Doug’s Sounding Board

We finally had part of our fence replaced in the front. It was leaning at abou a 30 degree angle ever since the winds hit last year and we think it was mostly being help up by the passion flower vines on top. Our neighbor decided it was time before we did and called the fence people and we just paid our share. Four more neighbors to go. The fence people were good and we will probably use them for the remainder of the perimeter. Pictures will come later.

I finally got some gopher cinch traps to deal with the gopher problem. Right around that time Grover killed one (and ate half of it before I stopped him). Using the cinch traps has been effective and after not seeing any new gopher activity for a few days we decided to clean up and put down a new layer of mulch/bark. The next morning in the areas we worked on there were four fresh gopher mounds. I think as they are being taken care of new ones are moving in from the 1/2 acre lot next door. More trapping took care of that one though. Still there are still a few lurking elsewhere in the yard. I’m trying to get them in the neighbor’s yard too (with permission) to stop the exodus.

Today we were going to excavate the flagstones making up the front patio to put gopher wire between them so the gophers won’t mess that up in the future. Starting on the first one was ok until I saw a bee fly to the ground and disappear down a hole next to the flagstone. I stepped over for a closer look and within a few minutes there were a number of bees looking for the holes in the dirt I had just cleared away. Looking around the rest of the flagstones I now see a lot of these holes. I stopped because I don’t want to be uncovering a nest and pissing off all the bees inside.

This past three day weekend was a lot of work. Friday night, Nicole and I drove to Sacramento so we could paint the inside of her mother’s house to ready it for sale. We managed to paint the ceilings in 4 rooms, fully prep three of those rooms, and paint half the dining room and a quarter of the living room, and do the edges in one of the bedrooms. Also we patched the wall where old water damage was so that will be ready for paint in two weeks when we go again.

Then on Monday we cleaned our house and pulled weeds. I don’t know where they came from but there were hundreds of grass seedlings growing on the surface of the crushed granite paths. Definitely not growing from underneath. I focused on pulling those before they got established.

Thanks to Liana for suggesting latex dipped knit gloves. They are small enough to work in and breathe and protect my hands. Unfortunately I can’t find them big enough but I’m doing ok with what I found.

When you bring in some fill-dirt to modify the shape of your yard, one thing you’re never told is that there are dormant plants and seeds just waiting to pop out. Since our yard has been done I have seen a number of plants (and weeds) in our yard that weren’t already there and weren’t planted as part of the plan. Some of them are interesting so we give them a chance, but some are bad like new types of grasses and weeds we never wanted. I think the best of the random things to pop up are the variety of green onion that has popped up. The worst? There weird incredibly fast growing very large leafed plants that are are tough to kill. I think I’m going to have to dig them up because even RoundUp has been ineffective so far.