The Creature and the Can

Weather: Afternoon temperatures warmed yesterday when clouds moved in from the west, but they were diverted north. We got little moisture, a little wind, and enough humidity to moisture in the ground from evaporating.

Last useful rain: 12/8. Week’s low: 18 degrees F. Week’s high: 62 degrees F in the shade.

What’s green: Leaves on juniper and other evergreens, cliff rose, yuccas, chives, grape hyacinth, bouncing Bess, pink evening primroses, snapdragons, alfilerillo, blue flax, hollyhock, vinca, violets, sweet peas, coral bells, Queen Anne’s lace, Shasta daisy, anthemis, white and yellow yarrow, purple aster, cheat grass; bases of needle grass; rose canes

What’s gray or gray-green: Leaves on snow-in-summer, catmint

What’s red or purple: Leaves on coral beard tongues

Tasks: Afternoons remained too cool for working outside.

Animal sightings: Small birds.

Weekly update: Ground squirrels like members of the rose family. When they first appeared in my yard in 2005 they left mounds in the drainage ditch in front of the house. I remember going out in February in a rain suit and boots and stomping them down so the thawing water could move.

The next spring, two miniature rose bushes were dead, and two produced little growth. They still have not recovered.

A few years later a neighbor told me gophers had destroyed their peach tree. By then I had called a exterminator who told me there was no evidence of gophers in the area.

I slowly realized the problem was another rodent, a ground squirrel, when it began systematically attacking my cholla cacti.

In 2015 I had my apple trees cut down because only the root stock survived, and it never even bloomed. I replaced them with four crab apples. They did better, but one was listing in the spring of 2017.

When I touched it, it fell over. The root was completely gone. Crab apples like peaches are in the rose family.

Two years ago I ordered trees to replace it and the remaining apples. When I went to dig one hole, I opened a ground squirrel tunnel so wide I had to abandon putting a tree in that spot. It would take more dirt than I had easily available to fill, and would drain away any water. It also created a create air hole that would destroy roots.

Once I’ve unpacked the bare root stock I don’t have time to solve problems; I feel compelled to get them planted. I put the tree at the far end of the line.

This past spring I ordered another tree for that opening. Long before it arrived, I bought a tin can to stuff into the opening. When I went into the grocery store I had in mind one of those 4.25" wide ones used for whole tomatoes. This being Española the store didn’t have whole tomatoes, but did have whole jalapeños. I bought the cheapest ones.

My only problem was what to do with them. I opened the can on trash day, and drained the liquid in the sink. I put the peppers in the trash, and saved the can.

When the bare root tree arrived, I stuffed the can in the hole and packed it with a little dirt. It must have worked because the tree survived.

When I saw that hole last week under a block, it took me a few days to realize the ground squirrel was targeting that crab apple at the far end of the row. The tree may have been more than 3' away, but that animal is an engineer.

I faced the same problem this time. There was no visible mound left by the digging, and I needed to fill the area under the block to keep it from rocking and breaking. Instead of hunting for dirt somewhere, I bought soup cans that are 4.25" long and 3.25" wide.

I had learned one thing from my past experience: I didn’t want anything I had to discard. Broth would have been ideal, but I accepted what was available. Condensed tomato soup. I put the contents in a colander and ran water until it was completely washed away and became dinner for the bacteria in the septic system.

Tuesday it was 46 degrees. I went out with the cans and tools. I used the chisel to lift the block, then pushed the steel point down. The ground was wet, but cold. The chisel sank into the hole. After pushing it down every few inches I was able to punch the dirt into the tunnel. The cans just fit the amount of dirt the critter had evacuated.

I put the can ends on the outside, so nothing could crawl into them. I don’t need my neighbor’s snakes.

On the crab apple side of the block, the tunnel continued unseen under the alfalfa and other vegetation.

The ground squirrel can reopen the tunnel, but now I’m walking out there more often to check. It tends to stay away when it thinks it’s being watched.

Now I think I know why those miniature roses are still doing poorly. I suspect tunneled air spaces are still under them that prevent the roots from growing much.

