Thursday, April 4, 2013

An Acre of Weeds and Screaming Foxes


I've stayed up at our house in Santa Ynez the past two weekends and have gotten quite a taste of what rural living is really like. Having an acre of land means there's endless room for veggie gardens and succulent-scapes and our future chickens, however there's also an endless supply of weeds. They're like those errant body hairs that seem to just appear overnight.

Our sweet neighbor cleared part of the lower yard with his tractor.
I loved typing that sentence right now...

This picture so doesn't capture just how big the field of weedy grass is.
We have our work cut out for us in a major way.

In total, I spent nearly 8 hours pulling weeds and ripping out some very stubborn, rose-bush-engulfing bulbs. And I have the awful farmer's tan to prove it.

Little bastard.

The floppy green plants were taking over everything—including the roses. Not sure
what they are, but they were a beast to tear out. Mr. W filled the wheelbarrow twice
with what I removed. I think I need to buy a machete.

So much better without random 3-foot tall grasses popping up between the flowers.

Last weekend, I lucked out and had Mr. W in town to help me. He's pretty badass with the weedwacker. And he handled all the wheelbarrow runs while I showered and got ready to go wine-tasting. There is nothing better than finishing up a hard day of work in the yard with a few stops at the local tasting rooms.

I think those might have been decent plants at one time. But once they started
looking like deconstructed straw hats on steroids, we knew they needed to come out.

So the yard is in better shape. With the exception of the potential continuation of the fox situation... It all started at the beginning of March when my brother and his family stayed at the house. They were sound asleep when—somewhere from the deep recesses of the backyard—they heard a series of bloodcurdling screams. Naturally, my brother thought that someone had been brutally murdered in the structure my nieces call "the killin' shed," and that their ghost was haunting the yard.

This is my only picture of the killin' shed—from before we moved in. I promise
the yard is cleaner than it appears in this Sanford and Son shot.

A little research the next morning revealed that it was actually foxes calling each other because it was mating season. Take a listen to what it sounds like. You'll be scarred for life. 


I was fortunate enough to hear the screaming foxes myself at 2:45 a.m. one morning. What a treat. Thank goodness I'd been warned about them so I didn't go into a panic-induced seizure over the sound. 

I'm hoping the new azaleas and lavender we planted will have some sort of fox-repelling qualities. Or at least detract from the overnight-growing weeds...


17 comments:

  1. Weeds or not, I can't wait to see your place one day. It looks beautiful!

    The screaming foxes? I could only listen to about 25 seconds of that. It freaked me out and my dogs went nuts! Yikes.

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    1. I bet they have screaming foxes in Colorado, too! When are you coming to visit? ;)

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  2. Screaming foxes, whoa. I'd never heard that before! The "killin' shed" cracked me up (because no one was murdered in there but it does look like a good a place as any for such a thing to happen- frightening!). I need to get out and weed our yard. My husband is not into it, sigh.

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    1. There was an axe in the killin' shed when we bought the house. Maybe that's what I need to start using on the weeds...

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  3. They sound frightening oh my!hahaha

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    1. Hopefully you'll be able to hear them in person during a future visit!

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  4. One day it'll be all clean and wonderful and full of grapes and a garden.

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    1. Clean and wonderful and free of 859 black plastic "cultivation" pots?

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  5. It's going to be awesome! Eventually you'll get to the place where you're just maintaining. I'm imagining winter doesn't tear it up too badly in cali? Or maybe I'm wrong. But the pictures look great :)

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    1. I cannot wait to get to the maintenance phase! Winter isn't awful, although most of the flowers do turn into sad little bald bushes.

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  6. I love following your journey of making this house into your home. And I can't help but think your neighbors are equally pleased with all you've done!

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    1. Thank you! :) I think the neighbors enjoy it some of the time - but not so much when we haven't been up to visit and some of the weeds have grown waist-high!

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  7. Looks great! I love the sreaming foxes, but only because I didn't have to hear it in real life! The video was enough for me!! :)

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    1. Even hearing it in real life was kind of entertaining. Although I don't think my brother and the nieces thought so when they didn't know what it was!

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  8. Have the foxes stopped screaming Clarice?

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  9. Ah, nature. Growing unwanted plants in our carefully planned landscapes. Keeping us up at night with wildlife doing it's wildlife-y thing.

    Stupid Nature. ;)

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Well, whatdya think?