A Percussionist's Notebook

  We have been visited by deer quite a bit lately. This beautiful guy is in full velvet. Yesterday morning we had two walking up our street, one of which stopped in our front yard for a quick snack on our hedge. A small price to pay for a glimpse of them.  Maybe this one felt a little a little guilty so he did a little tree trimming for us pro bono. He posed for this great profile shot in his photo op but unfortunately Muffet's web created a lot of glare through the kitchen window. And yes, Muffet is alive and well, keeping us safe from the little flying nasties. 

Okay, we didn't plant broccoli but zucchini would screw up the alliteration. I had to remove the cages because the plants quickly outgrew them. Besides, they were ugly. Instead we had to rely on my recipe......Bunny Ban. Water, red pepper flacks, garlic, Tobasco Sauce, and dish washing liquid. Set in the sun for 4 days, filter into a spray bottle. So far it's working and we are already harvesting zucchini.  I hope bears don't like peppers and garlic.😬 

We have never had many bunnies near us, the fox, coyotes, hawks, and owls have dined on them over the years. The first week of June I did see a small bunny running through the back yard and was happy to see they were making a come back, and then our garden was planted. At first we would just see him scamper away when we went to water the garden. Then we noticed a leaf was missing from a pumpkin plant that just sprouted, a squash blossom was gone, and then two entire pumpkin plants went missing. We had to face the harsh reality that we were witnessing a remake of 'Night of the Lepus'*. I started to imagine that the situation was escalating to the point that they would attack our neighbor's dog, or we would find the partially eaten carcasses of deer and bear behind our house.  It was time to take action. We added hardware cloth fencing around the small plants, I made a concoction of cayenne pepper/garlic/dish soap per instruction from the internet. The promise of a bountiful ...

Last night we read an article that the momma bear had been put down by the Wildlife Service. The story went on to say that a bear was seen near an elementary school acting strangely.  It was said to be having trouble breathing  After they tranquilized the bear they determined that it was sick (?) and decided to euthanize it. They tranquilized the cubs but no information beyond that. This family had become celebrities in the neighborhood for the past month or so.  I would hear comments like "Yeah, they were at my house last night or I saw them walking down the middle of the street yesterday afternoon". I think we all new it was destined not to end well. To my knowledge she never showed any signs of aggression but it was only a matter of time before some confrontation would take place. Mothers protect their children, human or nonhuman. I only hope that the cubs will be either relocated (they are old enough) or otherwise placed in a safe environment. Meanwhile I consider ...

We came home from a weekend at Steamboat Springs yesterday. It seems the bears had a picnic under the pine tree in our front yard. My neighbor snapped this pic of the diners before they came to our house (restaurant?) . There were hamburger wrappers, napkins, and paper cups with straws all around. I didn't know bears used straws. They even left their own 'calling cards' in the lawn and driveway.  We have had a momma bear and 2 cubs in the neighborhood for about 3 weeks now.  Yes they are wild and yes they (she) is potentially dangerous, but not nearly as frightening as this visitor we had about 15 years ago. That's our house on the other side of the fence. At the time, our other neighbor had some ceramic deer statues in his yard and the lion decided to investigate.