Dirty Little Rascal...If you weren't so cute I'd...I'd...

Apparently the quote I amusingly posted a couple of weeks ago was not too far off from the truth. Just days after our sprouts emerged from the soil I found THIS munching grass in our backyard! So far it has overlooked most of the vegetables in the garden, however, I do believe it ate all the tops off my lettuce sprouts. So, I am wondering, what is this baby bunny doing hopping about all by itself? Where there is one baby bunny, there must be about 30 more, right? I suppose the next step is to place chicken wire around the garden so the little guy can't get any more free meals.

Sprouts

Garden: One of a vast number of free outdoor restaurants operated by
charity-minded amateurs in an effort to provide healthful, balanced
meals for insects, birds and animals.
- Henry Beard and Roy McKie, Gardener's Dictionary

We couldn't resist! What's a backyard without a garden with lots of yummy vegetables? The three of us (Paul, Bel, and Kara) worked hard for 2 days building our raised garden. Boy were we proud of our work when we were done!

Step 1: build a 4' x 6' rectangle out of pressure-treated wood.

Step 2: set in into ground.

Step 3: Dig out grass in middle. (not the smartest way to do this)

Step 4: add dirt.

Step 5: add seeds/ plants.

Step 6: water and wait for several months.

We will let you know when we are actually reaping the fruits of our labors!

Bills Hot Dogs

Now that we are settled into our house, we think it is time to discover some of the local culture. On Wednesday we drove to Washington, NC. It is about 20 minutes away from Greenville and is located on the Pamlico River. There we discovered Bill's Hot Dogs. Bill's has been in business since 1927. The menu has one item: hot dogs. I don't think I have ever had a hot dog quite like Bill's. He has a secret recipe of very spicy chili, which is placed on the bun with a spicy-marinated hot dog and a shmear of mustard. After consuming 2 hot dogs, I could have sworn I was sweating chili. So, if you are every in the neighborhood, check out Bill's Hot Dogs, it will most certainly prove to be a memorable experience. The Pamlico River boardwalk in Washington, North Carolina.
Paul on his 4th hot dog. He claims it is the best he's ever had.

New House

Well, we are finally in North Carolina. We moved in a few days ago and everything is going great, we have unpacked just about everything, and have been to the hardware store a few times to fix a few things around the house, but in general the house is great.
We took four days to drive to NC, and we stopped a few places along the way. Most notable was Prairie Dog Town in Kansas, which boasted of their live five and six legged cows. You just can't go all the way through Kansas and not see the freak show cattle. There was also the 8,000 pound prairie dog, which we were all so excited to see.

Here is the 5-legged cow. Pretty weird right??The 8000 lb. prairie dog the tourist trap advertised? Yep, you guessed it! It was made of cement.

We also stopped at the Gateway to the West in St. Louis, just long enough to not get drowned in a huge rain storm. We parked our car and truck illegally, but didn't get towed. The view and ride to the top were great.

During the last stretch to the house we encountered a really bad thunderstorm and our truck was getting blown around a lot, so we had to pull over and decided we would have some dinner at a Greek pizza place. We were going to get a motel room for the night when the storm let up. We decided to drive on and arrived in Winterville and the house around 11 pm. We didn't unpack anything except our mattresses, which we threw on the floor and slept our first night in the new house.