My suggestion would be the same as Glib's - electric fence. My setup is a bit different. It uses a FI Shock 525 constant 1350 V charger which range from $25 to $35 depending on where you get it. I paid $25 at Lowes. Alternative is the Zareba Red Snapr 33C selling for about the same price. This was the charger I had for the first 8 years, then it died. My wire and insulators were about $15, purchased 8 years ago. Today these would likely be about $25. Poles to hold the wire were free - I had something that worked perfectly. So the whole setup would likely be about $60 (a guess). Normal setup is 6 and 12 inches. You'd need to go lower for squirrels... probably 3 for the lower wire. I have 3 wire lengths which can be put down and taken up in minutes. Wire is spooled onto an extension cord hand spool. The constant 1350 voltage is not high enough to harm most animals. Even our cat did not have any issues with it. The only animals lost thus far were an occasional bird or frog. It's possible the pulse chargers might have had no creature losses. However, these models had a few negative reviews on ability to keep raccoons out. And, raccoons are my main problem. The electric fence controls raccoons, oppossums, rabbits and squirrels. My electric fence was one of the best investments I've ever made.

Building my pond was by far the most satisfying project that I have ever done. It was 4 months of back breaking work but I thouroughly enjoyed it (except for the plumbing). And yes, I have expansion plans! As soon as I finish my wall to china and a few other yard projects. I can't believe the nice variety of dragonflies and damselflies that I get in my little puddle. And the birds that it attracts and the frogs ..... can you tell I love my pond??? My SIL transplanted some poison ivy once, she thought it was a really pretty vine!

I can't think of any funny mistakes I've made...profoundly stupid ones for sure. Frustrating, maddening, annoying ones, yep. Just not funny. Most are of the "why didn't I check to see how much light that needed" or "who knew it was going to be 9 feet tall" variety. Irritating and lethal to plants (and the plant budget) but not amusing. My dh is the one who does the laughable things. When we first met I had lots of electric garden tools: lawn mower, weed whacker, clippers, etc. - because I can start that kind. I think he cut, clipped, or mowed each and every cord at one time or another. Come to think of it, that's not really funny either because now we have the gas powered tools that I cannot start! He couldn't rest until he had a riding lawn mower (to mow the lawn I had previously cut with my handy little electric). But one day he was mowing the front yard and, for some unknown reason, was looking back over his shoulder rather than in the direction he was going. He mowed down the neighbor's newly planted dogwood tree that was near the edge of our yard. Dh felt terrible about it and we rushed off to the garden center to buy a replacement. It was the wrong time of year and we had to search and then pay a high price for one of similar size to the one dh destroyed. But right is right and we bought it, brought it home and planted it where the other one had been. When the neighbor came home from work dh 'fessed up and explained what had happened. The neighbor said, "Too bad. That was a gift from my inlaws and I had to plant it but I really didn't like it anyway." There was the time dh was tilling up our brand new garden with his brand new (to him) oversize tiller. He dropped his keys out there somewhere - including the special one for his truck that can't be copied except by the manufacturer. It took two days with a metal detector to find where they were buried. The "soil" here is pure sand. It's easy to dig but hard to keep a hole from collapsing in on itself long enough to stick a plant in. Last spring dh decided to plant corn in our garden. The corn grew fairly well but when it was about 5 feet tall we had a thunderstorm...with wind. It blew every stalk over - flattened them right out. Dh checked and found that they were not broken but pushed over root and all. Working as fast as possible, he spent a whole morning putting each cornstalk back in the sandy ground. Around lunch time he went to the house to cool off and have a bite to eat. He was pouring himself a cup of coffee when he looked out the kitchen window and noticed that the wind was blowing and all the corn was flat again. I don't think he will ever try growing corn here again.

Bubmblebeez, I'm a Greek cook, as were my mother and grandmother before me. My grandma used to make fillo by hand. I have fond memories of visiting her and seeing the huge sheets of dough stretched out on her kitchen table and bed. Of course, being the immature kid that I was, I thought it was so funny to stick my finger into the dough and shatter it. My grandma was a saint, though, and never held my youthful foolishness against me. That said, my mom never tried to make her own fillo because she could get it at a local Greek deli. Then it started showing up in the frozen sections of grocery stores. I've never made it myself either. Whatever you call it, putting together several large pans of baklava each Christmas was a Heraclean task. I suppose technically it'd be homemade rather than from-scratch, but it was a far cry from convenience cooking. Same with spanakopita. My mother used frozen chopped spinach and so did my grandmother after living in the US for several years. Back then, the feta required a trip to the Greek deli, so it certainly wasn't convenience cooking either. My grandmother and mother were well known as great cooks in their Greek community. So I figure if frozen spinach was good enough for them, it's good enough for me. This post was edited by shambo on Fri, Aug 8, 14 at 22:19