Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to bring you up to date on all our exciting and not-so-exciting news. You may remember me from such posts as “The Haunted Toaster”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
This picture was taken some days ago, and is similar to the one the guy I live with posted on Facebook, with the grim news that we have voles in the garden.
The guy I live with rushed into action (sort of rushed, anyway), and sprinkled blood meal and Plantskydd (same thing, really), around all the vole tunnel entrances.
But he also mentioned that we purebred border collies loathe voles and like to hunt them, so without going into more detail I’ll just say that there’s one less vole now.
The other thing is that the guy I live with was thinking about doing some baking for the holidays, giving all the baked goods to his neighbors, when yesterday he turned on the lower over and the element was burning so brightly he thought he had hurt his eyes. The oven wouldn’t heat. The upper oven still works, but he’s going to have to call an oven expert to come and look at it. It probably just needs a new element, but the days of him doing his own repairs are long gone.
The oven, or range I guess, is a really expensive one that he got because his wife wanted it.
A few days ago a rabbit got into the garden and we looked all over to see where it might have gotten in. The rabbit had been eating the now-dormant buffalo grass in my Private Lawn. I think you can see the grazed area there. This doesn’t hurt the grass.
It turned out there were a bunch of missing fence pickets in the area we call the Employees Only section, because I’m the only one who goes in there. You can barely see the wooden fence, on the left.
This is the view from the north side, looking south. You can see the fence in the back of the picture. The fence is in pretty poor shape.
So the guy I live with went to the lumber store, bought some pickets, and screwed them into place. He originally thought he would need about thirty, but he only needed nine.
This was the spot where the telephone cable was cut, if you remember that.
The guy I live with said he was going to clean all of this up, remove a bunch of branches and so on, and maybe plant cyclamen there next year. It’s a pretty large area where nothing has ever been planted.
One really odd thing is what’s been going on with the canal. The water was shut off, then turned on again, then shut off, and now it’s flowing again. This is later than maybe ever before; usually it’s dry at this time of year.
You can see where the people who maintain the green belt filled in the abandoned muskrat den when they fixed the sinkhole. That was where the water was leaking into the sinkhole.
And speaking of water, guess what happened yesterday and today?
That’s right; it rained. Not a whole lot, but enough to make the guy I live with happy.
The moss–I think this is a native one–has turned green.
There were so many fallen leaves in the streets that the runoff water was brown.
This is where the little ditch for stormwater, on the left, meets the creek, and just before the creek goes into the culvert under the canal.
The creek on the north side of the canal looked like this:
So that’s our news. They say we may get some more rain or snow at the end of this week.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Voles seem like they should be related to moles. I have never seen one before. I know they are very unpopular in gardens because they eat roots and bulbs. Moles, however, eat grubs and molluscs and critters that we do not want in the garden. I would not mind moles in the landscapes if they did not push out the annuals to get to whatever nestles in directly underneath them.
They’re not related, though. They’re like big mice.
Another hectic day. How do you ever cope! Gather your strength for the days of vole hunting.
It can be a strain, sometimes.
Vole hunting is a lot of fun, if you didn’t know. You kind of jam your nose into the entrance of one of the tunnels, and take a deep breath, and then stick your nose in farther.
Goodness, I’ve been missing out on a treat all these years. Can you send on some voles for the garden?
They would be just what you needed, if you wanted to eliminate a whole bunch of plants in your garden, though they are indiscriminate.
The year after the guy I live with’s wife died, voles destroyed all the plants in the northern third of the Long Border, which led to his decision to redo the entire border into what it is today.
I might leave the voles with you then!
They are very destructive.
The rain yesterday was a lovely surprise. Here’s hoping more of it falls in the 303. Happy Thanksgiving, Mani and the man you live with. We’ve heard that water tends to encourage voles along with ample vegetation. Hopefully the man you live with has discouraged them from staying in your area and they’ll get the hint with the blood meal to move along. Sorry about the oven-hopefully a technician can easily fix it in time to bring a spot of Christmas joy to the neighbors.
Thanks; yes the rain was very nice, and maybe we’ll get some more, or some snow, later this week. Rain is nicer.
