This time of year I have a mental countdown going on. Dear Husband puts the Arr!! into the water close to May 15th, but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to the boat before he takes it back to water. I know I have a limited amount of time before he will be so tied up with the boat that I won’t have help on the grounds.
I was looking out the west windows at the grove, thinking that we need to be cleaning up some of the wood that is down. Unfortunately, I’m responsible for all the gardens, so the grove is pretty low on my list of things to do. It’s a shame, really since we could have such a lovely place if we only had a platoon of gardeners working here.
This morning I went looking for DH, and found him on a step ladder, pulling honeycomb out of one of the eaves. The soffit just above and behind my head has been the home to bees for two years. I have gently reminded (read: nagged) him about closing up the hole they use as an entrance. It needs to be done during the cold season, so that he doesn’t have to battle angry bees.
He started the project today. He bought a new screened vent to block access from the north. The south edge of that soffit will have to be torn off, bees cleaned out, replaced, caulked and painted. The tearing down, cleaning out and replacing of the wood will have to be done in one day, so that we don’t open the attic to raccoons again. The caulking and painting may have to wait for a warmer, dry spring afternoon.
At least the project has been started. Now, I need to start gently reminding about timbers that have to be replaced in the herb garden, and the patch of garden that has to be rototilled to be ready for pumpkins and gourds. See why the wood in the grove is at the bottom of the list??
Without attention, the grove may not be neat and tidy; but, it is lovely just as nature makes it. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. The fight that you are having with nature over the occupancy of your eaves and attic is another thing, however. It sounds like a lot of work. Will you get any honey out of it?
No honey. I was going to give the honey comb to the deer and other animals, but Fred SPRAYED it with wasp spray. Nasty.
We’ll have to see what comes from the next batch he pulls out of the house.
Spraying would have been HH’s approach, too. Usually, I get the pleasure of working with anything that might sting. We have some little critter around here that I keep grabbing while working with plants, that loves to sting. In one day I got 3 stings in the palm of one hand. Ouch! They look like scorpion flies, but my book says that scorpion flies don’t bite or sting, so I don’t know what they are. We also have a lot of mud daubers and paper wasps that love to build their nests on our house.