Notes on photographs:
1. Remains of gnawed crab apple root, 7 May 2017.
2. Ground squirrel tunnel opening, carefully hidden by grass, 11 December 2019.
3. Soup cans filling ground displaced by the tunnel, 11 December 2019.

Water Flow

Weather: Last Sunday we had another cold front pass through on its way to the plains, and left a little incidental snow. It was rather like being a plant on the Oregon trail where wagon trains continually passed through, but with no interest in staying. They left their dead and discarded objects, much like these fronts casually leave us some moisture. Last snow: 3/18. Week’s low: 14 degrees. Week’s high: 77.

What’s blooming in the area: Apricots, crane’s bill

What’s reviving: Globe and weeping willows, daffodils, garlic, garlic chives, hollyhocks, sidalcea, pink and yellow evening primroses, coral beardstongues, chrysanthemums, dandelions, June grass

Tansy mustard is invading along the fence with a neighbor who mows his yard periodically, but almost always after his weeds have gone to seed.

Tasks: I continued to hack away at the alfalfa under the crab apples. One thing that always surprises me is that the tools I actually use are not the ones recommended. So far, the small floral rake has been the most useful at breaking off dead stems and grasses. I guess it functions like the hoes local men use to weed, only with the rigid teeth it picks up broken stems and debris so I don’t have to bend down as often. I only use the loppers to cut what the rake can’t handle.

Animal sightings: The ground squirrel broke off the bottom of a fence board to give itself safer access to my yard. The neighbor’s dogs had started using it’s earlier route under the fence until I dropped a large Russian thistle on the other side. Those carcasses may actually be good for something.

Weekly update: Last year, when I couldn’t use my thumb, I spent my garden money upgrading my watering system. The ground squirrel had destroyed many of my hoses by biting into them to get a drink. It never returned to the same hose, but broke open a new one every time.

In February 2017 I had to replace my well pump and in April the outside hydrant. I had never been happy with the well. From the first day, I had no water pressure. The only sprinkler I could run was the simplest one with a rotating disc, and, if I was lucky, it’s circle of water was five feet across. More often, I could only get a three foot circle. Soaker hoses would irrigate no more than two inches on a side.

Every time I asked people why I got non answers. I was assured the well was fine and producing the correct water pressure. Last February I learned the pump I had was the right size, but was low quality. The driller probably used it either to keep his bid low enough to be accepted or to increase his profit. The man replacing the pump gave me the same brand and size, but the top of the line. The difference in price was less than all the replacement cost of all the trees that died from lack of water.

The intake on the original pump probably got clogged as soon as it was used. Last February, the man also set the pressures on the storage tank. I’m not sure if that had been done before.

Once I had the possibility of improved water pressure, and I knew as soon as I turned on the hot water, [1] I wanted to solve the flow problem. A year or so before I had replaced a destroyed 15' hose that came directly off the hydrant with another and the water distribution had fallen by more than half. Even though both hoses claimed to be 5/7" in diameter, one was obviously larger than the other.

I vaguely knew there was a difference between outer diameter (OD) and inner diameter (ID), but hadn’t thought much about it. Last spring I started looking at the size of openings in hoses. Often the constriction was the hole in the washer, but some hoses I saw in stores also had metal rings where the fitting attached to the hose.

I had laid soaker hoses out and, because of the poor water pressure, often had several hoses in parallel. They were attached to on-off Y valves that I could open and close. The Y valves were listed as 5/8" diameter, but when I looked inside I discovered pieces that shrank the opening. The actual ball valve hole was only 1/4" across. It didn’t matter if my hoses were 5/8". All that was going to get though was 1/4" of water.

Since they were all that was available locally, and then only early in the season, I went to Amazon and found one manufacturer who claimed to deliver "35% more flow than standard valves." The valves had larger openings, and, to accommodate the balls, were also simply larger.

When I first had laid out the hoses, I had put shutoff valves at every location, so I if there was a problem I didn’t have to turn off the hydrant. Last summer, I replaced every intermediate Y connection with a simple valve that didn’t narrow the flow of water.

Of course, as I remembered last Sunday when I tested the hoses before I burned the week’s accumulation of dead wood, it meant I had no way to stop water where the ground squirrel got in last winter, except at the hydrant. But, if we didn’t forget the summer’s problems during winter, we’d never carry on the next summer because, of course, the problems always return.

