Baby Boom

Squirrel Babies

We returned from our trip to the Midwest to discover Big Mama Squirrel camped out under the bird feeder accompanied by first two, then four, now seven baby ground squirrels.

Big Mama is looking a bit frazzled; her fur is not up to its usual sleekness, but I guess that's to be expected when she has a brood this big to look after.  At least we're hoping that this is the last of the brood; seven is already way too many.

I Wonder What's Up There?

Big Mama has already taught them where the free buffet is to be found, and they're already taking full advantage of it.  Cindy even saw her chase off a crow that landed under the feeder.

It's fun to watch the babies learn to explore the world.  One of them even tried to climb the bird feeder pole, apparently unaware that the baffle on the pole is there to prevent them from doing just that.

I guess we can't complain about the squirrel population explosion when we provide all this food for them; why should they go anywhere else?

Going Up!

One thing is certain:  we'll have to make sure our anti-varmint protective shields remain secure for the rest of the growing season, or there will definitely be no veggies left for us this summer.

World's Most Beautiful Garden Shed

Garden Shed

Four years ago Cindy's engineer dad, Lou, helped us build a garden shed for Cindy's growing accumulation of garden tools.

We decided to build it out of polycarbonate panels attached to a wooden frame, using aluminum corner edging along the sides and top to make it reasonably weather tight.  The translucent polycarbonate roof and sides allow light into the interior of the shed.

Since the shed was located on the north side of the house along a slope, we really appreciated Lou's engineering and woodworking skills in making the shed sit level on the slope.  He also suggested using a closet door railing to hang the two big sliding doors from so that they slide open easily.

Over the last four years, the shed has held up very well and still looks very good.  However, one thing we had talked about but not done was to secure some aluminum tracks along the floor of the shed so that the doors would slide easily but stay in place.  It was just one of those things on the "to do" list that never got done.

So while we were gone, San Diego had a huge windstorm that blew the doors right off the shed.  Fortunately, they didn't blow very far away and a friend was able to retrieve them and put them in the garage until we got back.

That made it essential to fix the problem.  At first we contemplated making wooden frames for the doors to correct their tendency to bow, which made it easier for them to blow off the track.  Wooden frames would have been possible to construct, but would have made the doors much heavier and much more cumbersome to use.

Engineer Lou came to our rescue once more and suggested we use aluminum channel instead of wood.  We chose an asymmetric 1/4 inch U-channel, with one side 1/4 inch high and the other 3/4 inch.  We ran a bead of silicone caulk along the long side before we attached them to the doors.

It was easy to cut the aluminum and we were both amazed at how the doors instantly stiffened and ceased to bow.  Then it was a matter of re-hanging them, running a bead of silicone on the shed floor to secure the 1/2 inch U-channel for the bottom track and letting the silicone cure.

The only thing left to do to the project is to find some way to secure the doors.  Because there is a gap of a couple of inches between the edge of the shed and the door, that part is going to be a challenge.

Lou?  Got any more brilliant ideas?

And Tulips!

Tulips en Masse

Another thing we just don't have enough "chill hours" for in San Diego is tulips.

It's no wonder that the Dutch went nuts over these beautiful bulbs in the 17th century Tulip mania, buying and selling them for fabulous prices.  Tulips have been a staple of spring gardens ever since in climates that get cold in the winter, but they just don't do well in San Diego.

Some San Diego gardeners who are determined to enjoy tulips in their gardens will dig up their tulip bulbs in the fall, store them in the refrigerator during the winter and then re-plant them in the early Spring so they can have their tulips.

That's a lot of work, not to mention refrigerator space, and there's always the chance that the local varmints will dig up the bulbs and carry them off before they can bloom.

So we have decided just to enjoy these lovely flowers when we visit other locations and keep the fridge space for bagels and other essentials.

Tulip

A Drive-By Smelling

Lilacs!

One of the drawbacks of living in the San Diego climate is that there just aren't enough "chill hours" to allow some plants to thrive here.

One of those plants is the Lilac.

Cindy and I both grew up in areas where the Lilac (Syringa) is the hallmark of Spring; it just doesn't seem like Spring without that wonderful, overwhelming, intoxicating Lilac scent.

The Ceanothus plant, often called the California Lilac, has clusters of dark purple flowers that resemble the blossoms of the lilac, but they are a different species and don't have that in-your-face scent that real lilacs do.

