Peter has a friend!

Last night we were enjoying a late dinner on our back deck, watching the sun set over the Cascade mountains. (Yes, we had BBQ - riblets and chicken cooked on the Traeger pellet grill) Lots of critters are moving about at this time of the evening. But what we saw last night was a big shock - we saw two Peter cottontails! They put on quite a show for us - we never knew that the little fellows could fly! They were running and leaping - most likely they were courting. So now the one little Peter cottontail that we have enjoyed for so many years as our only Peter cottontail seems to have a new friend. And that most likely will lead to gardening issues... It can be cute when you see one little Peter munching on something but not so when you end up with an entire herd of them! We went through a similar issue last summer with chipmunks. One was cute, two were fun but when they made it into the walls of our house and had babies, five were too many and we had to live trap them and relocate the entire family. All but two - one drowned in our pond and another was never found. Most likely the cause of no power to the downdraft fan in the kitchen - something we need to get working again. Tramp 1 has been under the house several times looking for the problem to no avail.

So now we know that we will most certainly need to put good rabbit fencing over the new raised beds Tramp 1 has built in our garden area makeover this month. We used a plastic fencing last year and Petey chewed through it to get at tasty morsels - cute then, not now! Our garden area is much larger this year and we are pretty serious about having the right things to harvest, share and preserve. We had to fence for the old dog - he loved to escape! Then we had to raise the height of that fence because the deer were jumping in. Now we have to look low to keep the bunnies out. Gardening here in the high desert is certainly challenging and those of us who do it want very badly to beat Mother Nature at the game. Her sometimes chilly personality can wipe out your hard work overnight. The water in the birdbath was frozen one morning last week when I went out to pull the cover off the dog kennel greenhouse that we have the upside down tomatoes hanging in. We are working hard to come out ahead but there will surely be more issues as our gardening season goes on.

For now, we will watch and enjoy the bunny antics while preparing for the potential onslaught of little Peter cottontails.... Oh, no, they will be able to squeeze through even smaller spaces..... Any suggestions out to peacefully coexist with them?

Note - just as I was posting this, Tramp 1 has informed me that there are now three Peter cottontails in the side yard - the area where our garden is located. I guess the motto here will be "If you plant it, they will come!!!".....