By Andrew Haupt
It’s been a wild week in the animal kingdom, kicked off by the possum that drowned in my fish emulsion. The squirrels have continued to ratchet up their destruction, so we finally got the squirrelnator traps set up, which have been consistently catching around 5 squirrels a day. I’ve been putting the bodies at the top of their holes, thinking that might drive them off, but it seems like something cleans up the carnage during the night. I came out one morning to find the traps dragged three quarters of the way down the hill and one the squirrels completely ripped in half, its entrails scattered down the slope. So now I’m curious to get a wildlife cam so we can see who we’re feeding. My guess is coyotes.
I also arrived at the meadow garden Thursday morning to find a wild turkey inside the fence, walking back and forth confused. Turkeys are very good at getting into places, and very bad at getting out. Its three babies stood on the outside of the fence looking in, probably joking with each other about how their mom’s an idiot. I don’t think the turkey is what’s been munching on our corn, however... I spent time reinforcing the weak areas of the garden fence around the gates, and I’m cautiously optimistic that it’s helped keep things out.
But the universe seems intent that I should get no harvest whatsoever this year. We had another frost this week -- not as bad as the first one, but bad enough to kill some squash and beans and peppers. Pretty frustrating that we’re still getting frost in Southern California while Canadians blissfully garden without a problem.
It also seems like we do, in fact, have gophers in addition to everything else. I noticed a textbook gopher hole in the tomato bed in the back garden, and the tomato next to it had been completely chopped at the base... I really don’t know how anyone farms up here. On the bright side, they haven’t eaten any garlic, and it’s shaping up to be a good crop soon. We harvested the scapes this week, and some of the bulbs are pushing up out of the ground.
