Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

 Left Over Pumpkins

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater
Had a wife and couldn't keep her
Put her in a pumpkin shell
An there he kept her very well!

I had half a dozen left over pumpkins from decorations at the museum this fall and decided to bring them home, along with the decorative corn shucks, to feed to the cows.  The corn shucks each had at least one good ear of field corn attached to each corn stalk and the cows loved them.  Interestingly enough some of the animals knew right away what to do with the corn stalks and some didn't.Their behavior didn't have anything to do with age, because one of the first to grab a stock with an ear of corn and begin munching the corn was Thor, the coming two year old bull. Jealousy, a six year old cow had to watch Thor work on that ear of corn before she figured it out!  Fascinating!.

Anyway, I tossed a couple of pumpkins over the fence and they split open.  I was sure the cows would love them, the goats always did.  But almost a month later the pumpkins are still laying in the field.

I also broke a pumpkin open and gave it to the chickens, thinking they would peck it down to the rind in no time and be thrilled with all those pumpkin seeds.  The seeds disappeared but the pumpkin is still laying out by the chicken house. I'm not sure what ate the seeds, but no body seems to interested in the pumpkin. 

So, I had decided to throw the remaining pumpkins on the compost pile when I remembered what had happened one winter when I'd left some pumpkins and squash in the front yard a little ways away from the house and propped up against a tree. They had been part of a decorative display of mums and pumpkins and big Hubbard squash.  I planted the mums but forgot all about the pumpkins and squash until spring when I began cleaning up the flower beds for spring planting. Nestled up again two large Hubbard squash one of the pumpkins had been excavated and turned into a baby rabbit nest with a southern exposure.  Mother rabbit had a safe shelter for the babies and a ready food supply of pumpkin seeds all in one place.

Here's Zeke on top of a round bale of hay.  The cats love to sit on top of the bales and watch the world go by. It's a great vantage point for scoping out mice and rabbits. 

With eight cats around, I doubt any mother rabbit will have a chance of raising a nest or bunnies in a pumpkin any where near my house, but I'm leaving the rest of the pumpkins propped up against a tree in the woods, just in case.