chocomouse.It got down to about 23.5 here last night, and the vines that were looking pretty sad looked really bad today. But the person who helps us with our gardening usually spends a few hours here on Mondays, and she cleaned up the garden for us, so now the cages just look forlorn.
We had our first frost/freeze last night, 25*. The green and yellow beans are done, but it looks like the lettuce will be OK. It usually does survive a few frosts, although 25 is pretty much a hard freeze.
Our temperatures went to the low 20s, and we are having our first snow of the season this Halloween. It is not sticking, but the larger flakes are falling.
We missed out on the snow but got the cold, the expected high today is 38 and down into the teens overnight.
It snowed here this afternoon off and on for about an hour, but it didn't stick. I looked out at one point and saw two horses about 3 feet from my window! Not ours, not our nearest neighbors, nor the ones down the road a bit. My husband stood at the top of our driveway, preventing them from getting back up the hill to the main road, for over an hour while we tried to find out who owned them. Eventually, someone identified the owner who came and walked them home. They did cut some of our lawn for us!
A good cartoon on gardening in the WSJ:
That's a cute cartoon. We were able to keep our local rabbits out of the garden with chicken wire around the bottom. It helped that they seem to like the variety of grasses and plants in our lawn, including some that my husband was pleased that they ate.
One of our farmers' market vendors has had a major problem this summer and fall with groundhogs. They ate their melons, radishes, turnips, and some other vegetables. He estimates it cost them at least $25,000 in sales. One groundhog even buried a bicycle when he tunneled into their barn. So far, the vendor has trapped SIXTEEN. He has much sympathy for the golf course groundskeeper in Groundhog Day.
I think the golf course groundskeeper is in Caddyshack.
I must have my movies mixed up.
Around here homeowner can only legally take trapped animals 200 yards away before releasing them, as if that's going to stop them from coming back. Licensed trappers have other options.
In Vermont, it is illegal to trap and remove animals, even though they may be destroying agricultural products. However, many people do. Last night one of our cameras taped a possum crossing our property -- dragging a large bush caught on its tail. We'd seen a tape earlier when it didn't have a hitch-hiker riding with it. I had read something about that not long ago, but cannot find the article now. This is not a brush-tail possum; they don't live this far north. Years ago, when farmers used horses to plow, animals that made holes and tunnels were always shot, as a horse might step in a hole, break a leg, and need to be put down.
