Time to catch up on some long put-off neglected chores like reading and deleting my 231 emails. That'll have to be spread over the next couple of days. Emails build up as I start saving ones like my subscriptions to Farmers Almanac, Mother Earth News, Oldways Health Through Heritage, which is a great Mediterranean cooking site, because I plan on reading the articles later in the day when I settle down. Only I never read them later in the evening when I settle down. Many of the emails in my box can just be deleted or unsubscribed because they don't pertain to me like Veteran's benefits or hearing aids or timeshares.
The garden is overrun with weeds due to the incredible spring weather we've been having. If I can't get to the weeds by early afternoon, weeding doesn't take place as the sun is fully on the garden or we're having afternoon showers. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. The forest is lush and full. The Board hasn't decimated the wild daisies along the mountain road yet so our drive out of Boulder Creek is still peaceful with Mother Nature's wild-flower artwork.
I so enjoy teaching yoga classes three mornings a week which means I practice and tweak lessons on the in-between days. Each weekend I put together a new plan, practicing the 75-minute flow of movements so I can hopefully just glance at my notes and be smooth on Monday mornings. Wednesdays go a bit easier and by Friday I've got it together and can throw in some new or advanced asanas. Because this is so soothing for me, I've put unpleasant tasks like vacuuming, washing the woods floors, checking emails, and garden weeding on the back-burner. Today after our lunch and a relaxing cup of tea on the back porch, I finally vacuumed the rooms, shook area rugs, and washed the wood floors with Murphy's Oil. The voles haven't destroyed the leaf-lettuce so I harvested, washed, and bagged four bunches.
Also, picked all the beet greens before the voles could eat the beets and we have nothing.
Kitchen garden after a rain. Basil just started growing and this lettuce will need to be harvested as the days are getting too warm for lettuce and it will shoot up flowers.
Yesterday afternoon one lone wild turkey came strutting down our driveway over to the porch then quickly did a 180 degree turn, headed back up the driveway
and into the woods across the road. Maybe he smelled the gravy cooking! The other day when I carried my kitchen compost bucket to the compost at the edge of the garden, I was confronted by a 40-lb bunny, maybe not 40 but it was one large well-fed mammal.
We've decided to aggressively attack our vole problem because it's out of hand. Voles multiply quicker than rabbits so before they destroy tree roots, if they haven't already started, Cliff purchased a converter which hooks up to a vehicle exhaust. One end of a garden hose is then attached to the converter and the other end is placed in a vole hole. Yesterday my massage therapist told me that Juicy Fruit gum is another solution. Voles will eat the small pieces of gum that are placed in the holes or tunnels and die because they can't regurgitate it or pass it through their systems. Tomorrow gum will be placed in holes and tunnels in the garden. My sister and Vic suggested a crossbeam as an owl perch and let the owl feast on the little rodents. We'll do that, too. I know we have a resident hawk in our neighborhood but it hasn't been very helpful because all the neighbors have tunneled lawns and woods full of holes.
The garden is overrun with weeds due to the incredible spring weather we've been having. If I can't get to the weeds by early afternoon, weeding doesn't take place as the sun is fully on the garden or we're having afternoon showers. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. The forest is lush and full. The Board hasn't decimated the wild daisies along the mountain road yet so our drive out of Boulder Creek is still peaceful with Mother Nature's wild-flower artwork.
I so enjoy teaching yoga classes three mornings a week which means I practice and tweak lessons on the in-between days. Each weekend I put together a new plan, practicing the 75-minute flow of movements so I can hopefully just glance at my notes and be smooth on Monday mornings. Wednesdays go a bit easier and by Friday I've got it together and can throw in some new or advanced asanas. Because this is so soothing for me, I've put unpleasant tasks like vacuuming, washing the woods floors, checking emails, and garden weeding on the back-burner. Today after our lunch and a relaxing cup of tea on the back porch, I finally vacuumed the rooms, shook area rugs, and washed the wood floors with Murphy's Oil. The voles haven't destroyed the leaf-lettuce so I harvested, washed, and bagged four bunches.
We've decided to aggressively attack our vole problem because it's out of hand. Voles multiply quicker than rabbits so before they destroy tree roots, if they haven't already started, Cliff purchased a converter which hooks up to a vehicle exhaust. One end of a garden hose is then attached to the converter and the other end is placed in a vole hole. Yesterday my massage therapist told me that Juicy Fruit gum is another solution. Voles will eat the small pieces of gum that are placed in the holes or tunnels and die because they can't regurgitate it or pass it through their systems. Tomorrow gum will be placed in holes and tunnels in the garden. My sister and Vic suggested a crossbeam as an owl perch and let the owl feast on the little rodents. We'll do that, too. I know we have a resident hawk in our neighborhood but it hasn't been very helpful because all the neighbors have tunneled lawns and woods full of holes.
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