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Armadillos

Posted at 3:29 PM on June 5, 2008 by Vera Schabicki (1 Comments)

I would like to apologize for not getting to writing in such a long time. As Cher said in her post, it seems increasingly difficult to plan a life at all, all the variables are mixed up and changed at such a constant rate (ear infections, night terrors, asthma attacks, visitors, broken cars, antibiotic reactions, lost bills, broken appliances, more visitors, soccer, too many fun parties, kitty trauma surgery death, unexpected bills). I am amazed at people who have time to be bored; I don't think we have had a stable week in about ten years.

Over the past couple of months we planted many seeds, I ordered a bunch of stuff from Seeds Of Change, lots of nifty sounding tomatoes and peppers, squashes, cucumbers, melons, greens, carrots, the list goes on. We have had the heartbreak of Armadillo for the last two years but this year a large stray chocolate Lab appeared at our doorway. She is an outside dog, and I thought she would keep the dreaded "Dillos" away. Things worked out pretty well for a couple of months, we went out every day welcoming the little green spouts, feeling all pastoral and optimistic and joyful, still enjoying little bits of green from our winter covered gardens (one might ask why we did not go with success and just build a bunch of square foot gardens............see above), and then one day it happened.....all of our little plants churned, tossed, trampled.....a hideous painful sight.........but hey we have the dog, we will just put up some chicken wire and stake it all with the huge mound of sticks that are conveniently stripped and straitened by our other long term guest, Mr. Beaver. (It was oddly comforting to see how lush and green those churned lasagna garden beds looked, they look a bit bedraggled on the top so it is nice to see that all that decomposition is taking place like it should)........And that is what we did, our back yard again looks like a collection of imprisoned garden beds. I went to Webster's and bought a large amount of standard tomato and pepper plants, they dug under the fencing and dug them all up....okay we will stake the fencing more tightly, add more logs, sprinkle egg shells, I went to Anthony's Herb Farm and bought more tomato and pepper plants as well as some really interesting herbs. Every morning we go out and assess damage, hopefully this weekend we can get those raised beds together before this next round dies.........of course my dad is about to arrive for a couple of weeks of visiting........no it is not true that Germans sit around until the wee hours of the morning discussing politics with many glasses of wine and Schnapps................how could anyone think such a thing..............I must dash off to our food closet volunteer opportunity.....
Best wishes, Vera

Comments (1)

I wonder what the locals say about dillo issues. Have you gotten any feedback from their wisdom?

Posted by Michele | June 18, 2008 10:42 AM