I would never have guess that a dog would eat something like green herbs basil and oregano Maybe Piper needs more toys. My youngest, Kiley, is about 16 months now, but she hasn't chewed on or bothered much of my stuff for many months now...unlike other furbabies that I could not trust for 2-3 years. Kiley still has some stuffed animals strewn about the yard, that she seldom plays with, but she knows they are hers. Looks like you might have to affix something like chicken wire around that pot. Hopefully it was just pruned and will grow back some b4 freezing temps arrive. Sue

Permaculture, zonal approaches and smart contouring are definitely parts of coping-in-advance and coping-forever. We have at least two enormous "runoff ponds" near our neighborhood. They were excavated during initial development of the residential zones. I call them "Gore ditches" just to be silly. I cannot estimate the acreage taken up in them, but only say they are enormous. I have joked with my kids while pointing at the ponds - saying wait and see, some developer is going to build TRUSSES over those nice, wide-open areas and HOMESITES ON TOP OF THE TRUSSES, eventually, just to pack in more taxpayers and/or free-lunch-grubbers - maybe even fill them back in. But today's joke can all too easily be tomorrow's reality. The runoff areas are valuable, even despite any drawbacks as they are. But their full value for water use is not being realized. Right now they are used solely to collect runoff, funnel it into the Gulf, and prevent flooding. It would be far wiser to conserve at least some of that runoff. After all, before the humans came, a lot of it sat on top of the prairie-on-clay for as long as it took to evaporate or (if possible) percolate. If the developers have enough money to do all that excavation, plus re-grading of the prairie for pavements and homesites, it's hard - no, impossible - to think anything but that they are lying like devils if they say it is too costly to include berms and swales in the preparation of the homesites. Those would just be icing on the environmental/wise-water-management cake - as would modest retention control mechanisms in those ponds. Now, lazygardens and PennPete... ;-) One 2-ton truck can carry enough workers from Guadalajara to LA in one trip to build 100 3-bedroom homes in a month. And I have seen the size and number of the pipes in the various aqueducts that feed LA. Point: there is not a way only because there is not the will - yet. One got-to, or one determined gonna, can wipe out a whole heap of can'ts. Texas and California are out in front in harnessing wind power, so there along with other coming systems is your eventual sufficient power for the pumping. The other obstacles are just fat, sitting targets for destruction by more inevitable, ever-stalking-us necessity. The evolution of water economics is as simple as it gets: either we figure out how to get enough water reliably, or die of dehydration. Next.

I just stumbled upon this post as I try to prevent the recurring problems from Barn Swallows again this year. Unfortunately, the image is no longer available and I cannot see how you hung the netting. We have a colony of Barn Swallows that roost at our apartment building each year. The landlord hates them, but a former tenant had posted signs everywhere about how it was illegal to remove the nests. It was only through my own research that I realized it was only illegal while eggs or babies were in the nests, and those tenants moved out this winter. In addition to nesting on top of our buildings lights, covered walkways, and eaves, my apartment and the one next door have outdoor entrances from our gorgeous courtyard and patio which have covered stairwells. Each year, the swallows fly through these two stairwells like its the Lincoln Tunnel, dive bombing anyone who tries to walk on the stairs. They build their nests on the outlet boxes or porch lights. The first summer we lived here, I thought it was really neat to have such a close view of their lives, as I would often sit on my steps and could watch the babies as they grew, taking great care to be quiet and non-threatening. However, I also found that my porch steps and exterior wall were covered with bird droppings. They are also very very noisy when there is an entire colony of them outside of your windows. All of the "teenage" birds hang out in one of our courtyard trees outside of my window, which my cat loves but can actually drown out any conversation or television in our living room. Then I experienced what I thought were bed bugs in our house. I had tiny bites head to toe and could constantly feel them crawling on me despite rarely being able to see anything. It got so bad that I was getting the bites infected from itching all the time, and I couldn't sleep because I could feel the bugs crawling on my skin as soon as I tried to relax. I finally captured a few and took them to the University's Department of Entymology, who identified them as bird mites. That experience was HORRIFIC. I was ready to burn our entire building down after reading that the bird mites multiply much more quickly than bed bugs and are nearly impossible to remove. Luckily, the mites died off when the birds finally left for the season, but I can no longer sit outside on my wooden stairs because I fear contracting them again. The next spring, I tried the knock-down method, just on my own stairwell. I would open my screen door 2 inches and use a broom handle to knock down the nests up to 7 times a day. The swallows became very agitated, and and two attacked my daughter's head when she got home from school one of the days. I couldn't sit inside and repeat this process forever, though, and they got their nest up one day while I was off at a 12 hour work shift. The outlet covers they use are too high up to see into, and I knew that some other nests already had eggs, so I couldn't knock it down, more out of compassion than fear of charges. This will be our third summer here. Our elderly landlord has given up trying to prevent them from nesting even in the building entryways. I have removed my porch light cover so there is no solid surface to nest on, but the outlet box cover is too high up and I can't put a ladder on the stairs to reach it. I have considered trying to throw a cotton ball soaked with peppermint oil up there (it has worked in the past for mice and spider problems), or hanging a bunch of cut aluminum as a mobile at the top of the steps (I have heard that the reflections off the metal scare birds off), but I simply can't go through another year of this if those methods don't work. I saw that I could use something to create a 45% slope where the nest to prevent them, but again... getting up there is an issue. I am curious to see how you used the mesh. Could you please share the picture again?

If your way of "expressing anger" is to slam things around and make noise in your apartment, it shouldn't be that surprising that your neighbor might want to remain anonymous instead of confronting you directly about your dog. Not everyone is reasonable about stuff like this. I realize what a drag it must be to hear other people making noise and then have THEM report you, but it would make more sense to figure out why your dog is barking when you aren't home. Is there a way you could try to find out when he is barking? Maybe someone is letting their cat roam around outside your door in the hallway? Or perhaps he is still adjusting to his new space and/or might just be lonely. I knew a woman who got a puppy. She was gone all day so she got an answering machine that had a built in intercom. She would call everyday from work, several times a day and listen in to see if he was making noise. She was able to talk to him to. This helped and let her know if he was being noisy or not. We used to have a dog that would howl all day and scratch at the door until we got him a buddy. Quiet as a lamb after that. Sometimes a little company is all they need. You might also try leaving the radio on for him or arrange for a relative or friend to drop in and say hi now and again. Perhaps some type of doggie day care would be in order?! Even just one or two days a week to break up his "routine".