The Bear Is Out Of The Den!

Ha ha!  That’s what I feel like.  After a long extended winter we’re finally able to emerge outside and able to start spring clean up and projects!

I’ve been raking out the leaves and dead plant material from the garden beds.  

This was my first spot I went after a couple of weekends ago.  There was still some snow lingering but It's all gone now!

My tulips were up out of the ground even with snow on them so as soon as it melted they were quickly on their way up.  Still waiting for flowers but it wont be too long now.

I started pulling pieces of my fairy garden out and am beginning my placement ideas.

To our dismay we found a maple tree had been chewed on and after consulting with an arborist we found out it was a porcupine that had done the damage!

This is not my picture but I had to include it.  I had no idea that porcupines have a voracious appetite for wood!  I thought that was a thing that beavers do!  It may or may not cause the tree to die.  Loosing too much bark takes away the tree’s ability to feed itself.  For all intents and purposes, tree bark is the skin of the tree. The main tree bark function is to protect the phloem layer. The phloem layer is like our own circulatory system. It brings the energy produced by the leaves to the rest of the tree."

During the winter Dan faithfully trudges out there and fill the feeders (usually with at least 2 ft. of snow on the ground).  We have a steady following of birds all winter that rely on it.  

Our bird feeder post looks terrible so we've decided to make a fresh one.  It will still have multiple feeders but it will have a new look.  As you can see the critters (red squirrels, squirrels, raccoons) are always trying to climb up it and make a mess of the post.  I'll show it when it's all ready!

We did have a raccoon that made it up to the top and I just happened to look out my kitchen window late one night and saw him (a couple of weeks ago).  I took a quick snap shot of him from a bedroom window.  That black metal baffle is supposed to stop him but he was big (much larger than he appears here) and muscled his right up there!  Some of the shrubs are wrapped for the winter and the red squirrels kept tugging on the burlap to steel fibers for their den.  As you can see the burlap was split open.

My Christmas Cactus decided to bloom too- everything wants to come alive!

Phew- so glad to be out of the den!

Joining:
Dishing It & Digging It