stubbed toes and mud pies

[digitS']

I have some sympathy for critters in the garden. Of course, it represents my self-interests, primarily.

So, I am careful around spiders and bees, try not to frighten the song sparrows. I'm also tolerant of my neighbors' interests and tolerances. We would not have so many rabbits if it wasn't for their tolerance.

Have you eaten quail, FlowerBug? Stir together sour cream and milk, put the cleaned quail in a greased pan, cover with sliced onions, pour the cream/milk over them, and slide the pan into the oven.

I was just wondering about the quail population out there. Some years, it's a lot. They eat my ripe tomatoes! However, I think that it is the meadow mice that do more damage that way. I will tolerate the quail out of respect for the neighbors and with a hope that someday I will learn that the quail eat slugs -- a critter that will eat my green tomatoes!

I don't mind picking tomatoes when they have a nice blush on them. If I see them, I will step on the slugs or put a rock down on top of them, fer shur.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

@digitS' there used to be Bob Whites here but i've not seen any of those for many years since they started farming the field to the south of us again. no other ground birds other than the pheasants and wild turkeys that we often see/hear. the pheasant that used to make regular rounds has not been heard from for a few months now so it may be gone.

there are a lot of birds here in MI - i see only a fraction of them and recognize even fewer:

List of birds of Michigan - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[flowerbug]

a few pics of progress:


the 2nd drain tube relocated and a bunch of pea gravel moved. the part at the top where the house drain comes in and the garden drain comes in from the side i won't be able to finish until dunno when, that is why the pile of pea gravel is there, just in case we decide to use it up there too. i also don't know when i'll get back to putting the rocks and limestone gravel back in place. sometime... you can also see that i haven't made much progress on the neighboring garden i was trying to get cleaned up so it would be ready to be planted. that will be last. whatever i can get in there and get done, but it will probably be a few weeks before i get back to that.

i have to get this done soon so i can get it planted! inside the fence always has the highest priority. only beans left to plant. one small piece of tube to cut out and some pea gravel to move and i can get this garden leveled and ready to go. 1 day if i'm lucky. weather has been more rain and heat. one more round of rain coming for the next hour or two and then i hope things will cool off and let me get out there tomorrow and the next few days.

 

[digitS']

there are a lot of birds here in MI

I finally got around to looking at that list ... drifted off, and discovered a new bird in North America.


First of all, it doesn't surprise me that MI has both the Cedar Waxwing and the Bohemian Waxwing. Regardless of its name, the Bohemian must only show up here when its range in British Columbia becomes too cold during the winter. I've only seen them once, when they arrived in flocks to eat the Mountain Ash berries. The Cedar is around near the river all through the warmer months.

The bird that I never knew anything about is the Eurasian tree sparrow. What the heck is he doing in MI? Wikipedia says that there is a population near St Louis of these non-natives. Perhaps, @so lucky and @dickiebird could tell us something about those. I was immediately discombobulated to see the pictures and realized how hard-pressed I would be to distinguish them from those ridiculous English House Sparrow invaders that must be in 95% of all North American backyards.

Maybe, MI only has a stray Eurasian tree sparrow, now and then.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

making progress on getting the gardens inside the fence redone, weeded and planted. i have not been able to get the final grading done in the garden i'm planting now but it will have to do until i can get it in better shape next year. in the meantime it will be finished planting today before i can get on with the final two gardens. the smaller of the two i should be able to get planted today too before i get on with the last bigger space that will take more work to finish, but i hope i can get it all done and planted by Friday or Saturday.

once i get that done i will take pictures of everything (for my records at least) and of course post some of them here.

it's been a lot of work, but i'm already happy with having extra space to plant more beans and to not have those pathways to deal with any more. well, i will be dealing with their remnants for years to come as some of the limestone gravel is mixed in the garden soil so as i work on those gardens the next umpteen years i'll have those stones to pick out of there. i pick out what i can when i see them, but there is a lot yet to go...

outside the fence everything is on hold other than some weeding in spots until i can get back to it. inside the fence is always priority over those things outside the fence.

in other news, mouse has been in the walls again, i found an entrance being used but i'm not sure this is the same one making the noise i'm hearing so we'll see how it goes. last night already caught one mouse. would be nice if it were the only one. not very often though that it is only a lone mouse. so will keep putting out the traps. with all the heavy rains i'm sure plenty of mice were displaced from the surrounding lower grounds and have come calling. we have a lot of mouse habitat here with all the rocks. whenever i do catch a mouse it is pretty healthy looking.

so far with the rains we've had since the flood the roof has not leaked. so that is just more information to add to that problem and possible solution i have in place may be working ok. sure hope so. won't know for some time. as we can go a year or more between leaks this isn't a fast process...

