What a busy weekend. Started off with a little Junior Solar Sprint Action. In case you don’t know the JSS is a model solar powered car race that 6th-8th graders participate in to learn about science math and engineering. It was a perfect day for solar racing, hot and sunny. Silly me I applied the recommended amount of sun screen to almost every part of my body. I forgot that your hands are in fact covered with skin and the backs of your hands will in fact get sun burned if you are sitting in the middle of a tennis court for a couple of hours. I have never had sun burned fingers, and hope never to again. The sprint was amazing this year and a good time was had by all.

Sunday I had the great honor to be named (along with everyone else I live and work with, who in all honestly probably deserve it more than I do) Conservationist Of The Year, buy the Harwich conservation trust. It was really nice of them to recognize all the hard work we have done over the years for the town of Harwich and Cape Cod in general. Heck they even had an engraved pewter plate.

We got take home diploma style awards, it read

The Harwich Conservation Trust 2007 Conservationists of the year for helping to protect the woodland, water resources, and wildlife of Harwich through outstanding dedication to volunteer service. Wishing you a future of fair winds, clear skies, free of ticks and poison ivy. With gratitude and appreciation from the Board of Trustees.

The part I liked best was that they really understand the kind of life we live. I would say at any given point at least half of us have poison ivy (P.I. to those in the know). It is always really nice when people appreciate the things you do.

I would also like to submit for the record that I am sorry for this next part. On Friday two of my room mates came home with a bucket of what looked like mulch and a sob story. They were doing some yard work for a lady and they had run across a bunch of baby bunnies. The lady (who loves her lawn, a lot) wanted to drown them. I grew up on a farm, drowning baby bunnies, sad but not the end of the world. Well these two city folk were not going to let this lady drown the bunnies, instead they had brought them home.

I sat listening to this story thinking “oh man pets, we cant have pets, why did they bring them home…” and then I saw them. Sweet merciful 8 pound 3 oz baby Jesus these things were cute. The kind of cute you buy on the black market. Weaponized cute. Really no one could drown these things. We could put these little guys on the front of Bradly fighting vehicles and pacify any terrorist network on the planet. The next thing you know I was cooing contently and enjoying a wonderful (cute) little moment with evolutions answer to the wart hog.

We eventually got some kitty milk replacement formula (who knew rabbits are lactose intolerant) and took care of them every two hours. In the morning one of our room mates took them to a local nature rehabilitation center, where they will make other people coo and fawn, until they are released back into the woods. Where they will most likely be eaten by a hawk or a coyote.

If you thought that they were cute sitting still… wait till you try and feed them. It’s hard to feed them because you keep almost passing out from just how cute they look when they are nibbling on the ends of the feeder tube. You think to yourself “hold it together, hold it together” and then out of your mouth springs something like “ohhhhhhhh looooky it’s nibbling!!!!”

If you ever find a nest of baby bunnies, run away. Just do it. The moma bunny (notice the cute speak has not worn off yet), has evolved defenses over the eons to the massive cute radiation of these creatures and is the only one really fit to take care of them. If something has happened and you must disturb the nest make sure you take them to your local wild life rehab center as soon as possible before long term cute exposure sets in. Plus feeding the little buggers every two hours is a major pain in the ass.