The Wildlife Is Vanishing

Yes, true worldwide, but I'm thinking of the local ones.  And specifically my yard.  

I keep a mostly organic yard (OK, I spray individual poison ivy plants).  But I do things to help the birds and bees and other stuff thrive.  Half my backyard is left semi-wild.  Lots of small trees for bird-nesting.  I have black oil sunflower seed in one feeder for most songbirds, 2 thistle seed feeders for the purple and gold finches, and 2 nectar feeders for the hummingbirds.

I have 5'x3'pond for frogs.  With plants and debris at the bottom to support aquatic insects.  I have butterfly bushes, pollinator plants, and plants that insect larvae can develop on.  

I used to see some possums and raccoons at night.  I used to hear thousands of Spring Peeper frogs in the swamp across the street in the Spring.

But that has been changing.  I noticed a few years ago that the Swamp was quiet; no Spring Peepers calling in the thousands.  I used to see deer in my front yard and the neighbors in snow prints and visually.  I used to see snow prints of other various critters.

When I moved here 37 years ago, there were no cardinals, finches, etc.  But when I set up feeders, I got up to 6 pairs of cardinals, a bunch of purple finches, a dozen goldfinches, and various smaller birds (titmice, wrens, woodpeckers, etc).  Sometimes, the sunflower seed feeder was mobbed by starlings (I did tend to chase them away as they would just empty the feeder in a few hours, leaving nothing for the other birds and the stuff is somewhat expensive).   I haven't seen it mobbed in a few years.

I think we are in trouble.  If my generally organic semi-wild yard can't support cardinals, finches, and other small birds with good food, something is going very wrong.  If there are no frogs in the pond, something is very wrong.  If the deer (those damned landscape-eaters) are becoming more rarely seen,  something is very wrong.  

My hummingbirds haven't come back this year.  I haven't seen a single butterfly.  I haven't seen a possum on the deck at night.  I haven't seen many bees (Honey or Bumble) and it has been warm enough for a month.  I haven't seen any hornets (not that I love them).  But still, that is not a good sign.

Something is going bad, and I think we are causing all this.  As Pogo said "We have met the enemy and it is us".  

 

Things Not Going Well

Let me say first that I know my complaints are minor compared to some people's problems.    I remind myself of that frequently.   I am in generally good health (as are my cats), my car is running fine, I eat well, I have no financial problems, my siblings seem happy, the computers "function enough to use, and I'm not fussing with any neighbors.

That said, all is not perfect in paradise and problems are still problems...

I brought Lori to the vet for her spay operation.  Her blood platelet is too low to allow an operation.   The vet will test her blood again in 2 weeks to see if it was an anomaly.  If not, it could be serious.  Some causes are temporary; some are serious; and some are unfixable.  It will be a long 2 weeks of waiting.

Also 2 weeks means that Lori will go into Heat again.  I'm not looking forward to that!  Tonkinese are related to Siamese, and Siamese are SCREAMERS.

While at the vet, I noticed a screw in the tread of a tire.  So I stopped at the dealership and asked about repairing the tire.  They said it would be about 2 hours.  I go nuts sitting around, so I drove to a tire place.  They said the same.  I went back to the dealership.  I had momentarily forgotten they offer valet home and back service.  

They drove me home.  And called an hour later to say that the screw was too close to the sidewall for a simple repair.  Well, they "could" do that, but the repair would always be "iffy".  Since cars don't come with spare tires these days,  a blowout could be a real problem...  I opted for a new tire.  But they won't have it until tomorrow, so I have to go back again.  At least it will match the other tires (I only have a 1,000 miles on those.  

And they say it will be a quick replacement, since I have an appointment.  Not worth being driven home and back to the dealership.  Which is good.  Because it took them 2 1/2 hours to pick my up to retrieve the car today.  They explained that they only have 1 of 3 shuttle drivers available lately.  I understand that, but it didn't make me happy.

The computer is beyond my ability to fix.  I have officially entered the "I can't figure it out anymore" age now.   I might have a technician visit to fix everything, but I'm not even sure what to have him/her do.  The email is AFU, it restarts randomly, my files seem randomly on the HD and iCloud, and Google seems to have taken over.

The laptop works again.  It was non-functional for months.  Dead battery and 2 loose keys (Z and H).  But I tried it again the other day and it worked as long as plugged in directly bypassing the battery.  It wouldn't before...  2014 apps, but I can visit blogs via Feedly.  I don't dare upgrade it.  I think I'll bring it to "IFixitIt" who does (probably unauthorized) hardware repair.  

Decent weather, so I uncovered the 30x30' daffodil bed.  I covered it with black plastic last November to try to smother the grassy weeds.  That seems to have worked well, but I discovered the plastic warms the soil SO much (I should have known about that) that the daffodils emerged early.  Pale green 4" shoots all bent over!  I hope they recover.  

I have an enclosed garden (protection from squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs, etc).  The enclose is electrical conduit pipe inside PVC pipe for support of chicken wire covering it all below ground.  A sticky-snowstorm collected on the chicken wire and bent part of the structure years ago, so I made removable supports the next Spring.

