Friday, June 26, 2009

Wow.


Okay, so I'm google image searching for a picture of a scary looking rabbit to add drama to my next post about the rodenta wars and I stumble upon this website. It's all about people who participate in LARP... which, after reading through the site, means Live Action Role Play. Basically, adults dress up like fantasy characters (probably from computer games) and have battles. Some of them get pretty creative with their cosutmes. Now, I'm all about the unique ways to have fun, and... if you participate in this... more power to you for following your dreams, but if you don't check this site out!! *Disclamer* there is some adult language used in some of the descriptions, so just a heads up. My favorite part is the summer camp for kids.

http://threevue.com/category/life/matchmaker-love-at-first-larp/

The Rodenta Wars- Part One





One of the blessings of our place here is that we have a pretty big backyard! Last year, we tilled a "little bit of earth" (name that book... Secret Garden anyone?...no? just me?) and planted watermelon, beans, tomatoes and peppers. It was pretty successful except for the beans due to some lovely little GROUNDHOGS that had taken up residence under our shed. We tried everything to keep them out, but to no avail.

So, we thought that we'd out fox them this year and put gravel around our shed to keep them out and we filled in the holes. We trapped one last year and thought it was the end of our garden plants being decapitated. We expanded the garden this year and planted our corn, beans, squash, melons, tomatoes, peppers and I threw in some herbs and sunflowers out there for good measure. We rejoiced at the prospects of so much produce that would grace our table in July and August.

And then the squirrels came.

Like mini lumberjacks, they chopped down our corn plants, stripped the leaves off the beans and excavated the sunflower seeds. We could only desperately watch or go out like crazy people and chase them off. How do you beat a squirrel? They can climb anything and when you chase them, they just run up trees and yell at you from their safe posts. The situation was dire. Who could save us?

And then my dad came to visit. And bought David a BB gun. He gave him some pointers, like shoot towards the ground, use the scope and shoot with pellets for the kill. We practiced outside on soda bottles. And then we waited.

The next week, David, in full dental scrubs, made his first kill. We were so excited! Take that squirrels! After that, the squirrels left the garden pretty much alone and we thought we won the war. But we were wrong... oh how we were wrong.