Our Visitor

The other day, Gloria was looking out the dining room window. She saw something that surprised her. A snake in the bush just on the other side of the window. 

She showed it to me, and I identified it as an anaconda. I identify most snakes as anacondas. You know; the ones you want to stay away from. I estimated this visitor to be over 4 feet long.

Actually, it appeared to be a black snake which I confirmed with a search on the computer. Black snakes can grow up to 6 feet. They eat all sorts of small animals such as mice, chipmunks, frogs, moles, etc. So, that makes them something of an asset around the house. They are non-aggressive to people; attacking only when provoked. Believe me; I do not provoke snakes. Also, non-poisonous.
Our "buddy" eventually moved on, and we haven't seen him since.

Now in reality, I don't mind snakes, if they are on the ground. But when they get up above me, it give me the jitters.

The Unveiling - afterwards

After the unveiling of the fig trees, we waited and waited and waited for something to pop up. Nothing came up. I was just about to cut down the dead plants when Gloria mentioned that she saw some new growth at the base of the trees. 

Sure enough the trees were coming out. Now, at this time (6-28), there is significant growth and the plants look very healthy. I don't know if we will get any figs or not but the plants have survived one of the colder winters that we have had in a while. 

I'm not sure that we will do the "mummy" method again or not, but it was fun trying.

The fig trees after they had sprouted from the base.

Blueberry Patch 2.0

As you may remember, last year my son-in-law, Jerry, and I put up an enclosure around our big blueberry patch. It was made out of PVC pipe. I chose the PVC pipe as a cost saving measure. The whole thing cost less than 100 bucks. During the snow storm last January, it was torn up completely. 

The original "cage"

I decided when the weather got warm, that I would redo it with better material. 

In the mean time, my next door neighbor's son hit my mail box and tore it up. I made a deal with his parents that if he gave me 4 hours of work, he would pay off the cost of the mail box. Unfortunately, he is on the Mooresville golf team (no. 2 golfer and Sectional champion. Way to go Jake!) and wasn't available to do any work until he got out of school. That was at the end of May. That wasn't a problem because we only want to put up the netting when the berries are getting ripe, and that's now.

In addition, s-i-l, Jerry, was visiting again. So, I had two helpers. The first Saturday in June was the work day. We put in 15 4x4 treated posts with cement in the holes. I have a friend that loaned me his power post hole digger, and that was a big help. 

Putting in a post.

Checking for level. 

 

The next week Jerry and I put stranded wire across the post, and, then, Gloria and I put up the netting along with some straw to keep out the weeds. (Jerry and Suzanne had left.) 

The finished enclosure.

Along with the other two older blueberry plants, I guess that we will get a more than gallon or so of berries. 

It goes to show you that you should never go too cheap when doing a project.  It will cost more in the long run.