Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here today to talk about heroic efforts. You may remember me from such posts as “Crickets And Coyotes”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
It was pretty hot today. The guy I live with said that “they” claimed it was the last hot day of the year, and he said they should quit predicting stuff like that.
I seem to have to reiterate my position that, as a purebred border collie, I don’t like weird things happening, but they seem to keep happening, as though my position on this means nothing to the cosmos. (The guy I live with was about to explain this to me but I didn’t want to hear what he had to say.)
Yesterday a young guy came to the front door, to locate the phone line in the back yard, because the buried electrical line that went out some months ago is going to be replaced.
When he was done, he told the guy I live with that there was a goose in our yard.
There was. I only looked at it once. We felt bad for the goose. The guy I live with checked on the internet to see what to do, but the division of wildlife was closed over the weekend, so maybe they’ll come out tomorrow, because if the goose was sick, they need to know.
It had to be moved, so the guy I live with did that. And moved to a place where nothing else might find it interesting.
Because, on our morning walk today, we saw a very large brown pile. I only looked at that, too. The guy I live with used the “b word” but I stopped listening. I could tell who did that by all the unusual scents I noticed before we got to the pile.
Later in the day, the guy I live with went out to the path and moved the pile with the shovel he’s used for gardening since he was pretty little, so no one, meaning the guy I live with, would accidentally step in it. That was a really heroic thing to do. At least he said it was.
This is the shovel: a Tool, Entrenching, Model 1945, which saw action in Korea.
The shovel was issued to his father, so it’s even older than the guy I live with. Like an antique. It’s now frozen in place; the collar or whatever that you turn no longer turns. You can see how much use it’s had.
The little metal wire is what he uses to “feather” roots with.
Some work was done in the garden today. Maybe this picture shows how hot it was. It looks hot to me.
There’s a little rabbitbrush in flower. The purple-leafed Prunus andersonii has done very well without any watering all this hot, hot summer, and the guy I live with heard that it might be introduced into cultivation. Cuttings from this little tree were taken a couple of years ago. It does much better, drought-wise, than one of its putative parents, Prunus × cistena.
Some asters are in flower. This is Symphyotrichum oblongifolium; very similar to Claude Barr’s ‘Dream of Beauty’.
The guy I live with removed a bunch of these asters because they do seed around like crazy, but there will be more next year. Most of them have purple flowers.
Oh, I mentioned work. While I lay on the patio, supervising, the guy I live with worked in the ninety degree heat, slathered with sunblock, to widen the path on the north side of the garden, because plants were moving into it and they got stepped on every time either of us walked down the path.
He dug up plants, planted other plants, scraped up gravel from behind the sand pile, strewed the gravel on the path where some was missing, raked it, and this is the “heroic” result.
It’s true, as the guy I live with conceded, that that green fence is unsightly beyond belief, but I’m a purebred border collie with a “high prey drive”, though maybe less so as I get older, and the fence is to protect the plants in case I get tempted to go in there to chase the squirrels that need to be chased.
The Havahart trap is just there, to pretend that the guy I live with has some control over the rabbits, when in fact he has none.
The red is a phone-cable locating flag.
Back to the fence for a minute, he said he would much rather have this, a single loop (or is it a double?) woven wire fence. This one is very old.
You can still get fencing like this, he said, but apparently not in the height he would want (about two feet), and it’s extremely expensive.
There may be some in an antique shop somewhere in town, but that would involve a lot of looking. There used to be a place not too far away, in Morrison, where the guy I live with and his wife would go a lot, but it’s gone now.
That’s all I have for today. It rained again, for a little while, but not enough maybe to even measure, like it has every day for at least a week.
The guy I live with started one of those “cosmos” lectures but once again I quickly lost interest. There are things to smell.
Until next time, then.
I have questions on this action-packed post, Mani. Is there a goose update? We will need a goose update when one is available. Do you have the b-word mammal in your garden very often? Sounds like the right tool was used to remove the, uh, evidence. I read that they are definitely out and about more this summer. And when did The Guy plant the desert peach? Such an interesting garden you oversee.
