I'm usually comfortable with wild critters, but there was this one time... Much of the back yard at our previous house was sloped. There was a terraced path mid-slope, and I had a bluebird house attached to the fence post at about 5' high. Placement was such because it was a backup house, and I found it easier to store it there than in the garden shed. I liked to feed the birds, but the seed did tend to attract those big, ugly rats to the back area of the yard. One day, I saw a rat run into the birdhouse. In bright daylight, no less. I went over and angrily flipped open the hinged top, thinking it would run off along the top of the fence. Well, that isn't quite what happened next. That rat launched himself out of the birdhouse, and flew! My feet were frozen in place, but I arched my back and leaned my head and torso away from the airborne missile as it flew 12" in front of my face. My eyes were wide, but the pupils followed the movement as that rat landed 5 feet downslope--and was swallowed up by the sword ferns growing there. Yikes! There was no time to straighten up, because a few seconds later rat #2 flew out of the box in the same arc as the first one. I never screamed; the only thing that seemed to be working were my eyes and the count. Three. An involuntary shudder went down my arms about that time, but I was still firmly frozen in place. Number four allowed me to focus 15" in front of my nose as he flew out at a slightly different angle down the slope. There was a brief pause...and I smiled that miraculously none of them had landed on my body in their panic! I'd just begun to straighten when number five launch through the air..Ack!.. and soon, number six followed the first rat's route... I waited. And waited some more. Finally I straightened up and looked inside the birdhouse. Empty. WHEW! I have no idea how so many large rats fit inside that birdhouse--or even WHY they would all be smashed inside of there. That none of them ran out, and all jumped as if shot from a mini-canon from the interior shredded what I think of as typical rat behavior. It definitely goes down as one of the freakiest things I've ever experienced; Not sure if it qualifies more as a funny story or a nightmarish one. lol

What Ken said..about 'nure :) But Hey , is Santa hang out w/ Batman & Robin now ?!? I hope not! lol I use bunny-poo & ram-doo , myself nothing like self supporting pets, I can knit a sweater & feed hosta w/ their contributions to the home. My "Pre-composters" are the cutest little things too. Never tried bat guano, let us know how that goes Susanan . ~Dot

This could be fun! Let'se see how many funny hosta names we can come up with based on ones that are available.... Teeny Weeny Bikini x Beyond Measure = Beyond the Bikini!!! or.... Kiwi Full Monty x Reptillian Monty Python

You know, the whims of the weather in your northerly reaches are a big puzzle to me. Probably the top temp so far this year HERE, has been 78F, but no way do we fluctuate so wildly as in Ontario. Is that a normal fluctuation? My word, I do sympathize with you. Enough is enough. Time to have a real spring before summer gets here. Meanwhile, first full moon of spring was last night, also a lunar eclipse which we had no chance to observe with a big lightning storm and total overcast here. And so Easter Sunday is upon us. Yet today, we have the unsettled feeling of weather which leads to hail and perchance tornado winds, and with the sailboats racing in the bay the chance of some being dismasted or struck by lightning. I did not stay outdoors long, but I observed the hosta leaves whipping in wind gusts, the spanish moss twisting like it did last summer, and all three Japanese maples sheltering small birds waiting for room at the feeders.