Robert's latest entry into the long running saga of Sauron's Wraith Rabbits.
I have a suggestion. And I quote:
Some enterprising rabbit had dug its way under the stakes of my garden again. One voracious rabbit could eat a cabbage down to the roots, and from the looks of things, he'd brought friends. I sighed and squatted to repair the damage. The loss of Ian was a constant ache; at such moments as this, I missed his horrible dog as well. I had brought a large collection of cuttings and seeds from River Run, most of which had survived the journey. It was mid-June, still time---barely---to put in a fresh crop of carrots. The small patch of potato vines was all right, so were the peanut bushes; rabbits wouldn't touch those, and didn't care for the aromatic herbs either, except the fennel, which they gobbled like licorice. I wanted cabbages, though, to preserve as sauerkraut; come midwinter, we would want food with some taste to it, as well as some Vitamin C. I had enough seed left, and could raise a couple of decent crops before the weather turned cold, if I could keep the bloody rabbits off. I drummed my fingers on the handle of my basket, thinking. The Indians scattered clippings of their hair around the edges of the fields, but that was more protection against deer than rabbits. Jamie was the best repellant, I decided. Nayawenne had told me that the scent of carnivore urine would keep rabbits away---and a man who ate meat was nearly as good as a mountain lion, to say nothing of being more biddable. Yes, that would do; he'd shot a deer only two days ago; it was still hanging. I should brew a fresh bucket of spruce beer to go with the roast venison, though...
Obviously that's from a work of fiction. Drums of Autumn
to be precise. By Diana Gabaldon, Copyright 1997, All Rights Reserved.
Claire is the narrator. She's a doctor from the twentieth century who
has time traveled back in time to the eighteenth century, hence all the
bleating about Vitamin C: she finds a typical eighteenth century diet
to be apalling in its lack of nutrition. Jamie is her Scots husband,
who has taken her to America where they have settled in the mountains
of western North Carolina. Nawayenne is an Indian medicine woman. Drums is the fourth in a series of 1000+ page novels about Jamie and Claire and their adventures. (The first in the series is Outlander
and it's fantastically fun reading. Give it a whirl.)
Now, normally, I wouldn't take the word of an author of fiction about
the efficacy of a man relieving himself around the borders of a garden
to keep the rabbits out. I write fiction. I know about inventing stuff and making it sound like the real deal. But I also happen to have met Diana and chatted with her. You see, Diana is a PhD in Ecology
and part of her process is to research widely about the period of time
and location central to her plot and to incorporate bits and pieces of
that research into her writing. She's an academic at heart: she loves
to look around and see what's out there. Specifically, if she finds
something that history has forgotten about, she will, invariably,
choose to write about it just to add it to the register of things she's
informed her audience of (some of which would be the difference between
passive and active immunity, the joys of antibiotics, germs, blood
typing, bloodletting, herbal remedies, fertility, Eistein's theory of
relativity, amputation, how women dealt with their time of the month
way back when, etc.). This, of course, makes her novels go long, but
when Jamie's around, who honestly cares how long these books get? I
digress, but I think you get the point: a goodly portion of her books
are interesting simply because you get Claire's scientific hindsight
explaining why things were done in a certain way. The rest of her books
are interesting because of Jamie, but hey, I think I already went
there. Long story short: I trust her. I'm fairly sure this is true.
Further research would probably indicate that this, indeed, works to
rid one's garden of rabbits, but I've got a bunch of website content to
write today and haven't the time to go and check it out. Soooooo...the
question(s) of the day would seem to be: after having eaten a steak for
supper, is Robert desperate enough to try taking a midnight trip to his
garden,? Is he brave enough to risk the wrath of any Gladys Kravitz
neighbors he might have living next door? But most
importantly---ahem---does anyone live near to him and have a digital
camera?