Notes on photographs:
1. Hoses, 6 May 2013. You can see the tansy is only coming up next to the hose or the retaining wall at the top where runoff collects. Later in the season, these plants cover the spaces between themselves, but the areas where there are no plants will only support less thirsty grasses.

2. Hose destroyed this past winter by the ground squirrel. It usually leaves the inch wide hole.

3. Hose with a constricting band between the faucet connector and the hose connector.

4. Commonly available 5/8" 2-way Y on-off valve with 1/4" ball opening.

5. Two Y valves; the one on the left is like the one shown in #4.

6. Another hose destroyed this past winter by the ground squirrel. This one has several smaller holes.

End notes:
1. The hot water got hotter. That didn’t make any sense, but a woman in a local plumber supply shop said the increased pressure of the incoming water kicked up the accumulated debris at the bottom of the water heater. That activity then allowed the hot water to get into the house pipes faster, and so didn’t cool as much.

Indoor Living

Weather: Power outage lasted more than two hours at dawn on Wednesday. The closest sign of rain was a pockmarked surface Saturday morning; last rain 6/7.

What’s blooming in the area: Desert willow, hybrid roses, yellow potentilla, fernbush, Russian sage, Spanish broom, sweet peas, trumpet creeper, Japanese honeysuckle, silver lace vine, red-tipped yuccas, daylilies, lilies, datura, hollyhock, winecup mallow, bouncing Bess, yellow yarrow. Corn plants becoming visible.

Produce stands have signs for "sweet peas." Grocery stores call them green peas. Sugar or sugar snap peas the term used for a cross between green peas and snow peas. Sweet peas generally refers used to the flowers. Right now they’re forming pods, but the seeds haven’t developed much.

Beyond the walls and fences: Tamarix, cholla, buffalo gourd, showy milkweed, tumble mustard, tufted white evening primrose, velvetweed, scarlet bee blossom, alfilerillo, purple mat flower, goat’s head, silver edge nightshade, bindweed, fern leaf and leather leaf globe mallow, yellow purslane, yellow sweet clover, scurf peas, alfalfa, Queen Anne’s lace, fleabane, goat’s beard, plains paper flower, Hopi tea, strap leaf and golden hairy asters, native dandelions, brome grass.

In my yard: Dorothy Perkins and rugosa roses, snow-in-summer, larkspur, golden spur columbine, purple beards tongues, Johnson’s Blue geranium, sea lavender, blue flax, Saint John’s wort, annual blue salvia, catmints, sidalcea, pink evening primrose, Shasta daisy, bachelor buttons, Ozark and purple coneflowers, Mexican hats, chocolate flower, coreopsis, blanket flower, anthemis, white yarrow.

Bedding plants: Wax begonias, snapdragons, nicotiana, French marigolds, gazania.

Inside: Zonal geraniums.

Animal sightings: Two rabbits, small birds, geckoes, cabbage and sulphur butterflies, dragonfly, bumble and small bees, hornets, ants, small grasshoppers; heard crickets.

All week the young hummingbirds looked like they were filling more of their nest. They tended to sit parallel to each other with their beaks in one direction and their tails in the other. Earlier the beaks had pointed upward. Yesterday, their bodies were visible, and it looked like one was standing on the edge of the nest. This morning they were gone, and I was able to get near my tree again.

Weekly update: Technology changes, then our perceptions of the world change. When I was in graduate school in the 1960s, one of our instructors was dating a scion of the Lippincotts. He told us the textbook publisher could no longer find artists with the observation skills necessary to create medical atlases. Advances in photography have since rendered such people obsolete.

The same is happening now with cartography. As more people use Google Maps’ aerial photographs, the less they are going to be able to make the abstractions required to read or draw a map.

Such unrecognized corollaries of technology no doubt contribute to people being able to deny the existence of climate change or evolution. The more time they spend in air-conditioned rooms watching televised images, the less time they spend outdoors looked at vegetables or flowers they are growing. Distance breeds ignorance.

