Robins and Rodents

The forest animals seem to be laboring under the delusion that I exist to provide food for them. I was in the garden by 7 am yesterday morning, digging some weeds out of the strawberry bed. As I worked, I was treated to a loud scolding by a flock of about eight robins sitting in the tree above me. (There are so many robins this year. So many.) Apparently, they were angry that I was interfering with breakfast. Every time I turned my back, one was down in the bed looking for berries.

[Our strawberry harvest this year is going to be minimal, partly due to the robins and partly due to the fact that I should have thinned the plants more than I did. Next year, I’ll be more aggressive about thinning and put a row cover over the bed afterward.]

Yesterday afternoon, we spotted the ground squirrel again out in the woods behind the herb garden. The husband went out with the shotgun. He thinks he hit it, but he couldn’t find the body. Sometimes, they retreat back into the pile of logs and die.

This summer’s theme seems to be robins and rodents. The bunnies are in the yard every morning and there is a very industrious chipmunk running around the herb garden. It hasn’t done any damage yet, but I am keeping an eye on it. And the baby robins seem to think the herb garden is their own personal playground. They like the birdbath.

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Work continues over at the rental house. I painted the section of wall behind the washing machine where the husband fixed the leak and had to patch in a new piece of drywall. While I did that, he regraded the driveway. It had several really high and really low spots and now it is level and smooth:

That entire yard needs to be regraded but that’s further down the list. The ground in the yard is so uneven that I can’t even cut the grass with the John Deere mower and that is not an anemic machine.

After lunch, the husband went to the hardware store down in Bigfork and picked up a color card for the deck material. We chose a neutral medium brown color that will work with the existing house color, although he said that at some point, he wants to re-side the house with Hardi-Plank or something similar that is fire resistant.

He plans to get the decking on this week. Our friends arrive early next week to stay for a month. (I’m so excited! 🎉)

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The little chickens are big enough to be in with the big chickens now, so the husband took down the fencing and opened the door to the separate room inside the coop. I am sure it will take a few days to sort out the pecking order, but no one has drawn blood yet. He put out a couple of straw bales as a distraction:

The chickens eventually tear down the bales and spread the straw all over the chicken yard.