It's been sort of a strange week around here... you see the local squirrel food bank has been shut down due to a generous offer from our former nemesis turned ally. We are all good people, and it's a bit dicey... I was thinking of baking my neighbour a cake as a token of my gratitude for the smart decision they made in stopping feeding the squirrels. It's just the the decision didn't come through a gradual understanding of the reality of the situation, but rather a shocking and perhaps horrifying series of events.
I will state as fact that no squirrel was harmed as a result of this wonderful conclusion... perhaps one was traumatized for a few hours, but that bastard had it coming. It was a known carrot terrorist that had a keen taste for chomping on beet leaves and spitting them out and as a result it spent a few hours in a trap (a Have a Heart™ trap). The sight of the squirrel in the trap set off a fair amount of chaos and phone calls to various authorities, and i believe what happened was that somebody found out that feeding squirrels is a bad idea. They are cute, if you are that kind of sucker, but they are a menace and as a result they are classified as... well these are the facts:
SQUIRREL DAMAGE LAND OR CROPS
Tree squirrels are classified as Predatory Animals (Oregon Revised
Statute 610.002) and as such they may be controlled (killed) by
landowners or land managers if the animals are causing damage to land
(lawns, gardens ornamentals, landscaping), livestock, agricultural crops
or forest crops. (Oregon Revised Statute 498.012).
A permit is not needed from ODFW to kill squirrels unless the
landowner wishes to transport a squirrel to a location where it will be
euthanized. In that case, the local ODFW office must be contacted
and a permit obtained.
Now i don't really want to kill animals, and i don't have anything against squirrels, but when you have 4 of them in your yard always, fighting, and digging holes in your rows of seedlings it can drive you a little crazy after a year.
Luckily it didn't come to that, as the shit hit the fan early that day. Sometimes in life it's good for the shit to hit the fan... it can sort issues out. A good life lesson actually. You see we often try too hard to get along... you want to be good to people so you swallow the sewage that comes your way in an effort to get along. But then one day you blow, because you have just had enough, and you don't give a damn anymore, and all hell breaks loose. You have forced the issue which is the thing you should have done in the first place.
Good in theory right... that's what they tell you when they are trying to calm you down. It is your fault, you should have been more clear.
I'll call malarkey on that line of reasoning. That's like saying i like to play bass at midnight at a frequency the rattles foundations of neighbourhood houses. It is true... playing bass at face melting volume is truly a good time, and i pity the person who never experienced this wonderful phenomenon. The thing is i don't do it because i don't believe it is fair to the people around me... and i believe the laws of the city would support this idea.
So now the squirrel feeding hub that was once a mere 20 feet from my garden is now gone, and with it so are the never ending squirrel attacks on the garden. A truly brilliant turn of events, and one that makes me giddy with delight. It is actually quite shocking to see how few squirrels there are now... they really are ungrateful bastards. Mind you there has still been some damage, perhaps rodents looking for lost peanuts bit it's no longer a non stop daily ritual.
Now there is another loon on the next block over that feeds the squirrels and it would have been interesting to see what affect the feeding stop on our block had to do with the population biology, with respect to squirrels, had on their feeder. Did the most aggressive squirrel take over that territory? Probably. Now the grey bastard that nips at the beet leaves is still calling my house home territory... perhaps some pepper might fix that. Apparently cayenne pepper, or Capsicum annuum can be used as a garden menace repellant.. i will try. Luckily living in a town with a large mexican food store market, i should be able to get my hands on some high test cayenne pepper... stay tuned.
When i look back at it there were always 3 distinct squirrel clans waging war in my yard. Clearly this was a matter of being located next to a never ending food supply. It was ace territory no doubt. Some people thought i was exaggerating but then they came and saw and the common saying was : "holy shit you are not kidding, that is unbelievable". Now it can't be good for the squirrels either... you are teaching them to be lazy and fight with each other. In a perfect world the squirrel population would be a relation to the number of food producing trees there are in the neighbourhood. I'm always for planting more trees by the way... more trees creating more oxygen, sustaining more life... bring it on.
