Critters & Rubberneckers

About a week ago, Michele and I went outside around 9 PM, and there he was. Puffy, white tail, perky ears, twitching nose. Nibbling away at the back row of corn. We knew we had to fence in the garden eventually, but now it was imperative.

We ran about 3 feet short of chicken wire. We made due with an empty flooring box. It's workng for now.

This morning, we discovered about half a dozen little holes in the dirt. I'm assuming moles. We have always had grubs in the yard, and we've seen either moles or shrews before. Not sure what to do about that yet. I suppose it's time to Google 'moles in the garden'.

Three new tomato plants were added. They're already budding and we've got a pepper plant beginning to bud as well. And look at those beans and corn.

Now that things are green and growing larger, we're getting comments and questions and odd looks from folks walking and driving by. One lady even hit her brakes, stopping in the middle of the street, and exclaimed, "Oh My Gosh! Look at that garden in the front yard! That's so cute!" She drove off laughing. I think it made her day.

Look at what last week's rain did to our garden. Boom goes the dynamite.

One of Michele's co-workers also drove by and later asked Michele, "Uh, is that corn? Growing in your front yard?" Why, yes. Yes it is. The bi-color is going nuts, but the yellow corn stalks must have been a favorite of our bunny buddies because they look a little decimated. Hopefully, they'll come back.

You can clearly see which corn stalks Peter Cottontail was snacking on. Silly wabbit.

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One final note on the flooring install. Should you ever decide to tackle this DIY project, let me pass along a couple tips.

1. Don't buy knee pads. They save your knee caps, but the straps dig into the soft, fleshy area behind your knees. My solution: I folded up an empty cardboard flooring box then wrapped it with the foam padding placed between the rows of boards in said box. Cost: a few pieces of tape.

2. When possible, the hell with Big Box stores. If you have a local store near you, and they are increasingly rare, please frequent that establishment. I found everything I needed, including some advice, at Hill's True Value Hardware on 933 North. They didn't have things like underlayment, but I'm guessing everything else I got at Menards, I would have found at Hill's. What I did get from Hill's was a new, fine-tooth blade for my miter saw, an invaluable hand-held T-square and several smaller items. The best part about Hill's - they're 2 minutes away and as soon as you walk in the door, someone asks what you're looking for, then (gasp!) knows exactly where you can find it in the store and will take you right to it. Try getting that kind of service from Johnny the snot-nosed teen at Menards.

3. If, like me, you have never used a pneumatic hardwood nailer, sacrifice a board or two and practice a few times with it. Make sure the shoe is adjusted properly and if you do make a miss-fire and shoot a nail into the top of the board instead of the tongue (and you will, believe me), get used to pulling that board out and fixing the mistake. By the second day of using the nailer, I got it down to where I had no problems, but you definitely have to get a feel for it.