Elk Problems and Garden Update

The elk damaged four of our newly planted trees. A member of our gardening class told us to hang a bar of Irish Spring soap on the trees...........apparently the elk hate Irish Spring. Good ol' Walmart had bars of Irish Spring.......it's phewy!....no wonder the elk dislike it.

We also put cages around the trees for some added protection. Their were two elk at the end of our driveway this morning. (It's always too dark to take a photo.) The herd that passes by in the early morning hours is 50 strong. The bulls bugle for hours.....we are beginning to sleep through it all.

We cleared an area in the fenced portion of our yard and set up two "square foot" garden beds that we purchased at our local nursery. We also set up an experiment....one bed has topsoil from Home Depot and the other bed is 3/4ths topsoil and 1/4 llama poop. We will be planting garlic, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.

We set up the experiment because the llama poop has been great for the pumpkins, squash and cucumbers but not so good for the tomatoes. (The tomatoes were looking great until about a week ago. They have stopped growing and the leaves are curling inward.)

We will have plenty of pumpkins for Halloween!

Randy took Cooper on an early morning walk today. He was digging away in this pile of bricks. Randy couldn't get him to stop digging. After a few minutes a little chipmunk ran out of the pile and up a tree. Cooper has a very good nose!

The worst of the heat seems to be over with....it was 48 degrees at 6:00 this morning. The high today will be about 85 degrees.....so much better than our August temperatures. We don't have to use the AC anymore. We are still waiting for the inspection for our solar voltaic panels.