I'd like to reforest the vast majority of the continent, reduce our energy consumption, and put a focus on growing natural organic food in spaces that were unnaturally hijacked by insane human consumerism.
I was reading in the news the other day about how some company is accepting applications for humans to go live on Mars in 2023. God willing there will be a reality TV show over the selection process as a means to fund the venture. Not a bad idea in an economic sense, but kind of horrifying otherwise.
Call me Ishmael, but isn't the planet we live on, that currently sustains life kind of an ace in the hole? Wouldn't an intelligent view be to maintain this planet's livability. Now i get that science and politics and money don't see eye to eye... well i guess politics see's eye to eye with money, and money see's eye to eye with money, and science see's the result of the experiment... and religion which has a great affect on politics seems kind of ridiculous... so that's a bit of a mess.
I think part of the importance of growing food is so that the young people in the world can see how it's done, and that it can be done. And then tell a kid that a seed/ chemical company is trying to take control over the world's seed, and hence food supply, and the kid will say that is wrong and they should be stopped. I also think it is important to teach resistance to bad long term agricultural policies to our youth.
It is also slug season.. the slug population is slowly building up around the garden... it's a good time to take it down a notch. Personally i'm not crazy on the idea of slug poison in the garden no matter how safe the package says the product is safe. Slugs can mow down seedlings like kids can eat jelly beans. You need to get out in the garden at night with a flashlight to see what is going on and slugs need to be stopped if the object is to grow food. A few safe methods of slug control are boards down in the garden and the slugs will hide under there during the day and you can pick them off, or counter sink a shallow tin full of beer that the slugs will be drawn to to drown in. But that is good drinking beer right? That's why i like to be out there at night with a headlight... nothing beats seeing what is going on. It's kind of like hand watering... it forces you to observe your garden more, and the more you observe the more you know, and the more you know the better a guardian you will be for your plants.
Like weeding, as well... it forces you to get in and study the micro environment to see what kind of problems you have. You see the competition of life... you see things thriving and others struggling, ask why and look for answers. Every climate, every soil, every light profile is different. You need to find out what plants work for your garden and where and why, and your garden will reward you with the real gift of life, and i guarantee you will be a better person with a greater appreciation of the finer things in life. Turn off that TV and do yourself a favour... grow some food and eat it and share it with children so that they can see a way out of this mess we are leaving for them.
I will state as fact that no squirrel was harmed as a result of this wonderful conclusion... perhaps one was traumatized for a few hours, but that bastard had it coming. It was a known carrot terrorist that had a keen taste for chomping on beet leaves and spitting them out and as a result it spent a few hours in a trap (a Have a Heart™ trap). The sight of the squirrel in the trap set off a fair amount of chaos and phone calls to various authorities, and i believe what happened was that somebody found out that feeding squirrels is a bad idea. They are cute, if you are that kind of sucker, but they are a menace and as a result they are classified as... well these are the facts:
SQUIRREL DAMAGE LAND OR CROPS
Tree squirrels are classified as Predatory Animals (Oregon Revised
Statute 610.002) and as such they may be controlled (killed) by
landowners or land managers if the animals are causing damage to land
(lawns, gardens ornamentals, landscaping), livestock, agricultural crops
or forest crops. (Oregon Revised Statute 498.012).
A permit is not needed from ODFW to kill squirrels unless the
landowner wishes to transport a squirrel to a location where it will be
euthanized. In that case, the local ODFW office must be contacted
and a permit obtained.
Now i don't really want to kill animals, and i don't have anything against squirrels, but when you have 4 of them in your yard always, fighting, and digging holes in your rows of seedlings it can drive you a little crazy after a year.
Luckily it didn't come to that, as the shit hit the fan early that day. Sometimes in life it's good for the shit to hit the fan... it can sort issues out. A good life lesson actually. You see we often try too hard to get along... you want to be good to people so you swallow the sewage that comes your way in an effort to get along. But then one day you blow, because you have just had enough, and you don't give a damn anymore, and all hell breaks loose. You have forced the issue which is the thing you should have done in the first place.
Good in theory right... that's what they tell you when they are trying to calm you down. It is your fault, you should have been more clear.
