Temporary and permanent solutions to the nesting of squirrels.

 Our carport/deck became a place in which squirrels nested. Between the deck surface and the underside that formed the roof of the carport was an ideal place for squirrels to nest. The corrugated plastic panels shown here were screwed to the underside of the deck to collect rain water that fell on the deck and found its way between the decking.

The squirrels nested in this handy cavity, and made quite a mess. They were noisy as they scrambled on the plastic surface, and their droppings were falling around the carport.

Anne looked in the internet to see how to drive them away. "Vinegar" was the promised temporary solution. It seemed to work as she mopped a vinegar solution onto the the deck so it would seep through and onto the squirrels. It may also have been that the babies were old enough to me moved.

Today, I removed all the panels from beneath the deck as a permanent solution. There are no longer handy, out-of-sight nesting areas available.

Anne is concerned that the car will now get dripped on whenever it rains. We will see if this is a problem. If it is we could then put some kind of covering in the deck floor.

Rain barrels etc.

We really needed the gentle rain that came overnight and lasted most of the morning. The onion sets appreciate this rain as do the potato plants that self set among them from last year.

For this morning's run, the light rain and a temperature of 19C were ideal for a longer jog today. I ran for almost an hour.



The tomato plants are perking up with this rain. The Food Bank will get a huge surplus as usual if the good rain and sun combination return.






On the deck, the green peppers are doing well too. This is one of four huge planters from IKEA we have on the deck as well as other smaller planters. For several years we have watered these planters using a watering can we filled at ground level. Now we can use the water from the rain barrel, and not have to pay for it nor climb the steps to the deck carrying that can!





This is the rain barrel we purchased last week. It is fed from the drain spout of our roof. With the overnight rain it is now full, with the excess draining via its overflow pipe (the black pipe in the photo). We can now fill the watering can on the deck and water all the planters with ease.