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Ooookay...
...I am almost certain that my last post here was later than February. But this year has whipped by so fast that I can't swear to it.
It's Autumn already. The foliage was stunning, but now we're at the mow-mulching stage. The tree folks did a boatload of trimming and tree removal a couple of weeks ago, which saved me some work but not a lot.
We've had some unseasonable chill here in NE Illinois, which I am not ready for. I need to have a new back door installed next month, which should be interesting. During the summer, I need to worry about an influx of flies and wasps getting in through the opening; in colder weather, I need to worry about mice. Do not like mice.
The birds, meanwhile, are pecking through the suet cakes and seeds at a record rate. Some of the smaller squirrels managed to weave through the squirrel-resistant--stop laughing they pretty much do work--suet cages to get at the cakes, so now I have to coat the things with cayenne powder and then make sure to wash my hands thoroughly and NOT TOUCH MY EYES EVEN AFTER I DO SO. Not for a while, anyway.
Soon I'll be bringing in the container plants for the winter. The gerbera daisies. Probably the mini-roses. Sometimes the warmth tricks them out of dormancy and they continue to bloom. Bright spots of color amid the brown and white.
It's Autumn already. The foliage was stunning, but now we're at the mow-mulching stage. The tree folks did a boatload of trimming and tree removal a couple of weeks ago, which saved me some work but not a lot.
We've had some unseasonable chill here in NE Illinois, which I am not ready for. I need to have a new back door installed next month, which should be interesting. During the summer, I need to worry about an influx of flies and wasps getting in through the opening; in colder weather, I need to worry about mice. Do not like mice.
The birds, meanwhile, are pecking through the suet cakes and seeds at a record rate. Some of the smaller squirrels managed to weave through the squirrel-resistant--stop laughing they pretty much do work--suet cages to get at the cakes, so now I have to coat the things with cayenne powder and then make sure to wash my hands thoroughly and NOT TOUCH MY EYES EVEN AFTER I DO SO. Not for a while, anyway.
Soon I'll be bringing in the container plants for the winter. The gerbera daisies. Probably the mini-roses. Sometimes the warmth tricks them out of dormancy and they continue to bloom. Bright spots of color amid the brown and white.
Seed & Weather Stripping
The woodpeckers (five varieties) went through two stack seed cakes that lasted 2.5 weeks last time in 3.5 DAYS. Apparently they are stashing our seeds like mad. I broke down and got a Wild Birds membership. WB gave me two suet cakes and a sack of seed as a gift. But the raccoons stole the last suet cage, so will have to remedy that.
Or give them to my sister, who lives in town. No raccoons.
I have the back door problem, slightly different. The sealing screen door blocks entry, but even with new weather stripping, the steel door leaves a huge crack. My winter solution is strips of Amazon mailers slid into the crack. I don't use the back door in winter because the step up and flat short deck past the attached shed to the back door is at entry height. So the moment there's snow? Getting out is a mess. I recommend the 1" plus Amazon mailer strips, put the short way and left doubled. It forms a much tighter seal.
Re: Seed & Weather Stripping
A few of the smaller squirrels were able to wend their way through the wires and reach the suet cakes in the squirrel-resistant feeders. So I decided to be a meanie--now I sprinkle cayenne powder over the cakes after I load them into the feeder. So far it seems to be working.