I'll call malarkey on that line of reasoning. That's like saying i like to play bass at midnight at a frequency the rattles foundations of neighbourhood houses. It is true... playing bass at face melting volume is truly a good time, and i pity the person who never experienced this wonderful phenomenon. The thing is i don't do it because i don't believe it is fair to the people around me... and i believe the laws of the city would support this idea.
So now the squirrel feeding hub that was once a mere 20 feet from my garden is now gone, and with it so are the never ending squirrel attacks on the garden. A truly brilliant turn of events, and one that makes me giddy with delight. It is actually quite shocking to see how few squirrels there are now... they really are ungrateful bastards. Mind you there has still been some damage, perhaps rodents looking for lost peanuts bit it's no longer a non stop daily ritual.
Now there is another loon on the next block over that feeds the squirrels and it would have been interesting to see what affect the feeding stop on our block had to do with the population biology, with respect to squirrels, had on their feeder. Did the most aggressive squirrel take over that territory? Probably. Now the grey bastard that nips at the beet leaves is still calling my house home territory... perhaps some pepper might fix that. Apparently cayenne pepper, or Capsicum annuum can be used as a garden menace repellant.. i will try. Luckily living in a town with a large mexican food store market, i should be able to get my hands on some high test cayenne pepper... stay tuned.
When i look back at it there were always 3 distinct squirrel clans waging war in my yard. Clearly this was a matter of being located next to a never ending food supply. It was ace territory no doubt. Some people thought i was exaggerating but then they came and saw and the common saying was : "holy shit you are not kidding, that is unbelievable". Now it can't be good for the squirrels either... you are teaching them to be lazy and fight with each other. In a perfect world the squirrel population would be a relation to the number of food producing trees there are in the neighbourhood. I'm always for planting more trees by the way... more trees creating more oxygen, sustaining more life... bring it on.
I'd like to reforest the vast majority of the continent, reduce our energy consumption, and put a focus on growing natural organic food in spaces that were unnaturally hijacked by insane human consumerism.
I was reading in the news the other day about how some company is accepting applications for humans to go live on Mars in 2023. God willing there will be a reality TV show over the selection process as a means to fund the venture. Not a bad idea in an economic sense, but kind of horrifying otherwise.
Call me Ishmael, but isn't the planet we live on, that currently sustains life kind of an ace in the hole? Wouldn't an intelligent view be to maintain this planet's livability. Now i get that science and politics and money don't see eye to eye... well i guess politics see's eye to eye with money, and money see's eye to eye with money, and science see's the result of the experiment... and religion which has a great affect on politics seems kind of ridiculous... so that's a bit of a mess.
I think part of the importance of growing food is so that the young people in the world can see how it's done, and that it can be done. And then tell a kid that a seed/ chemical company is trying to take control over the world's seed, and hence food supply, and the kid will say that is wrong and they should be stopped. I also think it is important to teach resistance to bad long term agricultural policies to our youth.
It is also slug season.. the slug population is slowly building up around the garden... it's a good time to take it down a notch. Personally i'm not crazy on the idea of slug poison in the garden no matter how safe the package says the product is safe. Slugs can mow down seedlings like kids can eat jelly beans. You need to get out in the garden at night with a flashlight to see what is going on and slugs need to be stopped if the object is to grow food. A few safe methods of slug control are boards down in the garden and the slugs will hide under there during the day and you can pick them off, or counter sink a shallow tin full of beer that the slugs will be drawn to to drown in. But that is good drinking beer right? That's why i like to be out there at night with a headlight... nothing beats seeing what is going on. It's kind of like hand watering... it forces you to observe your garden more, and the more you observe the more you know, and the more you know the better a guardian you will be for your plants.
Like weeding, as well... it forces you to get in and study the micro environment to see what kind of problems you have. You see the competition of life... you see things thriving and others struggling, ask why and look for answers. Every climate, every soil, every light profile is different. You need to find out what plants work for your garden and where and why, and your garden will reward you with the real gift of life, and i guarantee you will be a better person with a greater appreciation of the finer things in life. Turn off that TV and do yourself a favour... grow some food and eat it and share it with children so that they can see a way out of this mess we are leaving for them.
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