Critter Control

Each day this week the Weather Channel's local forecast has been grim — 50% chance of storms... 60%... and today 90%.  And each day, including today, the skies have been mostly clear, with lovely cool temperatures and a bright sun.  I'm heading to Mackinac Island next week for the All-Michigan clergy conference at the Grand Hotel.  No doubt all this pent-up rain will follow me on that trip!

The critter barrier, partly completed.

The past couple days I've worked on a critter barrier for the service and to-be-screened-someday porches.  This involves hanging pieces of hardware cloth which drop to grade and then run laterally for about one foot.  If a home-hunting skunk or other animal takes a shine to the underside of my porches, it will encounter a wire fence, and if it tries to dig under the fence, it will encounter more wire.  Thus frustrated, the animal will stalk off in a mighty sulk.  I'm told this arrangement works well for chicken coops, so it ought to work here.

The 4'x3-1/2' sections of hardware cloth overlap a couple inches, and are joined using plastic cable ties (whoever invented cable ties deserves an award).  To hold the lateral runs in place, I'll weight them down with a rocks, and perhaps some potted plants during the summer.  At this writing I've done the north side, but will have to buy another roll of hardware cloth to complete the job.

The start of a rock garden/wall, anchored on the near end
by that grandfather rock dug from the perennial bed.

My abundance of rocks collected by the rough carpenters.

Meanwhile, I've continued working on the grade on the lake side of the house and the future perennial border.  A couple days ago, with some difficulty, I dragged a grandfather boulder from its inconvenient hiding place within the border's borders.  Reluctant to move it further, decided that it should anchor a low, curving wall and rock garden which will frame this part of the garden.  Of course, that means moving a lot more rocks to build this wall!

I have lots to choose from.  Last year, on the first day the rough carpenters worked on the house, Kyle had them collect all the large stones which the excavation work had left on the surface.  That was an essential chore, because you could hardly walk around the work site without tripping over a boulder, risking a turned ankle or broken leg.  These rocks the crew pitched into the Bobcat's bucket, and Kyle dumped them in a pile at the southwest corner of the lot.  Thus I have many attractive stones for my rock garden, but moving them from here to there will be a challenge. •••