I know I shouldn’t downplay the climate change idea but I live in the middle of North America so the rising seas aren’t going to affect me.  Currently my pumpkin patch is not suffering from a drought. Since I live in Minnesota famous for its brutal winters I’d even enjoy a little winter weather moderation. I am currently under a more serious attack and it has nothing to do with changing climates.  I am having a problem with the critters currently living around my house.  Let me explain.

We purchased a Chevrolet Cruz a year ago. Luckily it was still under warranty last month when the screen on the dash board announced “You do not have any power steering!” So I drove the ‘power steering-less’ car back to the dealership for evaluation.  The dealership was forty five miles away so by the time I arrived I felt like I had been in a wrestling match. I’m not used to ‘power steering-less’ steering wheels. If it weren’t for all the hoeing in the garden this spring I don’t think I would have had enough upper body strength to make the forty-five mile drive! 🙂

The repairman checked the car with the computer and it indicated I needed a new part that cost $1300. Yikes, thank goodness for warrantees!  They gave me a loaner car and I returned home.  Two days later they called to let me know that the new part had arrived and had been installed. That was the good news. The bad news was that the computer said that was not the real problem and that there was something else causing the lack of power steering.

Being a good scientist the repairman quickly located the problem. Deer mice had crawled up into the motor and decided to make a condo there.  They got building material for their condo by shredding the belt that controlled the power steering. Plus they also stripped a few wires probably planning to add electricity to their condo!  That discovery came at a cost of a little over $500 which was not covered by any warranty! I paid $250 and my insurance company generously paid the remainder.

I am presently designing a plan to mouse proof the entry to my garage.  Meanwhile I added a half dozen mouse traps baited with Velveeta cheese which ended the lives of several deer mice.  The battle continues and will until I get that garage door ‘mouse proofed’!

I was just getting over the deer mouse invasion when I discovered my pumpkin patch had been invaded. For about fifteen years my wife and I have been growing pumpkins, displaying them on our lawn and offering them for sale to people in the community. In the fall the yard is full of laughing, screaming children searching for the perfect carving pumpkin.  Many adults visit too but they are more quiet as they search for pumpkins to decorate their home and yards for the fall season.

This spring I had just completed planting the pumpkin seeds and was awaiting their emergence. I became worried when the seedlings didn’t appear so I dug into the soil and guess what I discovered? The pumpkin seed coats were there but the important inside material was gone.  Each hill had eight seeds in it and every seed had been dug up and everything but the seed coats had been eaten! What critter would do such a thing? Since there were no eye witnesses to the crime no arrests could be made but I have a strong suspicion that Richardson Ground Squirrels were the culprits. Needless to say we are not on speaking terms at the moment. Seventy-five percent of one of the gardens had to be replanted. I was not muttering nice words when I completed that second planting process! 🙁

Now I’m thinking that is enough critter invasions for one spring.  Then the rain gauge situation occurred!  I have a classy rain gauge. It measures to the nearest hundredth of an inch. It is a large cylinder with a funnel that fits into the top of the cylinder. The rain falls into the funnel and the water runs into a narrow tube inside the larger cylinder. The tube holds one inch of rain and when it is full the excess rain overflows into the bottom of the larger cylinder. So we could get a six inch ‘gully washer’ and the rain gauge would never overflow. Like I said it’s a classy rain gauge.

One night last week it rained so the next morning I went out to my classy rain gauge to see how much rain had fallen. I stared in shock at my classy rain gauge!  It had been completely dismantled.  The funnel had been removed and was laying on the grass and several feet away I discovered the internal tube.  Both had been chewed on and bits of plastic were missing. Somewhere in the habitat surrounding our house a criminal was lurking with bits of plastic imbedded between its teeth! But since there were no eye witnesses once again no arrests could be made.

The rain gauge dismantling crime occurred four nights in a row and it is presently ongoing. What critter is responsible you ask?  I don’t know but my guess is it’s probably a family of half grown raccoons having a little fun.

Living in the country and competing with wildlife is an ongoing process. Today I was lounging in a lawn chair in the shade of an elm tree thinking about that very thing. What would be the next battle I would face? Then I saw the wren, a tiny little bird with a very scolding voice. It was perched on the extension cord that went from our garage to the screen tent. The cord came through a tiny hole in the garage siding. “Oh no!” I thought the bird appears to be heading for that hole. “But that’s okay because the bird can’t fit through the hole.” But the bird did fit through the hole and it disappeared into our garage!

Now I don’t know if you know what kind of a nest wrens make. They are very sloppy and are composed of many, many tiny twigs all mish-mashed together. Also the mother is very bossy and scolds nonstop when humans come near. Somewhere in our garage there is probably already a pile of twigs and that means the next couple of weeks will be noisy ones for us. Plus a momma wren is going to be suffering blood pressure issues before she gets her family raised.

I just had a horrible thought. What if this wren is a workaholic and some morning when I open the garage door to get in the car I find the whole garage filled with tiny twigs. The wren won’t be the only one scolding then! That I can guarantee! 🙂

Life in the country is a constant battle with critters who actually were here first so I guess I can’t really blame them. I just wish they would back off and let me enjoy the remaining months of summer in peace.

Until next time.