Category: Nature

The yard, pond, seasons, animals …

Muskrats!

August 4, 2015 @ 10:55 pm

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The cattails lying on the pond surface in the above pic, are from a Muskrat having eating away some of the cattail’s root tuber.

These cattail fronds lying on the pond, were the first definite Muskrat tells this year.

Plus, today, Corey saw a small mammal swimming across the pond.  Had to have been a muskrat.

So tomorrow, in order to save the pond’s vegetation, I’ll dig 3  4″ holes in likely muskrat spots in the pond banks.  Digging each hole about 12″ into the pond bank.  And about 3″ under the water’s surface.  And then I’ll set a #110 trap in the entrance to each hole.

For ratty.

The artificial holes are because it’s almost impossible to find their actual tunnels, due to the dense vegetation lining most of the pond banks.  And supposedly, a muskrat can’t resist a good hole.  We’ll see.

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Pond Porn

Changes …

July 17, 2015 @ 8:39 pm

This week … Honey.  The first honey harvest, actually.  Kath and Steve worked so hard – but that honey is so delicious.  And to think it came from bees in our own yard.  Wow.  It is delicious.  Yeah.  I said that.  Delicious.

And this week – new roofs on the front porch and back sunroom.  Metal roofs this time.  Dark green.  Lovely.  And they shouldn’t leak (the old ones did).

And, as Rob and Donna were here this week, I put Rob to work, of course.  And we trimmed and pruned the pond view from the deck on down.  Beautiful open view now from the yard and the deck.  And we had a bonfire Sat night, down by the pond.  Nice.

The pond – it’s thriving – except that 2″ sized pollywogs are dying.  Don’t know why.  Everything else is ok.  No muskrat signs.  Both the Tricker’s and Lowe’s water lilies are thriving.  Lotta algae.  Some leafed plants – haven’t ID’d em yet.  And some structured algae like grass.  Tons of frogs.  Saw the snake a week or so ago.  Pair of Green Herons visited briefly, for a couple days.

The yard – And a bothersome coon on the back deck, some nights.

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Honey from Kathy and Steve’s bee hive – it’s double yummy
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Boris checking out the dock – he’s the BOSS
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New back roof
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New porch roof
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love those water lilies …
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The fish put in an appearance this week – at the back of the pond.
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Gnats, or something, helping to pollinate the blossom
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Reeds – making photogenic geometric angles above the algae mat

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Grape Vines … TLC

June 30, 2015 @ 2:01 pm

Yesterday, I whacked the weeds under and around the grape vines, for air circulation – and to prevent the weeds from competing with the grape vines for resources.

And then this morning, Jerie pruned the vines, removing ones with the black rot, pruning excess leaves, and making sure the growing clusters of grapes weren’t touching anything.

After that, I sprayed them all sides wet with Serenade.  Which contains QST 713 strain of Bacillus subtilis.

This was for the black rot.  Where the grapes get black dots, which quickly grow to consume the whole grape, leaving ugly black dried out dead grape in its place.  Very contagious too.  Vines with bad grapes get black streaks in them, I noticed today while spraying.

I think we got this early enough, this time.  Most grape clusters are unaffected.  The few infected clusters are at the stage where a few grapes have black dots.

 

Author tgreen Category Nature