We're so overrun with voles that I'm seriously thinking about giving up the garden for this year. My spinach is disappearing. The thirty garlic that were set in October now number twenty-six with three more stalks turning yellow. The garlic still have about 5-6 weeks to go before harvesting. I find numerous new holes and tunnels daily. Research on voles shows my approach needs a new method. We bought two bags of Sweeney's Armadillo and Vole Repellent to begin the new strategy. Day by day for five days, the granules are suppose to drive the little buggers away, maybe to someone else yard or to the woods. Today was the third application which should be steering them closer to the west woods. The repellent uses Fullers Earth as a carrier for the castor oil and the rodents should be repelled by the castor oil smell and exit the soil to a new territory. Two more days of applications and we'll see what happens. If this works, I'll be planting my yellow and green beans and my tomato plants. If not, I'll surrender to Mother Nature and shop for more jigsaw puzzles at thrift stores.
Some days are full of doing tasks and chores that Cliff did for me. The floor wasn't that dirty but he enjoyed saying. "Guess I need to pull out the vacuum. I'm tripping over debris." I thanked him. Whenever I was in the kitchen trying out new recipes, making cookies or the double batch tapioca pudding for him, he was there beside (getting in my way sometimes) washing the utensils, pots/pans, cutting boards, drying them and putting everything back in their proper places only to have me take some things back out and reuse again. "I just washed that" he would state. He learned to ask if I were through with things before he cleaned up after me. I thanked him. He emptied the dishwasher when it was finished in such an orderly manner (getting in my way sometimes because I was also in the kitchen working but he wanted to be there with me). I thanked him. Every morning he made my bed reminding me of the order that the pillows needed to be placed. John&
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