So when we were back in the Midwest last week, it was killing me to drive past a huge bank of lilacs in full bloom every day.  I would have stopped to smell them, but it was a busy road with no place to pull over and park.  The best I could do was to roll down the windows and stick my head out to catch some of that intoxicating scent as I drove past.

We started checking out neighborhoods that looked like they might have lilacs that we could jump out and smell, but we finally noticed that the next door neighbor had a dwarf lilac with blooms just opening, so we finally got our chance to smell some lilacs.

We'd love to have real Lilacs here, but after all, we do get orange blossoms.

California Thrasher

We've also been enjoying the sight of two California Thrashers under our bird feeder the past couple of days.  These gray birds with long, graceful tail feathers are very shy birds who normally flee at the slightest sound or movement, so we have to watch them from inside the house, which means I can't get a decent picture of them.   They can fly but seem to prefer running into the shrubbery for shelter.

Usually there's only one Thrasher; since they are ground feeders, the Thrasher cleans up the seed the sparrows, House Finches and Lesser Goldfinches drop out of the feeders.  The Thrasher also likes the suet feeder, attacking it vigorously with its long, curved beak.

Recently there have been two Thrashers under the feeders.   One of them seems a bit larger and rounder than the other bird, but the smaller bird is the one who gathers the seed and suet and feeds the other.  We can't figure out if the rounder bird is a pregnant female being fed by the male, or if it's a chick being fed by the mother.

We'll probably never know the answer to that, but it's fun to watch these shy birds.

Chickens For Easter!!???

Not Quite Chickens

Cindy finally got some chickens for Easter, but they weren't quite the ones she's been lobbying for.

I still think real chickens would be a lot of work and the potential vulnerability to predators we know are present in the area is still a real concern.  However, after eating those wonderful eggs Dominick gave her a couple of weeks ago, I'm getting to the point where I could be persuaded.

These Peeps chicks won't lay eggs and I suspect they won't last long.

Happy Easter!

All Dressed Up!

A.B., Cindy's Assistant Bear, loves to dress up for holidays.

Since he missed wearing his Mardi Gras beads this year due to circumstances beyond his control, he decided to wear pearls for Easter.

Always elegant, A.B.

Mockingbird Symphony

I have to say that I love Mockingbirds.   I could listen to their melodious song all day long.  One has recently claimed the trees around our house and rules his territory from the tops of the trees.   I love catching a flash of white on their wings as they flit through the shrubbery.

Some people don't like Mockingbirds because they sometimes sing on into the night, especially when the moon is full, but I think that's just a gift that should be enjoyed.

Dealing With Varmints

Cindy had hoped that she would be able to learn some new strategies for dealing with ground squirrels from the expert on vertebrate pests the other day, but what it boiled down to was:  poison them.

That course of action is completely unacceptable to us; we simply could not do that to any animal, even one that eats our veggies and could undermine our hillside and potentially cause it to collapse into the canyon.  Squirrels dig burrows that can go very deep and can extend up to 150 feet, so the probability of damage to the hillside is very real.

When I was working on a military base in Northern California there were many ground squirrels all over the installation, busily digging into hillsides and under roads.  There was also a very beautiful fox who would run around our building every morning.  Then one day we found the fox dead outside the building, undoubtedly an unintended victim of poison put out for the squirrels.  The sad thing was that the fox would probably have taken out at least as many of the squirrels if it had been left to hunt them.

The state of California is becoming more aware of and intent on avoiding this sort of unintended consequence to other critters, such as foxes, coyotes and hawks, as well as domestic cats and dogs.  It does no good to poison the squirrels anyway; because they are social animals, more squirrels will simply move into the vacant burrow and the problem will start all over again.

So we'll keep on doing the best we can by excluding them from the vegetable beds with Cindy's varmint repelling panels and other fencing.

The Official Word

Clipped Citrus

The new class of Master Gardeners had a presentation today from an expert on vertebrate pests, who told them that damage like that to our two Citrus trees is most likely done by deer, rather than by rabbits or squirrels.  

Damage higher than two feet:  check.

Twigs clipped instead of chewed or gnawed:  check.

Not much left on the tree:  check.

Conclusion:  deer.  

Other than the damage to the two small trees, we still haven't seen any signs of deer in the area.  You would think somebody would see them from time to time.   

The good news is that the tree now looks better than it did before the damage was done.  The second tree is also recovering, but it's a little slower.  

Recovering Citrus

We're just hoping the deer don't have a taste for the leaves on the new Avocado tree we just planted out behind the fence.