Saturday Meanderings
It has been an interesting week. What started with a lovely, relaxing Mother’s Day and ended with a flooded basement. The good news is the governor’s quarantine is over and life in Arizona is slowly getting back to the new normal.
Garden Update
The garden is abundant with artichokes, eggplant, fennel, cherry tomatoes, shishito peppers and fresh herbs ready to harvest. However, I have a garden mystery and hope someone can help me solve it.
Kale usually does very well here, even during the warmer months. We enjoyed one green and two purple healthy and producing kale plants over the last several months. But last month, my gorgeous kale plants went from this….
To this, literally overnight.
What kind of creature would have done this amount of damage? None of the other plants have been touched, just the kale.
This week, my husband created a fortress around the green kale plant, in hopes it may produce again.
Another, very big and disappointing discovery this week occurred in the bulb garden. You may recall that last fall, I planted hundreds of bulbs and rhizomes. This spring we enjoyed the fruits of my efforts.
During my walkabout, I was shocked and stunned to see that someTHING has stolen/eaten? all my tulip and hyacinth bulbs! There are hundreds of little holes with nothing in them. The bulbs have vanished!
I’ve have never seen anything like this! The irises have not been attacked, I hope, but maybe this critter is eating everything from below ground? Help.
New Projects
Well, this one is not so new, but we are finally making some progress on the back staircase. I posted about this last August (click here), but the project obviously stalled. The sisal carpeting is past its prime and what a dirty and smelly job it is to remove the rug and the excessive amounts of dried glue underneath. Not to mention, possibly old lead paint too.
Using a heat gun to get rid of the glue is nasty business, but the most time consuming part is taking out hundreds of carpet staples. Since I never want to glue down a rug here again, I’m debating what to do. Perhaps just staining and finishing the treads and painting the risers? We still have the final 6 steps to go. Ugh.
So excited about receiving this gorgeous green tile from Home Depot. We will use it as a backsplash behind the outdoor barbecue. It is 9 3/4″ x 9 3/4″ porcelain Monteca Encaustic tile. Quite surprising, but Home Depot has many beautiful tile selections online. Click here for link. It also comes in blue.
It was easy to order online and then curbside pickup at the store. My favorite tile man, Rick, will be doing this project in June for us.
After a rather significant meeting at City Hall yesterday morning, I had hoped to spend Friday afternoon relaxing or painting or just having “me” time. Well, that didn’t last long. While washing the lunch dishes, we suddenly ran out of hot water. Taking my daughter to the basement to show her how to re-light the water heater, we discovered a flood in progress. One of the 75 gallon water heaters split. What a mess!
I am SOOOO happy I cleaned the basement last year (click here to read that post) or this would have been much worse. Fortunately the Christmas room items were off the floor and on shelves so we did avoid a bigger disaster. To see our Christmas room, click here.
We will be spending the weekend cleaning up and replacing the water heater. These are the moments when living in an apartment sounds attractive. Sigh.
Wishing you a stress-less weekend.
Just a reminder that any words that are italicized bring you to the source. If it is a product on Amazon, please note that I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you purchase something through my website, I receive a small (very small!) stipend, which doesn’t affect the price you pay at all. My goal is to make sourcing the items easy for you. Thank you for your continued support.
You may want to get a have-a-heart trap. I’ve never seen a squirrel in 45 years living behind (sort of) your house. If we were talking about chipmunks, we’d be in the mountains. One year we trapped and relocated 36 if the really cute but HUNGRY critters. I’ve also never seen a rabbit (other than a pet we had one year) in our Phoenix neighborhood..
Marjane, I’ve never seen a squirrel either….but there is at least one and if he is in my yard, my guess you will have squirrels too! I’ve never seen a rabbit either. I think we may put out a critter camera so we know what we are dealing with.
Bulb eaters are mice, squirrels, chipmunks, voles, gophers and rabbits. Most of my bulbs that have been eaten have been by voles. They create a tunnel under the grown and I have seen a plant disappear before my eyes. Voles completely decimated my black eyed Susan garden. I know they do sell some thing that you stick in the ground that makes a sound that make them move away.
