Living the Eco-life in Bella Vista
Living the Eco-Life in Bella Vista
Copyright 2007, Harris B. McKee
I want to update Master Gardeners on how we are participating in the total Eco cycle in Bella Vista.
Readers of an earlier article describing the problems that squirrels caused by chewing holes in my drip irrigation tubing will understand that I experienced little remorse in dispatching some squirrels. My wife, Mary, was somewhat bothered by the treatment I was providing for the furry little creatures while agreeing that it didn’t make sense to give them free rein with irrigation tubing, potted plants, and even shingles on our roof.
She experienced a newfound satisfaction with our maintenance of the ecological cycle when we discovered that a fox is carrying away the squirrel carcasses. In fact, the fox has set up a schedule that would make our paper boy envious. He comes around every evening and checks the location at the corner of the yard where I make my drops. If there is nothing there, he comes up to the corner of the garage. (I left a squirrel there only one time when I was late for a meeting.) But the squirrel/fox cycle is only part of our recent Eco success.
Our latest activity in the total Eco movement was the welcoming of our newest outdoor pet. We have known for some time that we have a few mice on the premises. They’re rarely seen but a month ago I saw one disappear in the attic over our garage. We didn’t realize when we found a 4-1/2 foot Western Rat Snake on our deck that we were about to be adopted. He let us watch as he crawled across the deck to the stone wall of our house.
He began to climb the wall and quickly disappeared into the attic through an opening we didn’t know existed.
We figure that he’ll leave when he’s finished off the four legged intruders. In the meantime, we don’t have to provide either a litter box or regular meals.It’s just wonderful how the Eco cycle can work to make life in Northwest Arkansas simpler.