This is no dream

It is more like a nightmare. I exaggerate. But I must admit that I have been a bit freaked out about the garden. Everything is growing well (I did pull out 2 of the 12 tomatoes as I suspected a virus), but I am battling rodents, birds, or probably both. Jacques is just not doing his job. Dave and Dan took care of the pocket gopher I believe, after threatening a Caddyshack approach if the gassing and trapping did not work, but the small plants are still getting nipped at. An entire row of arugula and chard simply disappeared! But I have to remove the current protection as the plants outgrow it ...


Dan is coming to the rescue though, and by tomorrow night we should have a greater possibility of having leafy vegetables this summer. The melons that were getting nipped are recovering nicely in their white bottomless buckets, and hopefully the plants will be big enough to withstand some tasting once they outgrow them. Yipes! Yet who can blame the birds for wanting the taste of something fresh and green? We need moisture. It has been uncharacteristically overcast today, and yesterday we saw some good squalls out in the valley. Rumor has it that we can expect a heavier than normal monsoon ... All will be well when the rains come.

Meanwhile, there are no sunflowers remaining at the horsebarn. All 12 of them sawed off by rodents in spite of chickenwire and upside-down pots at night. The sunflowers in the garden are doing well.

I have put bigger chickenwire cages around the ornamental plants at the yard's perimeter. The jack rabbits will eat anything this time of year, even "rabbit proof" plants, and some undesirable pruning was taking place. While I upgraded a plant I found this small horned toad at the base of it.


The finches outside the kitchen window have babies. We sometimes see their searching red throats with tiny yellow beaks searching for food. The parents are taking good care of them, thankfully, as we now regard them as "our babies". Other nests are popping up around the Ranch. The house sparrows spurned the nesting shelves in the barn in favor of their precarious messy contraption right under the roof. We need to move the shelves up apparently. There is another finch couple nesting under the shop/shed veranda roof. The curvebill thrasher has returned to its nest from last year and has heavily refortified it with thorny branches. Those must be some tough baby birds.