Damn Varmints
I'm frustrated. After the squirrels ate my cucurbits down to stubs, I built heavy duty cages around them, wrapped the cages with bird netting, and staked the netting down with wire pins and rocks. The plants are recovering. They have fresh leaves and are starting to send out new blossoms. One small zucchini had escaped the notice of the varmints and I had my eye on it. It was going to be the first zucchini of the season. Then I went out to the garden one afternoon and it was half-eaten.
I did find a second zucchini yesterday and I picked it lickity-split, even though it was on the small side, because I wanted to at least get one vegetable from my cucurbits this summer.
Here's the first zucchini, shortly before the damn varmints ate it.
The latest thing to produce on our homestead is fruit flies. The kitchen is infested and we've made a trap with dish soap, apple cider vinegar, and plastic wrap. The house flies are pestiferous now as well.
There was a baby-sized tarantula in the bedroom the other night.
Grendel, one of our cats, caught a lizard by the tail. Mike made her let it go.
There was a scorpion in the kitchen sink.
I've had two harvester ant bites and stings so far this summer. I've picked many of them off of my feet; they don't always bite and sting but when they do, it's close to excruciating for 10-12 hours.
One of the largest spiders I've ever seen was crawling very quickly around on the living room walls last night. We put it outside.
There was a large, smushed toad on the road the other day after a rain storm. It sat there undisturbed and uneaten for a few days until a coyote came along and took a crap on it. I'm not sure what the message was.
An unhappy cricket was trying to climb the sides of the bathtub a few mornings ago. I put it outside.
While I love the growing of summer and I really love watching and studying critters of all kinds, I'm looking forward to cooler weather when they've retired for the year and I can walk around without being bitten, stung, or surrounded by cloud of flies. It's true, though, that even the cold weather won't stop the coyotes from leaving their crap in interesting places. They strike me as kind of passive aggressive.
I did find a second zucchini yesterday and I picked it lickity-split, even though it was on the small side, because I wanted to at least get one vegetable from my cucurbits this summer.
Here's the first zucchini, shortly before the damn varmints ate it.
The latest thing to produce on our homestead is fruit flies. The kitchen is infested and we've made a trap with dish soap, apple cider vinegar, and plastic wrap. The house flies are pestiferous now as well.
There was a baby-sized tarantula in the bedroom the other night.
Grendel, one of our cats, caught a lizard by the tail. Mike made her let it go.
There was a scorpion in the kitchen sink.
I've had two harvester ant bites and stings so far this summer. I've picked many of them off of my feet; they don't always bite and sting but when they do, it's close to excruciating for 10-12 hours.
One of the largest spiders I've ever seen was crawling very quickly around on the living room walls last night. We put it outside.
There was a large, smushed toad on the road the other day after a rain storm. It sat there undisturbed and uneaten for a few days until a coyote came along and took a crap on it. I'm not sure what the message was.
An unhappy cricket was trying to climb the sides of the bathtub a few mornings ago. I put it outside.
While I love the growing of summer and I really love watching and studying critters of all kinds, I'm looking forward to cooler weather when they've retired for the year and I can walk around without being bitten, stung, or surrounded by cloud of flies. It's true, though, that even the cold weather won't stop the coyotes from leaving their crap in interesting places. They strike me as kind of passive aggressive.
Comments
Post a Comment