respublica

And we thought it was over and done with

Last week I climbed up onto the roof over our deck to clean the gutters. While up there I noticed a square-ish section where the black roofing material had come off. This was kind of worrisome so I took a picture with my phone and showed it to Dale when I got down.

This concerned Dale enough that he called Oasis Roofing, the company in Troy which has done our roofs over the years. A nice man came out and took a look at the spot. He said the black covering was fine, the wood under the covering was fine, but it looked very much like some animal had gotten up there and scratched this area off. There were scratch marks he said.

There can only be one animal that could have done this. The bain of our existence here in Collinsville over the years. Raccoons. As it happens I've seen a raccoon or raccoons twice in the past two weeks. One walked out of our backyard early one morning when I had just walked out the side door. He stopped, gave me as long look as if to say, "What's your problem?"  I saw him a second time coming out of the backyard a few days later.

We are pretty sure that scratched off area was done by a raccoon. The only question is just why. But now we don't care why we just want him or them gone. So It's another call to Critter Control which has emptied our yard of raccoons many times over the years. If you remember this or are just curious, here are some of the posts on the raccoon issues we've had over the years.

2011 Dale sitting on front porch and sees a raccoon sliding down the downspout.

2018, a year we trapped 7 raccoons. This link with photos

2017 mama raccoon playing with her babies on our driveway

2014 the year 19 raccoons were trapped in our yard.

2015 a picture of one of that year's catch.

And the good news is, Oasis sent two nice guys out in the afternoon and they fixed the spot. They also were quick to mention the animal type scratch marks. ugh

Frost and snow

Yesterday early in the morning I headed over to Creekside Gardens in Collinsville to get a roll of frost blanket to put over our vegetable raised beds. The forecast was for below freezing temperatures with rain turning to snow. I'm glad I did this even though the job of covering and staking the blanket was darn hard work.

This morning the frost blanket was topped with ice, not thick ice, but ice nevertheless. So now I'm wondering when I should try and gently remove it. I've read that it should come off fairly soon because it will act as a thermal top which could overheat the plants even when the temperatures are still quite low. The weight of the skein of ice worries me so....

Last year on the date was beautiful, this year, although the sun is shining may not be as nice for all our plantings.  Here is a contrast in backyards of the sem in 2020 and today in Collinsville 2021.

Say it isn't so

Now this warning about worms stopped me in my tracks today. If it's not one thing it's another when it comes to gardening. Here is the headline in bold large type. Invasive "jumping worms" spread in Illinois and Missouri.

Now what the heck is this?

"An invasive species of worm is wriggling its way into the Midwest. “Jumping Worms” (Amynthas spp) thrash wildly when handled, are 4 to 8 inches long, move quickly like a snake, and can shed their tails when threatened. The worms can be found in the top few inches of soil, leaves, or mulch.  They are displacing earthworms, centipedes, and other animals. They also damage plant roots, deplete nutrients, and alter the water-holding capacity of the soil. Plants become more susceptible to pests, drought, and disease. They are a danger to agriculture, gardens and forests."

The worms are confirmed in Madison County and suspected in St. Clair County. 

This sounds very creepy. So what should we do if we see them or want to avoid them? Most advice is at this link, but here is just one and I can't see myself doing this.

• Remove adult jumping worms.  Place adults in a plastic bag and leave in the sun at least 10 minutes. Dispose of the bag in the trash.

And so it begins

We have had pretty good success with our backyard vegetable garden. Things are growing really well and I go out and look at it several times a day. But this morning I saw the beginning of a frustrating change.

A little before 6 I went out to get something out of the car and when I looked up, there came a raccoon heading out of our yard like he owned the place. He saw me when I saw him and he stopped, turned his head to look me in the eye as if to say, "What you going to do about it?"  He then sauntered into our neighbor's backyard.

We've had years here when we had Critter Control out to trap these buggers and I'd hoped that business was over now that we are here all the time. But no. Darn it.

We haven't had much in the way of squirrels and learned that during bird seed feeding over the winter. And, the one squirrel I did see last week was being chased out of our yard by the neighbor's cat who is out much of every day.

Here I thought our biggest garden issue was going to be Tuesday's big freeze.

Keeping bugs out of your yard

It's that time again. Plants beginning to rise, grass is growing, leaves are popping out on trees, birds are singing like crazy and, of course, bugs are back. We've seen certain insects flying around, but so far not mosquitoes. Thankfully.

Just in time comes some advice on what to plant in the yard to help keep those darn biting mosquitoes at bay. Since we've begun planting lots of edible things I found this interesting and we still have room to add some of these.

