Help Comes In All Shapes

   This past year has been a rough one in so many ways...not just for me but for people everywhere.  While others faced a world-wide pandemic, I faced more personal storms in the way of illness and, well, storms.  Generally, the year 2020 has officially been marked down as a pretty rotten year for most folks.  Still, we have to look at things in a different perspective if we ever wish to get past our troubles.  I, for one, refuse to let things linger long. 

  All along the top edge of one section of the garden fence, there are dozens of cormorant feathers tucked safely in between the wire and railing.  Why?  Well, it all started as a way of coping with the massive cleanup after Hurricane Zeta.  I had found a long, black feather in the debris.  Not thinking much about it since surely a few feathers were lost during the storm, I stuck that feather into the crevice of the bark of a pine tree.  I promptly forgot about the feather until I found another.  That, too, was stuck in the tree bark.  Then another...and another.  About this time, Son was becoming a bit confused and questioned my actions.  Flippantly, I replied that I was saving the feathers in case I came across the whole bird.  "The bird will need its feathers once I find it!"  It had already become clear that the bird had not survived.  As I worked, I kept poking feathers along the tree trunk. It was Son who first stuck one in the garden fence and I soon followed suit.  Thus, our feathered fence became a thing.

 After a few days, finding and collecting the feathers sort of blocked out the reality of the devastation around us.  We could focus our attention on retrieving the feathers and not the huge piles of debris.  Silly?  Probably to most folks but to us, it was simply an act to relieve stress.  (It still saddens me that the bird perished during the storm.)  Now, the top of the fence proudly wears the feathered crown and I am reminded to not let stress get to me.  I assume that the feathers will stay as long as Mother Nature allows them to do so.  The wind and rain have split and curled the feathers into curious shapes so that now they are more of a point of interest in the yard...a point of interest that saved a bit of my sanity.

Garden Stalkers

   About mid morning, I headed to the garden to get a few chores completed before I cranked the lawnmower again.  The sun had warmed the chill from the air so a few critters were out and about.  On the fence rail, there was a show of territorial rights happening!  Two male green anoles were trying to intimidate each other with the flaring of necks and the showing of the bright red dewlaps.  Other than the "I'm bigger than you" performance, there was not much battling.  Both lizards soon tired of the display and went along their respected ways.  One opted to venture into the flowers while the other climbed onto a tomato plant.  Neither of these fellows seemed to be in prime condition.  Both were shedding and both had visual marks of being under stress.  

  Personally, I am glad the lizards were there.  Recently, tiny holes have been appearing in the plant leaves indicating that I have some varmints to eradicate.  My method of "safe" spraying works somewhat but is never as effective as the lizards and birds.  While I was pulling a few weeds from under the tomatoes, the one lizard was happily snapping up some tiny caterpillars.  This is natural pest control at its best!  Since the lizards seemed to have settled their differences, all is good in the garden realm!  

 

The Standoff!

  The yard work continues!  Since Son is putting a loft in the shed and is busy from sunup to sundown, I have had to do my own construction for the gardens.  Yep, this old lady put in the fence!  I am happy with the results but have made a huge discovery.  Old ladies and post hole diggers are not compatible.   Never in my life have my arms felt so much like dead weight as they do this evening!  But...like I said, the fence is installed and I am happy with it (and all its imperfections).  

  I did have one encounter while clearing the area for the new garden fence.  A folded tarp had been set aside about a week ago and needed to be moved yet again.  No problem.  I would just grab the thing and move it myself.  As Pop used to say, "A little work never hurt anyone."  So, I grabbed but then felt something wiggling.  I dropped the tarp and pondered if I had inadvertently grabbed up a snake in the process.  The tarp was slowly unfolded to reveal my critter.  A frog stared at me with huge eyes.  Froggy was nervous about the giant (me) but was also refusing to budge.  I suppose the tarp had served as a warm spot for a few days and Froggy was not happy being disturbed. 

  Since a frog is not on my list of "no likes", I told it that the Frog Pond would be a much better place for it.  Obviously, Froggy agreed as it allowed me to catch it, tote it around back and rehome it with any further ado.  I am not sure why Froggy had decided the garden spot was a good home but do hope it will pay a visit now and again to eat the bugs that munch the plants.  

Game Called On Account Of Rain....

  Yesterday was a t-shirt wearing, yard-cleaning, tear-down sort of day.  I was up at dawn and in the yard.  The east rose arbor was in a big tangle so the first chore of the day was to do a bit of "untangling".  This was done, rose vines hauled to the burn pile and rose garden raked.  While trimming, I realized the arbor was about to tumble.  Termites had invaded the posts!  Then...as I checked, I came to realize that the entire fence covered with climbing roses was in the same dire fix.  Every fence post around the rose garden was in ruins.  Well, nothing to do but take it all down and start anew.  Son came to my rescue and started ripping out fencing and posts.  Together, we managed to take down the whole works.  This led to a new problem as now we either had to replace it all or come up with a new landscaping plan.  Exhausted, we agreed to complete it the next day (today).

  Fast forward to this morning....it was a sweat-shirt, stay-inside and mope sort of day.  When I awoke at 4am, the first thing I heard was....RAIN!  Raindrops were pelting the rooftop and those would not stop for the entire day.  While this was good for the uprooted roses, it was a "thorn in the thumb" for the plan of redoing the garden.  The roses sit in heaps awaiting their new destinations.

