Hello Pidge!! I am on sabbatical, so I'm not working two jobs nearly full time for the first time in years, and guess what? can't seem to find time to do much of anything! My gardens are nearly all container, and we are moving into hothothot summer. We have been collecting water from the showers and the air conditioners, which means we nearly never have to actually open the hose for "new" water. I am reading a novel written by a friend before she sends it out to publishers. I am knitting (my new love), and just made a cozy for the french press out of scrap. I am re reading old favorites and sleeping till ten. We - DG and my youngest and I - are coming to the States, Chicago, for a quick and dirty visit end of June for ten days, and then back here so my son can get drafted (don't get me started). I have found a place for the compost pile - gotta grow some decent dirt before I can have more than potted flowers. I ignore cleaning and cooking as much as I can, and take naps regularly. This will all end in September, so I'm getting my lazy licks in now. I'd give nearly anything for the flat, well-tended, gorgeous gardens y'all have, and a good rain. The herbs so far haven't died, and the annuals haven't either, so it's all good. (Good, being that most of the plants are still alive, is setting the bar a little low, true). Can I ask Mr. Tree don socal a tree question here? I've been all over GW and can't find an answer.

I see painted buntings every now and then most years but haven't seen but one this year. Last summer we had both painted buntings and indigo buntings visiting the bird feeder and bird baths. It was our first siting of an indigo bunting here, and that indigo bunting came every morning and evening for quite a while. Carol, We have a molded birdbath in the Peter Rabbit Garden (of course it has a rabbit molded into its base) and it used to fall over pretty often so we put a rebar stake in the ground to secure it. It is splitting too, and I am going to try to patch the split with silicon before it becomes a big crack. I wish people would not leave their animals to fend for themselves when they are away for several days. That is so cruel. Your description of how ugly everything around there looks this year sounds like it looked here last year---it looked so bad that it was almost beyond description. We aren't quite that bad here yet, though it certainly is rapidly moving from green to brown/wheat/tan everywhere. Our KBDI is 80-100 points lower than the KBDIs in most of eastern, northern and central OK, so we aren't as dry yet as many others are. However, every day it is deteriorating so fast that it makes my head spin. I don't know that I've ever seen things go downhill so quickly here, and it almost all has occurred in the last 4 or 5 weeks. I forgot to mention the dragonflies. They like little muddy spots, puddles of water and wet grass so I wet down a specific area for them every day and they flock to it and have dragonfly conventions until the sun dries out that area again, which is usually in just a couple of hours. Dorothy, We have a big silted-in pond in the woods that sits northwest of the big pond. When we are lucky enough that the big pond is full and overflows, the runoff fills that old, silted-in pond. It has been years since the silted-in pond, which still has a depth of about 5-6' when full, has been full. I guess the last time it was completely full was April 2009, but most years it has some water in it for a few months. It is really popular with the wildlife because it is hidden and I think they feel safer visiting it than when visiting the big pond in the pasture because it is in a much more open area. We still have some frogs around, but they're extra quiet this year. They only croak and carry on when we have rain or very high humidity. Dawn

I'm glad your bird problem turned out to be seasonal but just in case you ever face this problem again (or any bird infestation problem) I thought it might be helpful to just mention a different angle on this. The problem is not that the birds are pooping (or whatever they're doing) in your pool. That is simply a symptom of your real problem: that your environment is attractive to birds. If you really want to keep birds from being destructive to your property you have to make it so that your land is a place they don't want to hang out on in the first place. There are a lot of different approaches to this but yes, stopping the food supply is one of them. Another would be the mylar balloons someone else mentioned up above. There are also specialized bird scare balloons with 'eyes' that follow the birds wherever they fly as well as holographic tape. These incorporate movement so they are usually more affective than static decoys. There are other senses to attack as well: taste/smell, touch, and hearing. Birds hate methyl anthranilate (a chemical derived from concord grapes that has long been used for grape flavoring)--it gives them a similar sensation to what we feel when we encounter bleach. This comes in commercially available sprays. Also, there are sticky gels, netting, or spike strips that keep birds from roosting on certain surfaces. Lastly, there are sound devices that utilize recordings of predators/distress calls that scare birds away. For a partially or fully enclosed area you could use an ultrasonic device as well (one that can't be heard by humans but is annoying to birds and bats). Make sure that you switch up whatever you use from time to time. If you use balloons, move the location (but always keep it near where the birds are nesting). If you're using a sound device change the interval between effects, try to randomize the effects being used. Also, using the products together in a synergistic way will create a more effective and longer-lasting reaction. I'm glad to hear that no one has mentioned killing or injuring the birds...don't do that. As mentioned before that would be reacting to the symptoms rather than truly solving the problem. Furthermore, it would be very easy to accidentally tamper with one of the MANY birds protected by the Migratory Bird Act of 1918 (and then you'd be in big trouble). Just a side note: be careful when cleaning up the bird poop. Birds can transmit over 60 diseases to humans. Some of them are fatal. Bird dropping particles can be unknowingly inhaled and lead to serious health problems. Good luck in your future bird encounters! Here is a link that might be useful: click for examples, case studies and FAQs about bird pest control

Welcome, Mushcreek. I won't talk about my [ahem] renovation, other than it moves forward very slowly. I miss my dog, which is why I think I have deer running rampant over everything I've ever planted. Talking about that is why I'm here. OMG YAK. I made this concoction out of recipes I saw online for spraying for deer. A bottle of hot sauce A small bottle of homemade garlic wine An egg Vegetable oil Hing powder (that asdosopholoius or whatever powder I think renee uses PUKE STINK YAK KILL ME NOW AWFUL stuff) Water I put it in a milk jug and shook the crap out of it. Put it in a squirt bottle and proceeded to squirt my 3 acres. OMG IT'S HORRIBLE and of course, my sprayer quit unless I unscrewed it and just held it in the bottle. WHY, OMG WHY!?! Anyway, the egg is supposed to become stinky, the hing powder will chase away a Mongol hoard, and the hot sauce is supposed to deter those evil rabbits. I did almost step on a softball-sized box turtle today. Cutie patootie. :) I didn't spray him. I'm now taking a shower because the spray drift is going to cause me to kill myself. I'd rather have month-old B.O., garlic and Doritos breath, swim-in-a-sewage treatment pool naked smell than that HING powder. No wonder I don't like Indian ah, er, "cuisine." It's not just the fact I hate beans and cauliflower, it's that GOD AWFUL HING POWDER. Next time I'll tell you how I really feel.