Plantskydd especially should be sprinkled and then wetted, so the rain did that for us.
The guy I live with says he thinks the element has burned out. So hopefully not a big deal to fix. Meanwhile there’s the upper oven, which works fine. It’s hardly been used in the sixteen years the range has been here, so it still smells new when heated.
FWIW: The Grani-Grit brand of turkey grit does not have any salt.
That’s right. The guy I live with used it once. Now to find a turkey-supply store. (There’s actually one not too far from his friend’s house.)
Mee-yow at ferst wee did not see you Mani…you blend inn furry well inn THE garden…..
You have been furry busy ‘tween Voless an Bunniess!!! allwayss sumthin goin on at yore place!
Guy you did a guud job with THE new pickitss….
Crocusess look so purrty….
Wee are havin a ran day which cuud tern to freezin rain or snow…..]Wee wurried about our Feral Luna an her Kittss. So wee due not want freezin rain!!!
BellaSita Mum bott a little matt fore Luna’ss food dishess an her to sit on so shee not as cold on concreet!
Wee hope you get sum more rain. An Mani you look so cozy once again…mee gonna go fore a ‘happy nappy’ now….
~~~head rubss~~~BellaDharma~~~ an (((hugss))) BellaSita Mum
Thanks. We almost never get freezing rain here. It either rains or snows. They say snow for Friday.
A mat is a good idea.
The other day we saw a big owl in the tree next door, so that might be bad news for voles and bunnies.
Freezin rain iss so UCKY Mani! an it hertss when it pingss off THE body! Wee nevurr gotted any! Only rain. Luna managed to come heer 3 timess an eat all her foodabullss last nite deepsite THE rain.
Shee likess her mat two!
OH OH! Owlss are scarey to mee….THE Voless an Bunniess bettur bee furry carefull inndeed! 😉
We had some sleet here a while back. That’s pretty rare here.
We usually only get snow and graupel at this time of year, but last December it rained a lot, which was very weird.
Owls are pretty scary indeed.
Pawss crossed you get sum rain or snow butt not two much. Iss apposta start snowin heer Caturday **sighss**
An Owlss have allwayss feeked mee out Mani!
We got a little bit of snow. Not enough to stick on the street or sidewalk.
Grim news indeed. Voles and rabbits. I hope you are taking guard duty seriously. Our new resident cat, Linnaeus, has been training nonstop for guard duty since arriving here at the end of July. He has ripped the stuffing out of his stuffed platypus, a wool dryer ball, and a seat cushion. I pity any mice, rabbits, or platypi that ever venture into our house.
The guy I live with said maybe the rabbits won’t be coming into the yard now that the fence doesn’t have a bunch of missing pickets, but the voles are a different story entirely, because they come into the yard by tunneling, sort of like the movie The Great Escape, but the opposite of that.
Now that the owls have moved closer to our house I might have some competition with vole hunting.
Sneaky voles. They love to roam around in the Fall and winter creating havoc. Keep vigilant and send them on their way (or to their maker heeheehee). I surprised a big fat porcupine trying to sneak under the driveway gate last night. Our last encounter had me swatting it out of our pear tree with a broom. Was kind of hoping the experience would have prevented her from coming back. Hope you get more rain. We get a little bit of snow, a couple of chilly days and then the temperature leaps back up. It’s a crazy Fall/early winter so far.
We’re supposed to get snow tomorrow night. In fact we could get a lot of snow. The guy I live with will be disappointed by the end of flowers, for now, but it will also come as a relief, since it’s been so dry in the last seven weeks.
I’ve never seen a porcupine, and the guy I live with said I don’t want to. We’d probably have to be up in the mountains to see one.
Just writing to thank you, and TGYLV, for the wonderful blog and for being such charming hosts this summer. You’ve been an inspiration for me. I appreciate the wit and humor that you bring to the garden blog world. Hope you two are doing well.
Thanks. We had a nice time, too. We get so few visitors.
I guess we’re doing okay but I didn’t get to do much gardening today, except watch the guy I live with fill the bird feeder and set up the other one.