Darn Rabbits.

They're so cute and unassuming, and the kids just love seeing one in the yard from time to time. A week ago I was talking with the nbeighbor, and she mentioned that the rabbits had eaten her beans and other plants in her garden. I was put on aleert, but thought I'd see the damage happen and avert the problem. I also suspected that because my tiny garden is a raised bed, the rabbits may stay away.

Well, yesterday I went out for my daily examination and it looked like a few random plants had had their leaves chewed off. That surprised me. I thought that the rabbits, if interested, would be more interested in the freshly out of the ground plants- not so much the leaves that had been there for several days. So I put in an e-mail to my Mom asking if she had any fencing- since she's not gardening this year. I figured I'd hop on over today and pick it up and that would be that.

What I didn't expect was that when I went out to the garden this morning, I would find all of my bean plants have had their leaves eaten off. Darn it! Those darn rabbits had a buffet this morning in the wee hours of the AM, and now I have to re-plant. (Insert angry eyes.)

In other news, yesterday morning we brought home 11 pounds of strawberries, which we literally munched on all day long. We had yogurt and fresh berries for lunch, waffles with berries and whipped cream for dinner- not to mention the dozens and dozens of berries straight up. :-) I also managed to can 10 half-pints of strawberry jam, as well as freeze 4 pints of sugared berries for those winter shortcake cravings. So we went through those berries rather quickly. Talking to the patch owners yesterday, strawberry picking can last up to four weeks if they have enough rain- so with any luck there will be many more berries to come. Right now it looks like it may rain this morning, and if it doesn't we'll likely head out to the patch again today. Abigail asked for homemade ice cream, I have a hankering for a fresh strawberry pie, and I also want to make a batch of Strawberry-Lemon Marmalade. (Doesn't that just sound good?) So we may be picking up another 10 pounds or so. Gotta love it. Off to find a recipe for really good strawberry ice cream. Have a great day!