Sunday, May 31, 2009

Snakes, nets, hubby ...oh my!

Does anyone here remember me telling you about the time that an incredible Great Blue Heron, stole, out of our pond, two of our beautiful goldfish that had been nurtured to grow to be over a foot in length at four years of age?

Well, that is when we had decided to use the netting we had purchased previously to protect our aqua babies from natural predators, because up until then, this spring, they fortunately, had not noticed them. We had lost the mighty oak, in Hurricane Charley that had been quite protective and shielding, and then we had tried our decorative canopies, but the windy summers proved them not to be a very long survivor of nature’s wrath, and so we decided to try the netting over the pond, which was a suggestion of many.

It proved to do the job for keeping the large predatory birds out but the smaller ones would get caught in it, but fortunately we were able to untangle them before they would come to any real harm. But today my husband noticed our elusive black rat snake had gotten entangled and was getting more so as we watched in horror, and so my hubby took his knife and went outside to cut him out of the netting, and then utilized garden scissors as he got closer to him to complete his brave mission of releasing the harmless, but beneficial creature from its entrapment! We both decided that we would have to find another way to protect our water babies, and so, I remembering that one of my PBS shows mentioned that another heron on sight would be a preventative measure, since most herons are territorial. We did not have any herons that fit the bill, so to speak, what we did was improvise, pretty close in the same family, with our long ago put away, classic, but tacky, plastic Flamingoes. Now they are standing sentry duty over our water feature in front of the only large opening left surrounding the pond. We have been allowing the flora to overgrow somewhat to create a natural shield, but the main side, opened to our view had been left unprotected, but now it is in duplicate!
We do have five more if need be, we used to have a full set of eight, but when we had a couple out in our front garden, would you believe either someone stole it or it blew away metal legs and all, it more than likely was stolen.
You know, they aren’t made anymore, and some consider them collector items, but we didn’t after that, and they mostly have been stored in our shed since that sad day.

On that ridiculous note…I will bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

PS WORLD: I think that Barack and Michelle that you two rock! Date night is great! Who else can afford to support Broadway if not our main man and his 1st lady in-charge? We need the ones who can eat out and go to shows, movies, theater etc. to keep the others working! Just because some of us have to be cautious with our money, why shouldn’t those others who do still have disposable income use it where it can do some good, why shouldn’t they stimulate the economy? Get real people!

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