A peaceful Sunday, Mother’s Day, afternoon. The Cardinals are on TV and are winning at this moment. The resident mother is enjoying an afternoon nap.
Earlier today, our outdoor sprinklers and timers were set up. All is ready now for some fresh plantings, clawing, mulching.
I don’t know where the moles went. They could be in sleeper mode with an insurgent push scheduled for when I’m distracted with other activities.
A trip to the roof yesterday enabled the completion of a short “to-do” list: checked and tightened antenna cable connections; blew leaves, seeds and other debris out of every nook and cranny … especially the crannies ; cleaned gutter screens, and polished up the skylight. Only one plugged downspout. Now the rains can come once more.
The yard is looking pretty good, but nothing that a little neglect can’t cure.
Things are looking up. Heading to the store for some fresh fruit: pineapple and strawberries.
Our entertainment for the past few days has been some major excavation work at the house across the street. It seems their lateral sewer connection failed. The pile of dirt is immense; a large pink dogwood was lost, end of their driveway and two sidewalks demolished.
I know the guy operating the backhoe, but have talked with him very little during the job, not feeling up to snuff and all. He probably doesn’t miss my engineering assistance.
Everyone in our village pays $28 per year into a community fund to help with such failures. If pooled funds are sufficient, 90% of the cost can be covered (provided proper bidding processes are followed). Ours went a few years ago with the repair at $4,000. Ninety percent helped! The job across the street is running around $12,000.
We are missing lots of beautiful weather in an attempt to avoid the tree pollen. Windows shut and the A/C on when they normally would not be.
Tomorrow will be a better day …
There are some pretty disappointed critters in our backyard today, I cut the grass. It has only been four weeks, but there was a lot of moisture, rain/storms, while we were gone.
Mother rabbit was hanging around most of each day with her ears visible in the tall grass. I’m thinking she was enjoying the life of a lioness on the Serengeti. Perhaps she wasn’t aware of an occasional coyote, nor did she look up much to be aware of the red tails in the neighborhood. Anyway, without the cover she’ll feel more vulnerable and go back to her predawn hours.
My many friends in the mole family have had their shenanigans revealed. Is there a four-wheel drive hand mower for those soft spots? It’s time to put out my I HAVE TRAPS! sign.
A treat of treats has been the baby chipmunks. In all these years, I had never seen a baby chipmunk. We have four! They are obviously honing their skills, exploring and doing some low-level climbing. One found a hole along the edge of a brick walk. It would disappear, come back out, disappear again. They found maple seeds interesting.
I remember when I saw my first chipmunk in Minneapolis. They always were in the north woods of Minnesota, but I didn’t see one in Minneapolis before the 70s. Now, seeing them in Saint Louis really seems odd to me.
Our late Schnauzer, Katie, did a pretty good job of critter control, dragging a squealing mole out of the ground cover, finding baby rabbits fun to catch and kill. When she barfed up an entire mole on the family room floor, we found her willingness to share her spoils a little much.
The spot on the carpet is still there twenty years later. Oh, we clean at it and render it invisible. But it comes back,
In a dim light... 