Yesterday Southern Belle asked if any of the push mowers worked. As a matter-of-fact, I have three working push mowers.
After two hours of mowing, my oldest brother showed up with his zero-turn and between the two of them they finished mowing the yard.
Notable because three (3) yellow-jacket nests were found and nobody was stung. While a John Deere might not be able to outrun a bumblebee, a zero-turn can outrun a yellow-jacket.
Extermination efforts are underway.
Rodent control
.JPG)
This year I started with my rodenticide early. I put rat-poison in sport-drink containers. Sport-drink bottles have large mouths so the block of poison slides in with little effort. The bottle protects the block from moisture and curious dogs and non-target wildlife. Mice and voles have no problem climbing into the bottles and consuming the poison.
Bon-fires
Southern Belle suggested that it might be a good idea to burn the brush-pile since we are at that magical balance of wet-and-dry. We did.
Peaches
Later this morning Fast Eddie and I will be picking peaches from a neighbor's tree. Yesterday I offered the neighbor $20 and a quart of home-canned peaches for the privilege. He said I didn't need to pay money.
I informed him that if I paid money for the privilege then I would certainly be there in the morning. If I did not pay money than there was a better than 50:50 chance that the peaches would fall and rot, unused. So my paying him $20 was an insurance policy to ensure I would follow through.
My gut tells me that there is at least 80 pounds of peaches on that tree. Eddie's daughter will get all of them and she will share them with other ladies who can fruit. While I have no expectation of reciprocity, this IS a small town and I can only hope that some of those ladies will be selected for the jury should I ever find myself being judged by my peers.
Bonus image
Cage traps baited with potato chips will catch mice and rats night after night. DIY bucket traps might be better but for those who like solutions that "simply work", place cage traps on rat paths. Drop the trap into a 5-gal bucket to drown the rat, easily washed. :)
ReplyDeletePoisons are a no-no for me, they seem to just feed the rats and might poison someone's stray pet, wildlife (coyotes), etc. Only downside to cages is that they can be expensive if you get the nice ones. The up-side is they can also be repaired / bent back into shape if something tears it up.
Scoring community points is always nice. I was potentially looking at a grand jury several years back from plain clothed cops getting wrong house (my family's) without a warrant. Fortunately a lot of interesting people attended the same church and I had lived in the community for several decades. No charges. Being active locally in a small town is in a man's favor.
- Arc
Exhaust probably helped dissuade the %$#@ yellow jackets. A quart of gasoline down the hole after dark also dissuades them. A little diesel helps in that dry/wet balance with the right kind of wet. Roger
ReplyDeleteI find used motor oil even better. It stays around long enough that even fairly wet wood will catch.
DeleteGod I hate yellowjackets. If it were honeybees, where we take their honey I'd understand, but yellowjackets exist to hate anyone within touching range. Which no one ever does want to pet one. In hot weather so touchy them.
ReplyDeleteMay have to steal that sports drink poison container idea - thank you for offering it. Wife's motorcycle, stored outside has had wires chewed in the past. I don't think she would mind taking a few of those away.
Planting daffodils, garlic, or onions around trees is reputed to keep rodents away. This guy uses his garlic fields as a tree nursery - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC7VZ6TrTAs
ReplyDeleteAh, Luckovitch.
ReplyDeleteThat cartoonist is an idiot.
On his good days.
If he has any.