Fighting squirrels

  We have been getting a handful of strawberries every couple of days.  Just like all homegrown food, they are simply delectable!

  I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to enjoy any of these beauties because we have been doing serious battle on the garden front.  The squirrels simply ravaged our apricot trees and are getting to our other fruits and veggies too.  I didn't really like squirrels to begin with (they are so feisty!), but then they started ruining and taking our hard work and it got personal!  Mike has had his way of dealing with the squirrels and I have mine.

  I had some leftover chicken wire from my frame project and decided to protect the strawberries with it.  I thought for sure they would just crawl under and go for the strawberries anyway, but they totally didn't!  My trick worked!  They actually don't touch the strawberries at all, not even the ones that aren't covered.

So ghetto, yet so fabulous!

  When they successfully got every. single. apricot. we didn't pick from our 4 apricot trees, they moved onto our plum tree.  So, we bought some more chicken wire and just stuck it up in the tree.  Notice the broken branch on the left, we surmise that is from the weight of all of the plums (probably 150) on that branch.  We just did this last night, so I don't know if it will work, but it is worth a try since it worked with the strawberries.

They've also gotten to our cucumbers.

We are just doing prevention work on our pumpkins and watermelon.

  When we were in our Seattle house we did serious battle with moles.  Back then and today, the little vermin really get under Mike's skin.  I totally get it, all of the hard work and money you put in just to have the squirrels enjoy it.  Just mention the little pests and he gets hot and bothered.  If you ask, he'll proudly tell you of his victories over them.  My lips are sealed, but if you really want to know, the kids will spill the beans too.