Sharing is Caring

 I guess I am something less than caring....I have no love for sharing my lettuce and tiny pea plants with deer or whatever else is devouring them every time I replant.

I grow them in large containers...mostly old plastic watering troughs no longer suitable for their original purpose. Usually that serves to keep the critters away. However this summer I first dealt with a woodchuck using a handy bucket to climb in and decimate the plants. I trapped the chuck in a humane trap, although that was the end of the humane part, and moved the bucket away.

Broad-winged Hawk

It worked for a while. Then the nibbling began anew. Irish Spring was hung above the plants. Guess our local varmints like the fresh scent.

Thus the boss has found some wire paneling we used to cover horse windows back in the day. Guess I will put on his heavy gloves, get out the wire cutters, and shape it to shelter my tasty stuff from whatever is eating it.

 I just don't play well with others. 

Meanwhile the weather is about as good as it gets. Cold and clear enough for stars at night, foggy in the morning, then crisp, clear, and pleasant all day. Laundry dries quickly on the line. You can see all the way to the mountains, but it is not too hot to work outside, for example, making covers for the garden beds and all.

The Red Maples are on fire in the swamps, glowing purple-red like lanterns among the slower changing trees. I was birding Rankin Grove the other day and thought a bear or deer was approaching through the nearby woods. Crash, crash, crash. I watched and listened closely in case I had to get my fanny back in the car...but, no, it was Red Squirrels dropping acorns from seventy feet high or so. They make a lot of noise on the way down. Warblers are beginning to trickle through and the young of the year Ruby-throated Hummingbirds will fly right up in your face, all curious and cute. 

Forget the calendar...It's Fall.

I like it!