Report from the Yard

Lately, some varmint has been stealing the woodpecker food. This comes in the form of a block of seed, nuts and suet that we put in wire mesh container hanging from a hook on the back fence. It’s too heavy for squirrels, so we reckon that it must be a coon or some such thing that is making off with it. The thief leaves the wire container behind and just takes off with the goodies.

This had happened three nights in a row, and Mrs Vache Folle suggested that we might want to bring the thing in at night. I proposed that we get some hooks and hasps and secure the heck out of the thing. I wrapped the chain around the lid a coupe of times in a kind of Gordian knot and figured that would stop the larceny until we came up with a more permanent solution. The next morning, not only was the woodpecker block gone, but the varmint had left a couple of turds on the wire container, as if to scoff at our feeble efforts to thwart him. I started bringing it in at night. The woodpecker food is not cheap.

We bought a few dozen shiners at a bait store over in Wappingers Falls and introduced them to the pond. A few hours later, I was convinced that they had all been eaten or had escaped over the weir. I could not see them anywhere. Later, when I wasn’t really looking, I glimpsed the school, and I realized that they are going to be hard to see except in full sun. After three days, the fish seem to be thriving.

Jasper has developed an obsession with the frogs. If we did not interrupt him, he would wade and walk around the edge of the pond trolling for them for hours on end. When he sees one, he leaps in the water after it. I wouldn’t care about this if he didn’t wreck the rock wall on the edge or trample the perennials. I aim to reinforce the wall and train Jasper to keep off the perennials (there’s no frogs by them anyway). He seems to enjoy his frog hunts a great deal.