A number of these seem to deter mosquitoes because they don't like the scent. Citronella is the first on the list. Dale and I were talking about this and we both wondered just what a Citronella plant is and turns out it is most commonly known as Lemon Grass. This should be fairly easy to find. Also on the list are Lavender, Marigolds, Rosemary, Mint and Sage. Most if these are probably found in the herbs area. All have scents that appear to discourage mosquitoes.

I'd like to go out today and find a couple of these and hope garden centers are now getting some of them in. Then we'll learn if they actually work.

One of the worst biting insects is that May/June tiny gnat. They swarm you when outside and their bites are awful and itch for days. A couple of years ago a Springfield carillonneur was visiting the seminary campus and we got to talking about those biting gnats. He had the same issue in his area and learned that Vanilla Body Spray really helps keep them from biting. We tried it and it did help tremendously. Lots of places have this. It has to be Vanilla.

More cicada news

The 17 year appearance of the Cicada bug is going to be a really big one. Depending on where you live there could be hundred of thousands or millions. They are mostly harmless but their noise level is off the charts. They will come up out of the ground and climb on anything they can.

Illinois is one of the states which will see Cicadas. Our daughter in Maryland will be at ground zero for the most of these insects. Here is a Cicada emergence map.

Hot Pepper Bird Seed

I discovered this around Christmas at the Edwardsville Wild Birds Unlimited. I've also been to the Swansea Wild Birds Unlimited. There is at least one in St. Louis. I was skeptical about this seed keeping squirrels away, but boy does it. The birds love it, squirrels hate it. It comes in bags of mixed seed as well as in shaped form to hang outside. They have cylinder shapes and bells. They have so many options for feeding birds.  The cylinder ones last a long time even when birds are on it constantly. Here is the bag I have right now.

Winter

We are really getting a bout of frigid winter temperatures and to top it off, we're in for a lot of snow on top of it. I mean to say, it is seriously cold and the snow just keeps on coming along with wind.

So, there is nothing much to do about it right now, the forecast is for this snow to keep up a good part of the day. However, I have a plan!

Since it is so cold, the snow will be fluffy-ish and not soggy and heavy to move. I decided to try and clear it off (tomorrow) with the leaf blower. I got it out of the garage yesterday and put it in the basement to get warm. I hope this makes moving the snow easier and faster than using a shovel.

It should at least help get the snow off the cars, we aren't lucky enough to have a nice big garage. We have a one car garage, but Dale has been using this as a workshop.

Life narrows down when weather hits.

I slid down to fill the bird feeders this morning and they were waiting. It's fascinating to watch how fast birds know when food is ready and how fast they eat. Also, the bigger birds are the greediest and really cheat the smaller ones out of the best seed. Here are some this morning in our back yard.

These guys in the tree are waiting their turn, at least that is my guess.

I can't say enough about the hot pepper bird seed, we have no squirrels at all.

This is what I needed to read today

Since we moved back to Collinsville we had a lot of work done on the house. Most of it was done before we actually moved which was a great blessing. But since then, Dale has been tearing up a good portion of basement walls in order to replace them and set in many many bookshelves. He has a lot of books. What this has meant was a lot of dust trickling up into the rest of the house. It doesn't help that we've had to keep the furnace running and dust filtering all over. I've noticed a mild sort of stuffy-ness every morning and at one point went out and bought an air filter. This has helped a lot, but not totally. We probably need another one for the second floor.

So I was interested in what this woman, who had also recently moved, wrote:

"I woke up every morning with red, itchy eyes and a sniffly nose. I usually don’t get winter allergies, and we hadn’t been around other humans recently, so I was confused about what was happening. When I desperately texted a friend about my possible December-allergy scenario, she didn’t seem surprised at all."

Dust. It's what we all have. Unfortunately the only solution she had, which works for her, is to wear a mask in the house, especially when cleaning. In our case I am convinced we need to have our duct work cleaned. Besides Dale's basement work, we also had a basement water treatment done which meant lots of concrete floor jackhammering...and dust. I'd bet a duct cleaning is what would help the most rather than constant dusting.

 

Suddenly we're a cat house

Since we've been feeding birds in our backyard, cats have been showing up. I did not realize before this that our neighborhood had so many cats and cats that are allowed to roam the block. I've been shooing them out everyday recently.

How do they know we have birds feeding? Our backyard is fenced but that does not stop these cats. They're friendly enough, but rather arrogant about being asked to leave.