Rabbit update...it has been awhile

Our rabbits have lived up to their reputation of fecundity, and despite being separated from the two males for the last six weeks, the mother rabbit, Ol Yeller, has given birth to two new litters, the first consisting of 3 young and the most recent, of 6. Here is proof then that a rabbit can carry two separate litters or pregnancies in her womb at once!

Her very first spring litter had 6 young. We gave 2 away to a Bellingham urban farm so our young rabbits now number 13 and our adults 3. We had separated the remaining four from the first litter born to our "urban farm" and fed them oregano, dandelion, clover, sage, grass, strawberries, greens as well as their locally produced alfalfa grain mixture. It seems that the time to butcher them draws near. Our lack of experience causes us to hesitate...I do believe I will be able to eat them, however, even though I have not eaten meat in over 8 years.

Fortunately, we never had to butcher our hens. We use no lights to cause them to lay all winter and so they lay all their long lives, though less frequently than their young flockmates.

We feel good about the living conditions for Ol Yeller and her 8 young ones. She still allows the older ones to nurse and all get along well. Rabbits are so affectionate with one another! If we ever brave up and do the nasty deed, we will have to do so in groups, so as to not pain them with the loss of their siblings.

Wild ones, attempting to survive, dealing with steel and speed and petro, you and I observing.

You witnessed it, the black bear who shepherded her cubs across the highway,
the cars that paused, you and I behind our bikes, wondering and wary, fishing
for our cameras, too stunned to get a shot. I leaned into you, afraid for us, far
more afraid for them. We were unwilling to follow their route over the median wall across the other side of the highway beneath the pass that was our goal. What was theirs? Water, you suggested and you spoke for them. “They/we cross this way often.” What did you observe that they needed on each side of concrete and risk? This road seemed to you part of their routine, this road of death that connected them to sustenance.

Which weed are you?
Ivy that extinguishes others?
Knot weed that consumes greedy as a giant?
Deceitful blackberry that uses lovely birds to spread its fruit and fury?
Or Scotch broom that replaces meadows like a parking lot?

A visit with my daughter

We walked distances I would pedal
and mixed the flowers of herbs into a fresh curry
for soup and a sweet sour dough, round and ilumined.
We spent our money at small places along alleys
where young folks parked their bicycles. We
walked a labyrinth and stooped into berries,
evidence on our knees.
We traced lakes with our dogged strokes,
I not mentally able to keep up but still getting there. Where?
We observed Cervantes as he mocked virtues
and identified each and every element of his tale twice
like us, twice a person, grappling with the 6th extinction
as I understand it…reading about the “lost and left behind”
during this age of abundance and beautiful tragedy,
mindful of the rainbow in the oil slick.

Independence from Harmful Traditions this July 4

True Patriotism
With the tragic loss of life that our Gulf of Mexico undergoes this year, I invite true American Patriots to refrain from celebrating via the use of pyrotechnics, especially along our streams, rivers and bays. We know fireworks torture our domestic animals as well as wildlife and marine species. In respect for the creatures of the Gulf, let us use the symbolism of the Fourth of July to mark our independence from selfish traditions that disregard life. Let us show some restraint and honor the beauty of sea turtles, dolphins, pelicans, verdant estuaries and clean beaches. Or at least they once were beautiful but now suffer the horrific hell that wages a war of fertilizer runoff, oil, dispersants and fire. After such an Independence Day, we could then rethink all our behaviors concerning water and our lovely, but endangered Puget Sound. We could proclaim water our life blood and preserve it by: driving less; creating gray water solutions in our homes or constructing rain gardens; planting native species alongside our shores; drinking from reusable containers; holding car washes on permeable surfaces; and helping the poor to obtain water filters, etc… Please join me on this Fourth of July, 2010, in my efforts to free myself from the tyranny of practices that harm other lives.