In early January, we were forecast to get 1" of snow.  I wasn't worried about that.  After dark, it became 3".  Not a good time to go out setting up the support pipes, but still not much to worry about.  We got 8" of sticky heavy snow.  The entire structure was about 3/4 collapsed and most pipes bent!

I have to take it mostly apart to pull the conduit out and straighten it.  And them re-cement the PVC covers.  I can't do that until the weather is above 50F.  And also, until I feel up to the effort of working outside again.  It will takes several days of work at best.

And speaking of gardening, I am woefully unprepared this year.  I mix my own seedling soil.  4 parts compost, 2 parts peat moss, 1 part each vermiculite and perlite.  Well, it is cheaper than the potting soil bags and I enjoy the process.  I save it in a big trash barrel.  But I am behind already...  

My seed list (Excel file that identifies seeds by numbered specimen vials saved in the basement fridge in a tray) is 2018.  The newer 2020 one seems lost.  Have to redo it from scratch.  And that means guessing at some seeds...

Need to redo my Excel password list too.  I set it up offline for security, but it vanished too.  I have an old version on a thumb drive.  But so many scribbled changes to the printout, I am nearley starting from scratch there too.  I have a password app, but it is annoying hard to use.  I mean, the password to the password app has to be horribly long and weird, so how does that help?  I'm going back to offline Excel printout.  No one can hack a printout created on an offline computer!  But that does mean nearkly a day's worth of typing on the offline...

Cable TV sucks!  And I have the top tier.  I got it because of History, Science, Nat Geo, and Discovery channels and old but free movies originally.  Those have become mostly paranormal, alien, conspiracy junk these days.  And I found an old  movie I wanted to watch and they STILL wanted to charge $4 for it.  I'm going to HAVE to explore streaming TV and pay for that.

I'm not awake enough hours in the day to solve all this stuff!

Catching Up

Sometimes, you get behind plans.  Sometimes, there are just too many plans and too little time.  Sometimes, it takes all you have just to make the daily meals and do the laundry.

I've been lucky lately.  Kind of caught up on some things.  Still behind on others, but "catching up" is good.

On the good side:

1.  Picking beans now.  Yum!

2.  Picking wild blackberries in the backyard.  Yum!

3.  Went loose with the hedge trimmer and lopper.  Cleared out some big weeds and brambles that grabbed at me as I mowed the lawn before.

4.  This will seem weird, but my electric mower has 2 batteries and they don't last long (bought cheap - always a mistake) and they are difficult to remove.  So I tied a twine loop around them.  Those came loose, so I used duct tape to hold the twine in place.  Duct tape solves almost everything.

5.  Was missing hearing old CDs because my connections are all messed up (GOT to pull out the rack and fix that).  But then realized my portable multipurpose portable stereos can play them (DUH!).  Been enjoying Simon & Garfunkle all night.

6.  Gave the tomato plants a good soaking of foliar spray.  If that is unfamiliar, it means adding nutrients to the plants on the leaves.  It soaks in.

7.  Had some newly-leaking hose connections.  So I took every one apart and wrapped them with plumber's tape.  Thin plasticy stuff that gets squeezed into the hose threads.  Works great.  No more leaks.

8.  The cucumber and melon plants are beginning to climb the wire trellis.  

9.  I can expect a Tonkinese female kitten in mid September.

On the bad side:

A.  The back yard is "bramble city".  I HAVE to get the brush mower working again.

B.  I need to redo my Will.

C.  I need to get the car in for scheduled maintenance.

D.  I REALLY need to mop all the floors and they are SO clutterred.

E.  I REALLY need to completely redo the stereo/TV connections.  I mean I still have a VCR attached!

F.  I REALLY need to learn how to clip The Mews's claws.

G.  I am very overdo for a dentist visit, an annual physical, and a haircut.

H.  The kitchen ceiling fixture needs to be changed from attached-to-the-ceiling to "suspended".  It never works in Summer because of the hot attic.  Or maybe I need an attic fan.  I'm not sure which is easier.

I.  Weeds have taken over too much of the flowerbeds.  Periwinkle, English Ivy and Poison Ivy mostly.  Thanks to my neighbors...  I might just dig up the best and cover the whole area with black plactic for a year.

J.  The garden beds are probably infested with tomato-killing diseases.  One plant is already entirely yellow.  The solution is to surround the beds tightly in clear plastic for a year for over-heating the soil from trapped sunheat.  It's called solarizing.  I should have done it last year.

K.  I have old furniture.  Some  much of which is junk.  Time to get rid of a lot of stuff.  I've been living like a broke college student for too long (my desires are simple).  Not that I need "house beautiful" with rosewood tables and granite counters, but I could some better stuff.  

L.  Too many junk trees on the edges of the yard.  One day, there is a spling.   Next thing I notice it is 12' tall.  And the neighbor's maple tree roots are making mowing the lawn like driving over railroad ties.      I need to get them grinded out of my lawn.

Isn't there always more on the "To Do List" than you can do?  I'm just going to hire a general contractor to come in and do everything on the list I'm making.  3 bids, of course....  I think my major D-I-Y days are over.