I am going to try. For lemon basil, will take the basil inside when starting cold. Plant in a smaller pot that is not too big to take inside.

Went to work to get a laptop to be able to work from home.-Found out: My African violet is still alive and blooming, and my Cuban cilantro also still alive. My beautiful rose scented geranium is DEAD. Next time I picked up books, I have to water and also take the dead plants away. Yesterday too many problems with using the new computer----to think about all those.

I spread Preen under the the Azaleas, so I will not have to crawl under the Azalea bush next Spring---hopefully the stickies etc will not germanize. In the meantime still working on my getting rid of Bermuda grass roots ---- cleared 2 rose bushes from the grass roots. Found the still attached label of 1 bush: Scepter'd Isle. I like the roses, so delicate and fragrant. Still have nameless roses----

That's surprising, the violet OK but the geranium dead. Still, I have not had great success with geraniums, I don't know why.

Knock on wood, critters that eat gardens have left me alone this year. Maybe the chickens scare them

This beast was visiting my sister in western NC.

Holy... what the.. is that a deer? Isn't it pretty huge for a deer??

It's an elk and they can be aggressive!

i did not know there are elk in NC!
One local nature center has an elk 'rack' (mounted head? something) on display and I think they used to be up here even. Unbelievably huge this thing is. for showing us!

Kinda funny that my sister moved to NC from Atlanta MI, which claims to be Elk Capital of the World. Her late husband would hunt elk and other game with a bow and arrow back in MI. She reckons the visiting elk may be husband reincarnated.

That is huge. Can't believe he got up on the deck!!!

I've been cleaning up the veg garden. A gate got left open yesterday, and first one, then two, then 7 or 8 of my critters (hens) were in with me having a fine old time scratching in the straw and fresh dirt, and ignoring the plants, thank heavens!

Elk has neck collar probably tagged by Pisgah National Forest, once part of massive Biltmore Estate. No return visit to my sister's place yet.

5601Lisa said:Elk has neck collar probably tagged by Pisgah National Forest, once part of massive Biltmore Estate. No return visit to my sister's place yet.

Oh. I thought maybe it was his theme park band so he could go on all the rides.

Good one Sally!

Well, there's a hole somewhere. After almost 4 weeks with no sign of critters in the house, I figured it was safe to start putting things back into the cabinets and reclaim floor/counter/table space. I came home from work a little while ago to find a banana with a big chunk missing. That chunk was there last night. GRRRRRRRRRR!

critters need to stay outside!

Elk have been successfully reintroduced to the Shenandoah, something I didin't know until we saw them next to the park visitor center! I don't think they've lived in the east for hundreds of years, but the conditions are evidently favorable.

That's a remarkable picture -- elk on the deck!

Saw 2 cute chipmunks this morning while I was cleaning the front yard.. They came out from my neighbor's bush, one ran back to under his bush, the other one ran to my front yard and went under the Hellebores leaves. I have lived here since Jan. 1985 and this is the first time I have seen chipmunks! And later the familiar rabbit came----only one. Sometimes there are 2-Are chipmunks destructive?

They can be destructive if you have lots of them -- just like squirrels & rabbits are fine if there are only a couple. But I don't think chippies breed quite like, well, rabbits.

Neighbor Joey has been keeping bees for the last few years. He called a little while ago to let us know that a big black bear had just knocked his hives over and was going after the honey. A little too close for comfort. On the light side, I keep thinking of Pooh and the honey pot...

Oh, sorry, that probably adds up to a lot of damage to the hives and frames, not to mention loss of honey just before bees go into winter. He'll be spending more on sugar this winter (to feed them).

Take in your hummingbird feeder!!

Bird feeders to leave out? Finch feeders?

So, I got in the car the other night after work. While driving home, I thought I had passed some road kill along the way. Wrong! The next morning, when I opened the car, the smell of decomp hit me hard in the face. Oh, great. Something dead in the car! When I got home last night, I poked around. I found a package of tofu that I forgot to take in. Nope, that wasn't it.

I took everything out of the car this morning and couldn't find anything. Nothing under the seats, door pockets or even the spare tire storage area. Nothing but that smell.

All I can figure is that a mouse or chipmunk started to burrow in under the back seat and got stuck. Although, I couldn't find and damage. Actually, something has been trying to build a nest in the interior fan assembly. It chewed through the plastic housing and has been stuffing it with 'stuff'. That's all been cleaned out.

So, anyone know of a way to get rid of, or at least mask the smell of decomp? Right now, I have camphor, cedar and sandlewood incense sticks laying in there. (I stuffed a couple of camphor sticks into the cabin air filter in hopes it will deter what ever was trying to nest.)