The guy I live with called Colorado Parks and Wildlife and they said to double-bag it and put it in the trash. This rubs the guy I live with the wrong way; creatures that pass away in our garden are buried with dignity.
But he said right now that might not be the best idea, considering who’s roaming around the neighborhood.
I think not in our garden, though. The neighbors’ house two doors down, which we think is now being readied to be sold, has two apple trees in the yard but there have been no apples at all this year. Otherwise, I know who would visit them.
The purple-leafed prunus was acquired at a plant sale maybe fifteen years ago, at the Agua Fria Bursery booth. It was the only one for sale, so of course the guy I live with bought it. He says if you see just one, buy it.
It was or is being trialed by Plant Select, but the guy I live with doesn’t know what the status is.
Thanks for the update. I got so interested in the Prunus that I just ordered one from High Country Gardens. It will be a tiny thing, in a 5” pot, but I look forward to having it here. Have benefited greatly from your posts including new plants to try as well as planting techniques.
Thanks. There’s a regular Prunus andersonii in the front garden here, and it’s actually more attractive than the purple one in the back yard. Bluish leaves, pink flowers, and little inedible “peaches” later in the year.
It’s been in the front garden for decades.
We found a very large brown pile on the trail path but thought (hoped) it was from a coyote and not the ‘b-word.’ That would be bad since there’s a lot of traffic and we’d hate for any one to get hurt. The man you live with was a hero removing it. Bravo to him. I haven’t seen that great wire fencing in years. None of the big box stores carries it and even the nice wrought iron fencing I bought over 20 years ago has been replaced by plastic or cheap metal, none of the sturdy wrought iron can be found. Am glad I decided to bring all the sections with me when I moved. We’re hoping this week produces some bona fide rain. We received nothing but a teensy tiny few drops one day last week. It wasn’t even enough to wet the sidewalks.
We’re hoping for some actual rain, too. The few drops we’ve been getting every day are technically rain, but the guy I live with says “technically” doesn’t really count.
You can buy that fencing from a place in Texas, but they don’t offer fence that’s two feet high, and it’s hundreds of dollars, which makes sense since the manufacture of it looks involved.
He also says that coyote scat often has lots of seeds in it, from wild plums and chokecherries, but not at this time of year.
The pile looked like–let me see how I can put this–some pumpkin or Fortiflora (which I don’t like) would have been in order.
Mew mew mew Mani mee getss Unnyverse leckturess heer…mee thinkss this Unnyverse an Guy’ss Kosmmoss iss THE same place!!! Mee wuud rather smell THE flowerss 😉 THE Asterss are lovelee. Wee gotted about 5 minutess of rain yesterday. Wee were told rain overnite…nevurr saw any…wee thinkss Weather Peeps have a giant dart board with weather werdss written on it. They throw dartss an then use what effur werdss come up!! B iss fore Bear?? EEEKKK!!!
BellaDharma an BellaSita Mum
Yes, B is for bear. The guy I live with says people have still been seeing it.
We just get sprinkles every day, though yesterday evening I heard thunder, which could have been up in the mountain; the sound travels that far, down the canyons.
Wee herd there iss a Bear inn a Park north of us. So Park iss closed. He’ss sorta cute alltho’ big. Wee get why Park iss closed til Bruno movess on 😉
Wee got rain overnite an this mornin! REEL rain Mani! If only wee cuud send you sum!
Hardly any rain here.
The bear is still in our neighborhood.
Thanks for the photo of the “root feathering” tool!!!! It seems to be as sturdy as the fencing and the shovel.
My dad also served in the Korean war, although he never saw active combat.
The guy I live with says you’re welcome. He made that tool out of a piece of wire that was lying around.
Before purebred border collies took over the narration, he wrote a post, “Yesterday, Today, And Tomorrow”, about the effects of the war on his family.