Migration Day – Flora and Fauna Battles

Wife Welcoming Home her Wandering Plants

Yesterday involved a lot of hard work but it turned out to be kind of fun because I had a really good looking partner.  My wife and I spent the day conducting the annual plant migration where the plants my wife released to the wild for the summer return and take up their winter homes inside the house.  My wife grew up in the tropics and does her damndest to recreate the jungles of Panama inside our home.  I love it because it really does look great (not that I’d ever reveal this to her).  My part in the process is to complain about how much work is involved.  The bigger plants do block a lot more of the sun that interferes with watching football on TV (again, Mums the word).

Every year the plants get bigger so there are adjustments to be made.  She has three bougainvillea plants that she just adores because they remind her of Panama.  A florist once told her that they should be placed at a southern facing window.  We have only one such accommodation and that is the side entrance to the house which Buddy uses regularly to “do his business”.  I’ve spent the last two years negotiating around these plants with Buddy and was a little concerned after seeing how much they had grown over the summer.  On our trip to San Francisco my wife noticed a number of bougainvillea and saw that the long branches were fastened to the wall to keep them away from the street.  She has employed this same technique in the house and another crisis has been averted.

The other main task yesterday was moving all the deck and porch furniture into the basement for safekeeping as well as retiring the gallant tarp of the deck cover.  We were immediately confronted by some of the area wildlife who had taken up residence on the back deck.  When we were taking some folding chairs out a bunch of seeds fell out and it was obvious a mouse had been preparing this for his winter habitat, sorry Mickey. 

As I was taking down the last few places the tarp was still connected to the framework of the shelter I found myself surrounded by a cloud of yellow jackets that seemed to object to my activities.  Since I’m a little bit allergic to bee stings I decided to fall back and survey the situation.  My wife arrived and we employed a massive chemical strike.  Apparently there was a fairly large nest inside the framework because targets kept presenting themselves for destruction for well over five minutes.  Thankfully we had a full can of Raid. 

We were very careful the rest of the afternoon and kept finding yellow jackets and a bunch of huge stink bugs hiding out in the folds of umbrellas and other coverings.  They were apparently trying to find a place to spend the winter, something they’ll not have to worry about anymore. 

We finished the job just ahead of the forecast rain which sent Buddy into one of his fear episodes.  This made it interesting negotiating stairs while carrying heavy plants and dodging Buddy who insisted on being directly underfoot.  My wife rewarded us (but not Buddy to his intense dissatisfaction) with some superb steaks but I felt a little sad seeing the now barren deck – remembering it filled with family and friends over the summer.

Failed Mouse Habitat

Looking up at Hole in Frame of Tarp
Big Yellow Jacket Body Count

The Gallant Tarp - We Got Our Last Summer Out of It
It Went Down Fighting

Job Done - Empty and Kind of Sad Deck