Louisiana Iris

Today I planted a bunch of Louisiana Iris divisions.  Nancy, our neighbor across the street is a real gardener, and she recently divided her perennials and brought over a box of her irises for our non-garden.

I am not really a gardener.  In fact, I have come to realize that I hate gardening.  Not flowers!  I love to have stuff blooming.  I just hate crouching, bending, reaching and kneeling for extended periods of time.  My back and neck are already in bad shape, and it just kills me!  And I want to do right by these iris babies.  Annuals are okay by me.  A pain to plant, but if you kill'em, it's just a little earlier than the frost was going to do anyway.  Perennials are like adopting a pet.  They are long lived.  A responsibility.  Gotta water them.  Gotta feed them.  Rats.

Here is a Louisiana Iris (photo from the internet):

I think Nancy was growing them in her pond, but she said that they grow on land just fine.  They do need plenty of moisture, though.  The clay soil is going to be interesting.  I guess I have to hope for wet summers every year from now on.

Born Free (in the back yard)

I could call this post "Adventures with Wildlife". Yesterday morning, B said "I've got a surprise for you outside".  I was cranky (normal) and said, "I hope it's a pony".  It wasn't.

Skink in a box.  Skinny looking, isn't he?  That box came from the LIVING ROOM.  I had FOOD stored in it!!!  How did the skink get in the living room  And where is my food?  Neither question got answered.

About an hour later, while waiting for the dog to "find a spot", I see something out of place in the old wire from the aerial...

A green snake.  So I got all Steve Irwin. "Get me a snake stick!" I yelled, and I persuaded the snake down from the eaves.  He was headed up into the attic through a hole in the soffit.  I'll bet that he was smelling mice in the attic.  "There are no mice in the attic," says B.  Right. (Rolling my eyes!)  Then I set him free at the edge of the woods.

The other wildlife of the day was across the street at our neighbors.  Nancy came over and said she had a fox in one of her basement window wells that was mangy and sick looking, and it wasn't even trying to get out and run away.  She let us know that she'd called animal control to come and pick him up, in case he's rabid.  She once had a raccoon in her garage that ended up positive for rabies, (and Nancy had to get the rabies shots in her stomach) so she is automatically cautious.

Our dogs are up to date on vaccinations, and are never off leash, so they probably haven't been exposed.  But the feral cats in the neighborhood probably have.  Poor kitties.

I decided not to go see the poor fox (or photograph it).  Too sad. 

In house news, the faucet I installed last week (that leaked)  is now fixed.  I could tell that I had seated the drain off-center in the opening.  I just reinstalled it, with fresh putty, using B as my helper to watch that the drain stays centered as it's tightened.  Happy ending = no leaks!