 

[Trish Stretton]

Wow, you have been busy, its sounds like a real slice of paradise!
....more beans?? my eyes are crossing. lol

.....I put bait out....unashamedly.
I had a rat come into the house and try to set up house, so that was it!!

I have four spots around the property that I use as bait stations. I didnt expect to see the bait constantly disappear, but it does. I dont think people realise just how many are out there!
2 years later, its still being taken.
I have been suggesting to people around here that they do the same, but most dont want to know.

I dont think rodents have one single redeeming quality.

 

[flowerbug]

no change in anything i set last night so it may have been the mouse that was causing the noises. i sure hope so. it also gave me a hint that perhaps that was where the mice were coming in from the last time i had to trap too. i sure hope so! i got things plugged up now so we'll see how it goes.

with the heavy rains and flooding we had i know that caused a lot of mice to move to higher ground (aka here ).

we used bait stations for a while for mice/chipmunks but it really is pointless IMO since they will keep coming in from all around. you do need an entire neighborhood to do it along with some kind of exclusion fence to make it worth it. since mice can get through very tiny gaps it doesn't work well for them at all. they just keep breeding more and coming back in. so the best thing to do is to work to make the house rodent proof so they can't get in the house. i've done that here over the years as best i can, but the way they set up some things means i have to keep an eye out for tracks or changes. when i'm really busy this can be forgotten.

yes, super busy time of the year, but i did get the two gardens prepped and planted yesterday so now i only have the one major mess of a garden to clean up and plant which will take me a few days. i hope to have it done by this weekend so i can get back to weeding and taking care of gardens outside the fenced area. Mom has really been helping out now that she's gotten the tomato cages set up. i just have to remind her to water some things she planted because i have no idea where they are and no time to look. haha... once they get growing it will be easier and i'll be less worried about having to water to keep the seeds at the right moisture.

hot and dry here today. so i gotta go water things in again and then very busy day with a few family coming over.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree, mice or rats in the house is unacceptable. But I never expect to eradicate them from outside. They breed too fast. When I'm having a specific problem, like a certain rat that was eating three beans a night as they sprouted, just walking down that row, I try to do something about it. Or when the numbers get out of control I reduce them.

I have a trap that is a good size for rats, rabbits, and bushy-tailed rats (squirrels). It's set a whole lot of the time. But there are times I also resort to poisons. I don't know any other way to knock those numbers back.

I am glad to see non-poisonous snakes around as long as they are not eating chicken eggs. The snakes that do that regularly get relocated to a friend's place. I do not shoot or try to discourage hawks or owls. Since the chickens are safely locked up at night I don't mind foxes passing through. Those eat a lot of mice and rats but not enough to knock back an infestation. Cats can be good if you can allow them to hunt and still stop coyotes from eating them. I don't know what rat-eating critters you have in New Zealand but it's probably not enough.

 

[Trish Stretton]

We dont have any unless somebody has a good hunting cat. I did once, but they didnt eat them, just brought them inside and left mice/rats/rabbits outside my mother bedroom door, or in her slippers. lol

 

[flowerbug]

We dont have any unless somebody has a good hunting cat. I did once, but they didnt eat them, just brought them inside and left mice/rats/rabbits outside my mother bedroom door, or in her slippers. lol

ick!

in other news we don't think the big bee keeper has put any bee hives out back for a change this year. finally we can see more birds in the birdbaths again (once we open them up - Mom decided as long as the grackles are around she won't open them up - so it will be a week or two yet). i have nothing against bee keepers at all, but having 30-50 bee hives close to our place was a bit too much as the bees were constantly covering the bird baths and the smaller birds would not use them. we just happened to talk about this yesterday and how we'd missed seeing the goldfinches.