Critter-Scaping

Last week, June 10, we had Frost Warnings in our area. I love living in Northern Michigan. In my opinion, there are very few negative aspects to living here. However, the one thing that is hard to come to terms with is that by the time it feels as if summer has actually arrived, we’ve reached the summer solstice and the days begin to get shorter.

Thankfully none of our plants were affected by the frost. EJ says that because we live on a hill, cold air tends to sink into the gullies that surround us. In the winter he has observed temperatures drastically dropping as he drives down the hill, according to the thermometer in his truck.

EJ has been keeping busy in his vegetable garden in the backyard. He works in it in the mornings before heading for work. My herb garden is doing pretty well although the parsley seeds I planted weren’t growing. A week or so ago, we bought a few plants. At this time of year, grocery and farm stores often sell starter plants in their parking lots. At the farm store, I put a few herb plants in the cart next to me and searched for more while EJ was looking at other plants. When he rejoined me, I noticed that his hands were empty. “Did you want to buy any plants?” I asked. With eyes sparking with mirth he pointed to the small cherry tree that had magically appeared in the cart. “How did that jump in the cart without me noticing?” I gasped. We both laughed.

I’ve been busy “critter-scaping,” which is what I call making our front yard attractive to wildlife. I have a bird bath and various birdfeeders to draw in the animals, It brings us joy to see the various birds and animals: blue jays, red-breasted grosbeaks, robins, red-bellied woodpeckers, ruby-throated hummingbirds, mourning doves, Baltimore orioles, cardinals, indigo buntings, and many other birds, as well as chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, deer, opossums, raccoons, Theo our cat, and once a coyote.

I set up my trail cam to try to get closeups of the critters. Currently, I sort through the videos from the cam and upload a few to Rumble. I would absolutely love to set up a live stream of the critters visiting the feeders and wandering across our yard. I looked into it but, if I understand correctly, I would have to buy a webcam and pay a monthly fee to livestream. That’s not currently in the budget.

We often repurpose items for new uses. Last week EJ got the brilliant idea of attaching my trail cam to a metal tube that he inserted into an old patio umbrella base. EJ painted it green to better blend into the landscape.

This makes it very easy for me to move my camera to different locations without having to struggle to refasten it to a new post or tree. Better yet, I can also take the tube with the camera out of the base and slide it on a t-post anywhere on the property. We have t-posts along the driveway to define the driveway in winter’s deep snow. I like to have my cam set up to record visitors to the birdfeeders during the day, then move it to try to catch nocturnal visitors wandering through during the night.

EJ also repainted my hummingbird feeders a cheerful red. The coloring had worn off. I put one of them with the feeders near the large boulders and the other up closer to the house.