Some years ago I planted sweet peas, those models used for simple genetics lessons. One year the wind blew their seeds north, and a new patch developed, the same color as the original. This year the progeny of that colony appeared with my roses. This time, the flowers were white, just like Mendel said would happen 25% of the time.

The single hollyhocks appear in shades ranging from pale pink to deep rose. Last summer one had a double flower. The two subspecies of Mexican hats mingle their pollen every summer to produce variants. One sees such evidence of genetic variation so often, one becomes almost immune.

This week I noticed a pink rose with the Dr. Huey root stock. I thought, now how have those wild roses spread this far. When I got down to look, its stem was attached to a Dr. Huey. I thought, so that’s what botanists mean by a sport. More evidence of what creationists deny.

Weather is harder to judge. Were this year’s early warm spring, long cool late spring, and the current spell of daily temperatures in the 90s unusual or a pattern that recurs in long cycles? Climatologists are never ready to commit themselves, but, the insects are.

Apparently the warmth awoke the aphids and locust borers early, and what followed wasn’t cold enough to kill them. They must have had a longer growing period. This week when I went out to weed, all my columbine flowers were sticky to touch, and another locust trunk crashed across my path. Fortunately, it was smaller and I was able to remove it.

I think the bees have reacted to the heat of the last two weeks by foraging earlier in the day. Usually, I’m done in the garden before they come round. This week, the small ones in the columbines defined where I could and couldn’t work. The bumble bees in those volunteer sweet peas near a path forced me to find another way to my back door.

Water must be a problem. There seem to be more hornets this summer, and they congregate around the connections of the irrigation hose that’s running. I’m less tolerant of them than the bees, but just as wary. I’ve had to wait until they moved before I could turn off valves.

The ground squirrel is testing everywhere. Last week I cleared the remains of its mounds in the columbine bed, and put down new dirt and manure to replace the clay it had dredged up. This week, there was a new hole in the bed. The deepest place was under the drip hose. This morning I found holes under a regular hose that crosses the drive. Apparently it is making explorations to see where potable water has accumulated.

The long, cool, windy spring delayed seed planting. After a week or two the weather became so hot, things stopped growing. Even though they seeds were getting the same amount of water, the moisture disappeared in areas with no shade faster than in areas with trees. Naturally, the annual seeds are the ones that are exposed.

Whether or not the climate is changing, it is impossible not to see the consequences that the smallest variations in temperature can have on plants and animals. Unless, of course, you’re avoiding the heat by staying indoors, which, come to think of it, is the only intelligent thing to do this year.

Photographs:
1. Sweet pea pods, 21 June 2016.
2. Hummingbirds, 25 June 2016, the day before they left the nest.
3. Second generation sweet pea flowers, 20 June 2016.
4. Third generation sweet pea flowers, 20 June 2016.
5. Pink flower on a Dr. Huey rose stem, 20 June 2016.
6. Red flower on the main plant, 20 June 2016.

7. Dominant Mexican hat subspecies.
8. Recessive Mexican hat subspecies.
9. Their progeny.

Ground Squirrels

Weather: After light rains Monday and Tuesday nights, plants are coming into full fall bloom.

What’s blooming in the area: Hybrid tea roses, silver lace vine, trumpet creeper, datura, morning glories, alfalfa, Russian sage, Maximilian sunflowers, Sensation cosmos, African marigolds, coreopsis, zinnias.

Beyond the walls and fences: Bindweed, green-leaf five-eyes, leather leaf globe mallow, green amaranth, pigweed, chamisa, native sunflower, gumweed, goldenrod, áñil del muerto, broom senecio, golden hairy, purple and heath asters.

In my yard: Calamintha, larkspur, winecup mallow, pink evening primrose, sweet pea, Mexican hat, chocolate flower, blanket flower, yellow cosmos.

Bedding plants: Sweet alyssum, snapdragon, marigold.

What’s blooming inside: Zonal geraniums.

Animal sightings: Goldfinch mining the chocolate flower seeds, chickadee feasting on the horseweed; geckos, sulfur butterfly, bees, grasshoppers, ants.

