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Those nests are well hidden and can be nasty! What did you use to get rid of it? I’ve run a hose into them before to drown them out.

Rocky Raccoon was back last night - dug up and scattered one of my flower pots, so I’ve got another chore besides mowing to do, today. *ROLLEYES* I’ve been really good about bringing in the bird feeders and the suet cage every night.

I’ve decided to stop feeding the Orioles, now. The junior ones are fledged and eating from the feeder, but all it’s really doing now is attracting swarms of bees and wasps to my porch where I like to sit and read, so the birdies are on their own! I’m sure there will be some complaining, but it’s High Summer - feed yourselves.

We’ve had just an AWESOME weather pattern these past few weeks; more rain again overnight, about 1/4” so I’m waiting for things to dry out before I start mowing.

Finally getting a cool spell here so the cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen. Seems I’ve missed some suckers here and there so half of my plants now have two main stems which makes that lean and lower trellis method a bit unwieldy. A month+ of maters staying green but the vertical growth has not stopped so I have a couple of vines that are over 12 foot long. Problem is with the fruit not ripening prior to now, I still have clusters of them near the bottom which is preventing me from leaning/lowering them, else I’ll have clusters of fruit laying on the ground. If those bottom clusters don’t ripen in a week, I’m chopping them off.

Barry’s Crazy Cherry were the early ripeners so I’ve been able to eat more of those than any others but now with the cool off, the others are ripening but the Barry’s seem to have stopped ripening.

Yellow Pear are the next best ripening in the heat but you never know where on the plant one or two will decide to ripen. It’s not going from the bottom/earliest fruit upwards. Been able to eat a few Chadwick Cherry and it looks like I finally get to try some Rosella Cherry this week.

Tappy’s and Brandywine red slicers are still not ripening but hopefully will start sometime soon. Ate a second shisito pepper yesterday but the peppers seem to like high 90s to 100+ temps about as well as the maters, not much. I’m starting four more shisito seeds and will do those plants in pots. Maybe they’ll like September temperatures better.

Note to self. Punch holes in peppers before frying so they don’t explode and spew hot oil on your arm.

So guess what I spotted yesterday evening down at the barn? Nothing I want to see around here, that’s for sure. It was an adult ground hog. My brother is on notice so he’ll be keeping an eye out (he shoots them, if he can catch them out in the field). I am going to buy a small watermelon & see if I can trap it - have caught 2 before with the trap.

So far, I have never had one get in the garden, although a small one made it to the redbuds & they are fairly close. It was climbing the redbuds & eating the seed pods.

They really tear things up when they dig - we have plenty of old ground hog holes around here - that’s where the foxes usually den if no ground hogs. I’ll have to warn the next place over - they have an extensive garden not that far from us.