- I found the spider that had been making the massive webs between the garage and the porch. After that picture in the last post we saw him working on another web, pictured here. And the other day I happened upon his lair when cleaning up, so he had to go.
- A few weeks ago there was guano under our bat house behind the garage. Our first sign of a bat using it since it was installed. There's been none since, unfortunately, but I am encouraged as we are seeing more bats and more often this year than last in the evening skies. This is a short video from Friday night by the fire showing some bat activity in the area - with an appearance from a plane taking off, of course.
- Yesterday I finished the edging of the walks out front. Now, I know it's been a few years since I've done it, but the sod had already crept several inches over the pavement again. It doesn't help that the walks in this older neighborhood are generally lower than the turf, especially for us. Still, it was very gratifying to clean it up, even if it won't last forever.
- While taking pictures of the edging I took an inadvertent picture of the house. This reminds me that I trimmed the arborvitae last weekend, and also swapped out the front light bulb. The arborvitae has grown quite a bit in the last 10 years, and while I think it's kind of a pain to have I do like that it gives some character to the front of the house. My (OCD) fear is that as it grows bigger it will get harder to keep looking good. And for the light I got one that is LED and is supposed to not attract bugs, but what I really liked about it is that it has a sensor so it turns on and off at dusk and dawn by itself. As for the bugs, it does appear there is less bug clutter on the front of the house now, but time will tell.
- August 20 will be one year since the great deluge of rain that gave Madison and western Dane County, especially Black Earth, all sorts of flooding issues. The Yahara chain of lakes is finally closer to "normal" levels - except Waubesa - and still way too high for all, but that's where they've been kept for several years now. If we receive any sort of deluge like last year the same thing would happen again. I do know there are plans being made to help prevent all that rainwater being diverted straight to the lakes, and other plans like dredging to ease the flow of the Yahara River between the lakes. Link for below screen capture is here. Interesting article here, I've read it once quickly so I should re-read it soon.
I think that's more than enough for now, I've had my say. Thanks for reading, see you soon.
3 comments:
Bats and spiders, eh? Now what does that suggest? ;)
But I hope you didn't kill that spider...
Edges look good. I had to look up arborvitae as I didn't recognise the name, but turns out it is a Thuja, which I know as I planted a hedge of it in another house in another life. It's reputation is for being docile and long-lasting, and easy to keep in check as it gets older, without the problems that some other sorts of conifers have.
Fascinating info re the lakes - I think that the water authorities over here need to be learning from their colleagues in the US. We seem to be getting more and more disasterous flooding episodes that should be preventable.
LOL, I never put that together! But it is a bit early for Halloween. Or are you thinking witchy potions and spells? And sorry, BW, at the time it was him or me.
I had to look up 'Thuja.' I know arborvitae is a somewhat generic term, but there seems to be many different types of Thuja, as well. As mine grow the branches tend to separate despite me trying to keep them trim. Not much I can do about it, I'll just work with what they give me each year. In winter I try to knock the snow off them every time it snows because it weighs them down and it does take quite a while for them to recover the next spring. I learned that the hard way.
The weather has changed and we are more prone to rainstorms here now so we better learn how to deal with all that water sooner than later.
If the branches separate eventually, conifers cloud pruned look great (Google images of 'cloud pruned conifers' for examples).
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