This year has flown by, just like those long departed bluebird fledglings.
It's time to blow the cobwebs off my keyboard, dig through the pile on my desk and plug into the world of blogging again. It's dark-thirty, the snow is piling up, the coffee is hot and morning news sucks, hello bloggers.
I have spent more time in the studio than the garden this year. Left the compound a few times but not many.
The view is great and nobody talks back around here.
It was a hot, humid, dry summer. The mosquitos were out for blood, not even a fan kept them away. I noticed the dragonflies disappeared mid July. I didn't think too much about it until I read an article:
Dragonflies can't find each other, cannot mate, the mosquitos have a party and I need a transfusion.
And so went July, August and most of September.
The great thing about gardening, you can walk away for periods of time and plants still grow. If you mulched well in the Spring and your soil has loads of compost to retain moisture, it will carry on without a meddling gardener. So the back garden turned into the little shop of horrors and carried on. It still made an abundance of food too, gardens are amazing.
The chickens didn't seem to mind. Our evening free range was a bit uncomfortable for one us though.
I tried to stay on the compound and MYOB, I really did. Working in the studio I noticed flowers moving around sporadically with little wind. Then a hummingbird disappeared as an orange clawed paw slapped the tiny hummingbird out of paradise. I ran out with the squirt gun and sprayed the offending cat and stared at a pile of feathers and one tiny leg. God nature sucks sometimes. The cat is doing what cats do and the hummingbird is doing what hummingbirds do but seriously; come on nature. I pondered this the rest of the day in the studio. What are my options with the offending killer cat? Cats are pretty smart and I did mange to keep them out of the back garden with an electric fence that also worked for deer. So I dug out my old electric fence thingy. Strung up 20' of electric fence, close to the ground and flicked the on switch.
It did not take long and the bird slayer got a tiny little electric kiss. And there happened to be three more bird slayers! A grey one and a black and white cat. Argh! Honestly this is a huge problem.
Cats decimate bird populations (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
There was no screaming or dramatics, the cats just jumped back and walked away, never to return.
Ok before anyone calls PETA let me explain my choice of cat deterrent. Guns are not allowed to be discharged in the city limits although you are allowed to open carry, poison is just to horrible for words and besides I have zapped myself on this fence more times than I care to admit and it's like being snapped with a rubberband shooting out blue sparks. I swear and walk away. If a cat could swear I am sure it would. IMHO, it was the lesser of all evils. And it took one encounter and the offenders were gone. Hummingbirds carried on, bees were happy and I was very happy watching nature from my studio window.
Until a certified letter showed up in my mailbox a week later....... I had been turned into the city for an electric fence violation by my neighbor! The inspector would be out in two weeks to see if I had removed the offending fence or face a stiff financial penalty.
OK I had to calm myself down before I called the city inspector to explain what was going on and HEY! Why couldn't the neighbor just walk over and say; whats with the electric fence? Inspector said he runs his lawn mower over there and was worried about getting electrocuted........ only on a good day sir!
So I unplugged it the day before the inspector arrived but left it up as a reminder to the cats.
AND THEN ....... he was out mowing his grass and screamed; YOU'RE A CHICKEN LOVER AND THEY BETTER NOT COME IN MY YARD. Ok so my neighbor is a pycho and I tried to play nice but a "chicken lover". Gloves off asshole! I now understand the Rand Paul incident; Rand Paul attacked by neighbor
So every night for an hour I battled the mosquitos while the chickens free ranged and I wrangled them; mosquito netting and squirt bottle.
I have dropped down a very dark hole of moats filled with alligators, a border of bamboo fill with poison ivy, sniper towers, invasive species..... I have all winter to contemplate my next fence move; probably hot pink with motion sensor flood lights pointed at his bedroom and maybe a siren or two. High enough to block the sun. Or maybe I will collect all the old artificial Christmas trees people toss after the holidays and use those for a fence, string them with lights you can see from space. Or sit in my lawn chair with a gun strapped to my hip facing his house........ because that is also legal, I just can't fire it. Anybody think we have hit a level insanity yet?
We had the property surveyed and little pink flags went up. Now we know where the property line really is and I now know that razor wire is also illegal. But hey let the games begin.
Ok I need to go pack for a show tonight and get some glazing done.
Happy Fall everybody
Sebastian, a very well behaved cat, adopted and living his best life in an apartment with Abby in the mountains of Colorado.