Karen,
My husband thinks the bulbs may have been eaten from below, due to the shape of the empty holes. I’ll have to research voles. When we first moved here, I do recall having gophers, but I haven’t seen anything like their holes in years. This is just crazy! I am hesitant to re-fill my bulb garden until we realize who the culprit is….I guess I have until the fall to figure it out. Thanks for the information. And the investigation continues!
Hi Mary
First time responding and wanted you to know how much I enjoy your blog! You have so many interesting and beautiful projects and are not afraid of challenges .
As to the bulbs, squirrels love tulip bulbs for sure and rabbits will devour the kale. I think you have more wildlife on your property than you knew. If there is one squirrel and one rabbit there are more.
Thanks for sharing your life with us.
Mel, Thank you SO much for taking the time to comment! Since I have seen 1 squirrel in the last nearly 20 years, my guess is we now have squirrels~~who are eating my bulbs 🙁 and my garden kale. Not sure what to do next but it might involve a camera and a trap….
So happy you are enjoying my blog….means a great deal to me!
Hi Mary!
First of all, do you have pans under your water heaters and then PVC pipes from those pans leading to a drain or to the outside of your basement? If not, I would recommend this as prevention to prevent any future water heater leaks. In a previous home, we had a slow leak from a 10-year old water heater, we had a pan and the pipe but instead of the pipe going outside, it went to the garage floor! What a mess!
The raid on your kale and bulbs must be squirrels, rabbits or possibly skunks. Because your stucco walls are high, I do not think deer or javelina are the culprits and even though bobcats and coyotes can scale walls 7′ high the marks on your kale stalks look like a rabbit or squirrel. Do you have areas where the smaller creatures have access to your property? Another possible critter is a roof rat but I know very little about their behavior or diet preferences other than they love citrus and fruit trees.
When I shared your glue and carpet removal picture with my husband, he slowly backed up and said, “No thank you!” Good luck Mary, you have all sorts of challenges!
Louise, We have two big water heaters in the basement. One does have a pan and of course, the one that split did not. We also have a flood alarm on the floor that apparently doesn’t work (who knew?). I’ll have to check on a drain too.
I’ve never seen a skunk or rabbit here, nor have we had squirrels in the last 20 years of ownership. However, I did spot one small squirrel in the outside run of the hen house last month, munching on the chicken food. I bet he’s the culprit. I have no idea how we will catch him or where he is living on our 2 acres!!! Time for a camera, I suppose and a trap….
Yes, the stair project is a nightmare, but I am determined to get it finished!!!! More to come!
Do you have rabbits? They LOVE LOVE LOVE Kale.
I have never seen a rabbit here. But who knows? Since the virus the animal population is showing up in the strangest of places. I need an animal camera, I think. If a rabbit is eating my bulbs, he is a very fat rabbit.
So sorry about the flooding & the critters enjoying your garden1! Do you have skunks in the desert? They will eat the bulbs & leave a big stink when they do. I don’t think you have deer there — but while living in NoCal I lost every one of the big beautiful pots I planted on my wrap terrace in one night! The deer obviously didn’t get the concept of the “deer fencing” that surrounded the property. Do those big Havalina pigs eat greens? I can’t imagine them coming over a fence to do it though. And, finally, I feel your pain on lifting the carpet/jute on the stairs. I had to leave a few nails in the wood floor when I got rid of the marine green astro turf that was in one of the rooms when I moved in. I could not get those guys to come out so just hammered them flush & now ignore them! (Notice how I am avoiding saying anything negative about the green astro turf? But, honestly, in the 60s what were people thinking?) Sending good energy your way & seeing a better week coming up for you! Oh & I love the tile — can’t wait to see how the finished project looks. trl
No deer here. I am beginning to think my culprit is a squirrel….at least on the kale. Not sure they do that to bulbs? I have NEVER seen a squirrel on our property over the last 20 years. A month or so ago, there was one small squirrel in the fenced in area of the hen house, eating the chicken food. He got out through a small hole in the chicken fencing. How am I ever going to find one squirrel on 2 acres? Arggg.
I feel your pain on the green astro turf…..who would ever want to re-live the 60s????