What a mess -- or is it?

Now that Thanksgiving is in the past, I'm no longer working long, long days at the bakery. It's amazing how many people want pies for that holiday (and how many people show up or call on the 23rd trying to order a pie!), but things are back to normal now. We peeled so many apples, it's crazy. Since the organics bins were filled to the top, I brought home four big boxes of peels on Tuesday (or was it Monday?):

Not wanting to make the trek back to the compost pile in the dark, I just left them on the driveway. I knew I would get to them on the holiday or over the weekend at the latest. Somebody got to them first!

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I expected the raccoons to have a little bit of fun with the peels, and that first night they did. Just a few "handfuls" of peels were pulled out of the boxes.

After another day or two though, the peels are almost completely gone!

They must have had a party out there, or perhaps the deer helped out...

...because only scraps and lemon rinds are left!

The boxes appear to be mostly empty now. Those critters saved me four trips back to the compost pile!

I wonder if I spread some peanut butter around on the ground I could get the deer to lick up all of the scraps too?


Keen-eyed readers will notice the bird of paradise leaves in the second photo. I have not yet brought it inside, and it has held up to a 27ºF (-3ºC) night and a few others below freezing. That's part of my new overwintering strategy that I'll be talking about soon: ruthless experimentation.

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