Pests!

The one thing that frustrates me every summer are pests! As most of you know I've been catching chipmunks (4) and squirrels(3) already this year.

I turned my fuchsia around the other day and found sawdust on the one side. I saw this this am when I was watering plants on the deck. Not a good sign!

Neither is this. Can you see the hole in the wood? It's at the end of the 2x6 (enlarge pic to see better). That is the work of a carpenter bee. They drill perfect holes in the wood, turn 45 degrees, drill several inches more and lay their eggs. I've had them in my shed before but not on the deck.
Yesterday morning I discovered this. These were daisies! Something, either a woodchuck or a rabbit, had a great meal on me! I haven't seen a woodchuck this year so I'm guessing it was rabbits.
I can handle the daisies because I know they'll come back, but I'm real upset about this. This was one of the new colors of coneflower. It is either yellow or sunset which is more orange. I bought a plant of each last year and put them in this holding area until I decided where I wanted them. At least there is a bud left.
This is the other one, just stems. I'm hoping that the plant will at least survive even if it doesn't flower.
And lastly for the worst pest of all!

Have you ever been woken up at 2 in the morning by a bat flying past your head? Believe me when I tell you it is not a pleasant experience, especially when you live alone! (Sorry, no picture!) I usually call my son-in-law when I get a bat in the house but the last couple times it has been the middle of the night. The last time I opened the front door and watched the bat fly out. Last night after 2 hours of watching it was still in the house. I finally closed my bedroom door and tried to sleep. I'm guessing that's what the bat is doing now, somewhere in my house! I made a couple calls to pest control business this morning. I got an estimate of $950. from one company and another is coming next week. I found out that they can't touch them during certain weeks when they are having their babies in June. I can't wait to come home from work tonight and have round 2 with a bat!

Last years project.

This was last years main project. This space was an extra parking space next to my driveway. My son and I dug out enough of the large gravel to add top soil. I put in the stone walkway with flat stones I had laying around. The rest of the space is grass.I found this bird house at a craft show. It is the perfect focal point for the area.
This is the other side of the driveway. I put this in in the spring. On the left are the remains of the neighbors parking space. I add a 2 brick high wall and then stood a 2x4 on edge right on my property line. The area between the brick and 2x4 is ajuga.
My daughter pointed out that I have a fairie garden like some of you because there are fairies in this garden. Both of these fairies were given to me and it seemed like a good place to put them.
There is a small trellis with a small purple clematis at the far end.
Behind the trellis you can see the hill I just planted last week. All these changes were brought on by neighbor problems but I'm really happy with the changes.

Maple Syrup

When I was at my nieces last weekend they gave us a tour of their maple syrup business. I don't know all the technical stuff but thought I would show you a little of their operation.

The blue tubing that you see is how they tap the trees. They tap between 1500 and 1600 trees on 2 properties.

Tim is explaining that all they have to do is drill a hole in the tree and put the tap on the end of the short tube in the hole. When the tap is pulled the tree immediately begins to repair itself.
This machine causes a vacuum that pulls the sap thru the tubing.
The sap is put in these large plastic vats.
This is the barn that holds all the equipment.
The sap is then put into these huge stainless steel troughs.

This is the inside of the trough. There are 2 of them.
The sap then goes into the heated area.
The steam goes out these giant pipes. People have come to their house and told them their barn was on fire when the see all the steam coming out the roof. Others, that know what they are doing, come over just to watch. When it reaches this point it is syrup. Just turn on the spigot and out it comes. Under this area is where the fire wood goes. The fire burns up 2 pallets every 6 minutes and they have to use an iron rod to open the door to put in more wood.

The syrup is then put into steel barrels. All the barrels in the background are full of syrup. The barrel on the rack is the one they are currently pouring from.

There is a whole other process in getting the syrup ready for sale. They also make maple sugar candy and suckers and make up gift baskets to sell at gift shops. Tim said they only made 700 and some gallons this year because it was a bad year. They usually make 1,000.

I'm hoping to take a trip out there next spring when they are actually making syrup. I had no idea what a huge project this is.

"Buffalo Bill"

In June of 2002 the brick facade of a building in our downtown started to fall off the building. A construction crew was called in to remove the facade. As they were working they discovered a 6 panel billboard glued to the original wall. The billboard had been covered by bricks for more than 100 years. Restorers were hired to put the hundreds of pieces back together. The billboard is believed to be the oldest in the country because new posters were glued right on top of old ones. The billboard advertised William "Buffalo Bill" Cody coming to Jamestown March 14, 1878.
It took 5 years to reassemble and restore this 26ft wide and 10 ft tall billboard. To learn more about the poster and "Buffalo Bill" click here.
I'm sorry to say I didn't get to see the unveiling but thought you might find this interesting.

Shopping with Grandma.

Grandma and I went shopping to Walmart this morning. Grandma needed diapers, wipes and formula for me and a couple things for her. We even got to see Aunt Laurie while we were there.

Grandma bought me some things that I had to have.Every girl needs ruffly socks and sneakers with pink sparkles and glittery laces, don't you think?
I also got this cool hat! I can be hip and with it..
or I can be sweet and girly.
I love my hat and wore it all the time we were shopping. The cashier even used the hand scanner and left it on me when we cashed out. I got so tired I feel asleep before we even got home.

Happy Birthday!

Today I have to post 2 posts. The first and most important is to celebrate my daughter and best friend's 37th birthday.

From baby..

to go go boots...
to pigtails ...a pesty little brother...
braces...

graduation...
engagement... wedding... to now...
...we have remained best friends. We've certainly had our ups and downs but that just makes our bond stronger!

Happy Birthday, honey! I love you and am very proud of the woman you have become!

If you would like to wish Laurie a Happy Birthday go to Miss Flower.

Green Thumb Sunday

Sun rose
Dianthus weigela (shrub)
coral bells
Can't remember what these are called. They bloom at night and the leaves look like skinny dandelions.
Small bulb that was here when I moved. Anyone know what they are?
wild phlox
peony
Dr. Ruppel clematis

Happy 60th!

I went to my nieces today in between jobs for my sister-in-laws birthday. They live about an hour away way out in the country. These are two of my nieces kids, Timmy and Becca. They are using leaves for umbrellas because it started to rain. Notice Timmy thought he should dress up for the occasion so he wore a tie.
Cindy with one of her gifts and her oldest granddaughter, Hannah.
The inside of the book, all blank!
60 kisses and 60 peanutbutter cups!
Happy 60th , Cindy!

How the heck did that get there?

The June page from my calender my daughter made me. Click to enlarge and see the bee on the flower and the "Buzz" on the paper. I have had a garbage disposal ever since I redid my kitchen 9 years ago. I never had any problems with it except for the odd piece of silverware that found it's way into it. When the kids were here Monday I turned it on and it was very noisy. I said I had put some cherry pits in it and everything was fine. When it kept it up I turned it off and found the top and nipple from one of Jerzie's bottles. Her Mom had put it in the sink and I hadn't known it was there. I know I'd used it since then but when I tried to turn it on yesterday it just buzzed. I got out the book to find out how to unjam it. I got it running again but could see something under one of the blades. I tried to pry it out like the book told me but couldn't get it. It looked shiny like metal so I had the brainstorm to pour oil down there and turn it on and maybe it would come free. Surprise! It worked! This is what I found in the disposal.

I think that it's a quarter. I have no idea how a quarter got any where near the sink. I don't think anyone will take it, do you? At least I learned how to unjam the disposal!