The Return of the Feculent Possum

It's Spring, so there must be a dead possum in my yard.



Since this has been the case for the past two years, I feared the worst when I began smelling something dead today.



Sniff, sniff. Is it in the garage? I went and got a flashlight and shined it in all the likely spots. The smell persisted, even though I couldn't find anything.



Could it be outside the garage? I have a lot of salvaged wood and fencing leaning against the side of the garage and it's a popular site for animals to hide. Sure enough, when I moved a stack of 2x4's I saw fur.



At first I thought it might be a cat, but as it was revealed it all its putrefascence it turned out to be another GIANT possum. Why do these things always choose MY yard to die in? I haven't had catfood on the porch all winter because I brought my outside cats inside for the duration, thereby cutting down on my food costs as I was not feeding every living thing for miles. I'm probably the cause of its demise in that regard.



Off to find a spot in the yard I can dig a hole. Dug one and went back to get the decaying marsupial. Whoops! Too big, have to dig a bigger hole. Carried it across the yard dropping writhing carrion worms the whole way. Went back and scraped up the "pieces" that were left over and filled in the hole. It still stinks.



Hosed down the spot as well as I could and hope the worms die in the sun.



Well, got that job done for another year! That is, unless something comes along and digs it up.

Breaking Buds

It's hard to believe that only 5 days ago I had buds instead of flowers. This is how the tulip tree looks tonight.

I had to take the picture because we have had wind all day and bad weather predicted--even snow for Monday--and the petals are already starting to fall.

Here are the buds on the wisteria. Here are various other things that weren't blooming Saturday. The bleeding heart wasn't even up yet!

The above is a black currant bush. You can't believe how wonderful my yard smells right now. This thing is powerful. Everyone should have one--not to mention all the black currants! (That I can't figure out what to do with.)

Count the kitties.

Beezer

The following owie shot is for Greg. I "broke the skin" on my thumb restacking some boards that blew down. It's not as dramatic without the dripping blood, but you can see the scar on my wrist where they repaired the triple break from a wallyball mishap. (Oh--and my toes.)

Yard Work with Cats

Being a beautiful day, I decided to get a little done outside, even though my old winter bones don't want to move much. I did a lot of simple things like setting up the patio table and chairs,

(That tacky lion was gifted to me last week at 2:00 in the am by my ex, who thinks it's cool. He put it on the front porch, but not living at Graceland, I moved it to the back yard. If nature wants this thing to exist, it will stay there and not be broken--if not--Sayonara Tacky Lion!)

hauling the hoses out of the basement and hooking them up, and washing the mold (!) off the bulkhead doors preparatory to another coat of paint.

In all these endeavors I was "helped"by at least three cats at a time, and up to five at one point, when I happened to wander out into the yard to pick up a fallen branch. This was extremely fascinating to the in-all-winter group and they jumped and bit at it until it was broken into small enough pieces to satisfy them.

If we don't get a late freeze the Magnolia Soulangiana will be beautiful. (Tulip Tree to those not into botanical nomenclature)

One of the Forsythia is in bloom--the other is a poor performer, but it is useful as a scene-blocker, so it stays in the corner.