Food is where you find it...my snow isn't this deep anymore, but I've been overrun with squirrels lately, and I wanted to share their antics. When I looked out and saw this furry tail sticking up out of the snow, I thought "What the heck is he doing?"...then I remembered there was cracked corn on the ground in that spot, under the snow. Then another hungry squirrel is seen through the screen, figuring out why this cone is called a "baffle". But it's all good, as demonstrated by this poser on top of the arbor, "That's right ladies, I am too sexy for my fur"

Mushroom farm "after the freeze"... first glimpse after the "gnat-eliminating freeze"...low and behold-we have new pinning!! And no more gnats! Seems that the mycelium didn't mind a quick chill, and they are growing again-yay! But what's this fuzz? Not too worried, I did see this before, and the mushrooms matured fine, anyway. But now I see some green mold along the opposite edge of the farm....this may not be a good thing...

Worm bin recheck...
when we last visited our wormy friends, I'd just fed them with my own "fattening mix", so time to see what's going on, and to check for excessive heat generation which I'm told can occur with the addition of grains. Open the bin to find this guy cruising the wall-"Hey dude, too hot?" So I dug around to find that several larger worms had migrated up to the feed layer-sweet! Temperature seems fine, too. Dug aound some more....looks like we have a dry layer here. So I thoroughly mixed the top 4 inches or so...now the overall moisture level seems good, so no need to spray water. Checked the bottom bin for moisture...fair amount of "leachate" here, but no drowning/swimming worms-excellent! So I'm saving this liquid to pour on my designated houseplant to see if there seems to be any benefit. (From the looks of the plant, this liquid causes no harm thus far.) Closed the bin...til' next time fellas!

Bonsai update...and the news is not good. It seems that my new project may be close to it's first casualties. The serissa got knocked over, and still looks very upset 3 weeks later (internal injuries?). The juniper may look okay, but a lot of the foliage is quite crispy-bummer! Then I realized that I'd been ignoring the special watering method for bonsai that I read about in the first place! You're supposed to sit the pot in a container of water, covering the dirt, for up to 30 minutes! Then you let it drain... I'd been watering them like regular houseplants-d'oh! So here's serissa enjoying a soak...sure hope it's not too late!

Waxwings are here! I really love these beautiful, sleek birds! I was walking into work this morning, and heard their whispery calls...looked around and here they are! A whole flock of them cleaning the leftover fruit off this tree in the parking lot (some kind of cherry, I think). So I dash inside, punch in, (can't be late!), and came back out to take pictures. I couldn't get super close, so even fully zoomed they aren't as close as I'd like, but you get the idea. Then I spot the robin on the ground below the tree...poor thing looks like some sort of social outcast. Guess it was a private party!