby would be no match for the cat so I got the cat carrier and with Minnie's help, we herded the poor little scared thing into the carrier. 

Now what was I gonna do with this little thing, maybe 5" or 6” long not counting it's tail. So I looked up wildlife rehabilitators in my area, called a woman in Bay City about 35 minutes down the road toward the coast and she agreed to take the little thing. She thinks that a male, probably the one I saw attacking the baby, tossed them out of the nest which they will do given the chance, and probably that's what killed the one and injured this one and the cat just found it. The little survivor was very dehydrated, she said, so something may have happened to the mother which gave the male the opportunity.

So that was my Thursday. Yesterday Pam and I went to a nursery, she looking for herbs to start a new herb garden, me looking for big pots. No pots the right size but I did come away with three plants one of which is another of the fragrant Japanese azaleas. The one I had had was doing so poorly in the ground I finally dug it up to pot it for special care and realized it had been so potbound it never recovered once planted. Anyway, it died. This is a common problem with all the plants that come from this nursery so this time I immediately repotted it after almost but not quite bare rooting it. I swear I don't know how she keeps them alive long enough to get them sold. Hopefully this one will do well in the pot and I can put it in the ground this fall.

Then we went to Loews where I did find pots that weren't perfect, would have preferred straight sides instead of tapered, but would do. Also finally got the lamp wire I need to wire up the chandelier with a plug and a switch so I can finally get it hung as a swag lamp in the corner.

After I dealt with the Japanese azalea, I repotted the bird of paradise. OMG! That thing was so root bound and the roots were more like ropes, long and thick, like octopus tentacles or dreadlocks and they wound round and round and round the pot. 

I broke quite a few trying to loosen them up which I did eventually get them untangled but now no way would the thing even fit in the bigger pot. So I root pruned it by half. It had even less roots when I originally dug it up so I figured it would be OK. I hope. Anyway, it's now in a bigger pot.

old pot, new pot (which isn't that much bigger), and pile of roots

I've written about my absent neighbor on the other side who is not so absent these days, he's been in residence for over a year caught by covid. He lives in Washington state but comes around several times a year to visit family and work. Anyway, he had been hunting in south Texas, said he shot a deer, and brought us some sausage. 

Only it wasn't a deer, it was an antelope. Apparently some of these nilgai escaped from an exotic animal ranch and have multiplied in the wild. It was really good.

Once this last front moved through with the overcast and rain, we've had really nice dry cool blue sky days. So, more yard work for me today. I started cutting the weeds and hay grass in the ditch in front of the shop property with the gas trimmer. You can see how much I got done before I ran out of gas and arm strength.

the picture is deceptive as I still have more to do than I got done

It only weighs just under 10 pounds but 10 pounds gets heavy really fast. Then I cut back the rangoon creeper trimming it close to the fence since I know all those small branches are dead, same with the desert rose trumpet flower vine which bloomed so beautifully last year which isn't really a vine, more like an unruly shrub, and I'm still not seeing any new growth on either. Then I cut down the dead stalks on the clump of morning glory bush over there (no sign of new growth) and dumped all the trash on the newly burned burn pile and by then I was done, almost. I watered the little backyard.

Still need to repot the yellow angel trumpet but now I think I'll wait until it has finished this round of blooms since I was going to prune off those tallest branches with the buds.

The wisteria on the fence between the shop property and the neighbor is coming into full bloom

and the blue bonnets are blooming though I'm a little disappointed as the plants are sparse this year, probably the fewest we've ever had since we've been here.