  This evening, the rain continues and I sit with a billion options of how to redo the garden.  At least, rainy days are good for planning.  The time spent will be a huge help instead of jumping into the redo headlong with no idea of where things are going.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be a good work day and we can get on with this chore.  I hate leaving things unfinished.

Don't fence me in!

  This is the first year in several that the garden has done well.  If things keep going like they are, the pantry shelves should be restocked by midsummer.  I am happiest about the tomatoes.  There are a dozen plants that are in the ground and probably that many in pots.  I had no ground space left so, in desperation, I am trying to grow them in cheap pots.  So far, those are doing well but it is those "in ground" plants that are surprising me. 

  When I put the plants in the ground, a large tomato crate was placed over each one.  Normally, the crates do a grand job of supporting the plants but this year, the plants outgrew the crates.  For the past two weeks, I have been thinking that the plants would stop growing.  They have not.  These goofy things now tower above my head and are loaded with tomatoes from the ground up!  This is fine and dandy except that the south wind has been rather brisk and the plants were bending over the crate top.  Since they are loaded with tomatoes, some stalks were beginning to break.  That would never do!  I cannot lose my tomatoes!  I have big plans for those things!

  Today, Son went back to the canebrake and cut a bundle of canes.  The bamboo was pushed into the ground and he then started to string each together with some jute twine.  It was my job to gently lift those plants (heavy with tomatoes) and hold them in place while he wrapped the twine.  He wove a nice "fence" for the plants.  Hopefully, this will hold them until the tomatoes ripen.  I imagine that another few wraps of twine will have to be added later if the plants keep getting taller but for now, they look a lot happier.  Their new "fence" was working nicely against the evening breezes.  Now, what am I going to do with those in the pots if they grow this large??

False Sense of Security

  In life, it is easy to get keyed up over safety.  We all want to feel safe and secure.  We bar the doors, lock the windows, fence the yard and generally shut ourselves off from the world so we are not put in the position of being harmed.  Most of the time, we feel confident that we have put up enough barricades to protect ourselves from harm.  Is that a good thing?  Sometimes, we get a false sense of security from all of our alarms, surveillance cameras and locks. We get lackadaisical and lose our sense of awareness.  Perhaps all of these so-called safety measures have done nothing more than make us prisoners of our own insecurities.  Just a thought.

  This whole jumbled up bunch of thoughts rambled about in the head today as I took down yet another part of the fence around the rose garden.  There is not much use in having the fence anymore since we have no pups needing a closed in play yard (the old dog,  Mr. PJ, does not play anymore) and it literally became an eyesore.  I had removed one section months ago then got sidetracked so it was time to start again.  The gate, however, still swings on its hinges as if it is doing a great job of protecting us.  In reality, it is doing nothing.  However!  A few days ago, it gave a man a great sense of security albeit a false sense.

  Last week, a man came knocking at the front door.  He was hunting for my brother and had the wrong house.  It just so happened that he knocked at the door right next to the dog's bed.  Mr. PJ jumped up and proceeded to protect the house!  He took that bulldog stance, puffed himself up to look a lot bigger and stronger than he is and barked with gusto.  The man could see this ferocious watchdog through the french doors and was obviously a bit leery.  He stepped back to the gate and closed it behind him.  This was not the brightest move since the whole section of fence was missing!  Had the dog been let out of the house, he could have easily cornered the man behind the gate by merely going around the fence.  A false sense of security was provided by a gate...that had no connecting fence!

  So, while it is easy to lull ourselves into feeling that we have done everything we can to protect ourselves, we need to make sure it is not just a false sense of security.  Instead of hanging that gate without an adjoining fence, we need to just be more aware of our surroundings and learn to protect ourselves if need be.  Trusting a bunch of safety devices is sort of like trusting that fence that is not there.  It ain't happenin', folks.  It ain't happenin'.

Sometimes I ponder the intelligence....or lack thereof...

  Sometime during the night, an unknown critter decided it either just HAD to get into or out of the garden area.  This small spot is fenced but one section is known to be scaled by coons so the wire fence is bent low to the ground until it can be mended.  This spot was not deemed to be a point of entry or exit, whichever the case was, for said critter. During the night, something decided to dig under the fence.  Why?  I can only answer with "the lack of intelligence".  You see, I drew my conclusion on the fact that the very spot where the digging occurred was not ten inches from the gate...a gate that had been accidentally left open during the night.  Why, oh why?  Why did the critter go to all of the trouble to dig under and ultimately tear into the fence when it could have merely walked through the gate?  Who knows?  Surely, I have no answer.

  Another unanswerable question...what in the world possessed said critter to enter the garden in the first place?  The only thing producing at the moment is bell peppers and I cannot seem to give them away. The peppers are flourishing and producing more than I can use but I have not found any animals that are so desirous of a meal of these that they enter the garden for the smorgasbord of peppers. The whole situation has me scratching my head in wonderment.

  If the critter visits again tonight and leaves as much damage as the previous night, a trap will come into play.  I cannot have this much damage done to the fence merely because of stupidity.  USE THE GATE!  Critter, if you wish to come into a nonproducing garden, USE THE OPEN GATE! Don't tear up my fence!