Weekly update: Ground squirrels are more destructive in my yard than rabbits, grasshoppers or ants. The latter just destroy garden plants. The squirrels attack hoses, retaining walls, and native vegetation.

None of that, of course, appears in their official biographies. It s typical to read "Spermophilus variegatus is sometimes considered a pest because it occasionally damages crops. The effect on crops is usually not significant though." or to be told it has a positive impact on the environment because it "is an important disperser of many plant seeds and fruits."

Some years ago one or several - I don't know how many, I rarely see even one with the white bands around its eyes - started tunneling behind the retaining wall. After all, the area was moist: it trapped water coming off the hill and prevented it from washing against the foundation of the house.

I first realized it was there when I came home and found four roses had been sliced off at their bases. Of course they didn't recover.

Then, when I tried to replace them, my trowel reached a tunnel. If I tried to plant anything, it would likely fall into the black hole. The shaft is still there, and only grass can grow above it.

Inconvenient as that was, though, I was more concerned about it destablizing the compacted dirt being held by the rail timbers.

The animal, or more likely another, since their life span is about 30 months, is back. There s a huge mound at the base of every one of the oriental poppies I spent so much effort getting to grow along the retaining wall. Only one, so far, has put out new leaves.

The problem with the mounds is the squirrels bring up very bad dirt with their sharp claws. When it rains, it spreads through the bed, covering the good garden soil with heavy, impermeable clay.

The squirrels actually became a serious problem two years ago. Perhaps it was the drought.

Whenever I saw a dead cholla cactus, I saw a mound at its base. Last year, when I walked toward the near arroyo where I know they live, I noticed all the cacti were standing in disturbed dirt. Few bloomed this year.

When I walked out on the prairie last spring, I noticed every single prickly pear had been molested.

There's been a mound near the base of one of my cholla that's gotten larger every year. The experts say the animals with brown fur spotted with lighter dots often have a home burrow and "several other foraging burrows." They may be used for several years and enlarged.

This week I was weeding the west side of my garage. A winterfat had taken up residence on the other side of the block path where there's the most runoff. Whenever I put my hand down to pull out grass it had killed, my fingers were stabbed by sharp-pointed satellites.

I finally took a piece of foam and patted the area, hoping to sponge up the darts. In the process, I pulled out a piece of cholla cacti.

The squirrel was taking pieces under the shrub to eat or for the water, then leaving the spines at the perimeter. I don t know if it was deliberately setting booby traps around its hidey hole, or if it was chance.

The rodent apparently went under that winterfat this past winter. When I went to turn on the water this spring, nothing came out of the hose. I tracked it back to a hole in the section that went under the shrub.

I replaced the hose, and two days later no water. It had been eaten again. Apparently, the animal is breaking into them for the water. I'd say half my hoses have been tapped this year.

It seems to be a problem I'm stuck with. The cures are poisons that are more dangerous than the animals they kill.

Notes: For the problems getting the oriental poppies to grow, see the post for 8 June 2008 at right. Winterfat is now Krascheninnikovia lanata; it was Eurotia lanata. Ground squirrels are also called rock squirrels. They're in the Sciuridae family.

Desert USA. "Rock Squirrel," Desert USA website.

Wund, Matthew, Lucas Langstaff, and Phil Myers. "Spermophilus variegatus," Animal Diversity website.

Photographs:
1. Ground squirrel in my front garden, 26 July 2008; taken through the window.

2. Ground squirrel at the base of the reinforced wall of the near arroyo, 2 August 2013; taken from road level.

3. Mound near the rim of the far arroyo, 21 September 2013.

4. Mound near cholla cactus on the prairie, 3 August 2013.

5. Mound around prickly pear near where #3 was taken six months before, 20 March 2014.

6. Cholla cactus thorn cluster taken from under a winterfat in my yard, 26 September 2015.

7. Piece of cholla cactus taken from under a winterfat, 26 September 2015.

8. Thorns still on the cholla in my yard, 26 September 2015.

9. Destroyed hose, 26 September 2015; eaten part at right, weather damage at left.

10. Mound near the cholla cactus in my yard, 4 March 2012.

11. Mound near the same cholla, 25 April 2014; it now exists on both sides with broom snakeweed growing in it.