Pests

 My husband and I have spent the morning netting things around the yard. We netted the grapes. We netted some of the boysenberries (need to finish that up later today). 

We have a number of aggravating pests. Cat birds – these things have no shame. They are so rude! Often, they’ll sit above us on the tree while we are eating outside, yelling insults. As soon as we leave – they swoop down, looking for scraps of food, diving into bowls if any are left out. They ate all the boysenberries last year – we didn’t get to have any ripe ones at all. They don’t seem to mind ribbons that are supposed to scare away birds. They manage to get under the netting. In one word: pests.

Then, there are the deer. Just the other day, they got into the yard and ate all our lilies. They also munched on the grape leaves. Somehow, they missed the actual bunches of grapes (all they had to do was raise their head a bit… but nope, luckily, they just kept on chewing what was right in front of their noses).

Last year, we got our first bunches of grapes – we were waiting patiently for them to ripen, and finally they were ready to be picked. I said “let’s give them just one more day”. Next morning – they were gone, the netting and the vine all a tangle mess. Deer!!! I don’t think the kids have entirely forgiven me for that.

Also, there are squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and groundhogs. For a few years, we had a giant resident groundhog. It had a hidey hole among the azaleas. We would find it climbing the mulberry tree (crazy – I know, but I have photos as proof!), getting into our compost pile, and, generally, marching around the yard like it was some fat corrupt army general. 

Our neighbors also have a groundhog, but it’s a much smaller one. Sometimes, it comes over for a visit. One morning, I found it sitting in a bucket where we dump the kitchen scraps (we left it outside). The thing was staring at me, rather shocked that I interrupted its meal. Our groundhog never did that – it was probably too fat to fit into the bucket. I think our groundhog is gone, though. We haven’t seen it since fall. Either dead or moved on to another property (maybe it got fed up with kids chasing it). 

I have fantasies of getting a big dog that will roam around the back yard and chase away the pests (yeah I know, it will also dig and poop all over the place). Or, perhaps, a very large cat would do the job? I am more likely to get a cat than a dog. Apparently, there are also “guard geese” that can chase away or warn about predators. Hmmm…