Nature at work

We have had nature hard at work in our yard -for the good and bad. I'll start with the bad so in doing so- saving nature at her pinnacle for the end.
Meet the Japanese Beatles. They are a major nuisance in our area. The only way to safely TRY and get rid of them is through these traps. They are gross and stink bad.Here is one of our very attractive traps-you would like it even more if you got to smell it

You might wonder-"Cathy, why do you care so much to try and get rid of them" Well heres the reason-look at the destruction to these leaves. They eat EVERYTHING!

Look at the lack of leaves on this flower.

Onto the next destroyer in our yard. This one is much more tricky and harder to get rid of-or at least to stay away. This is a picture of my eaten tomato plant. The culprit is the deer.

Look at the fence it's caved in where the deer leaned against it to eat a midnight snack of ALL my almost ripe tomatoes-we used human hair hung in nylons last year and it kept them away-this year they don't seem to mind the smell of the hair at all. I used to love watching all the deer come into our yard and visit us, until they ate my Bonfire Patio Peach tree, Ate my garden, gave Tucker(our dog)fleas and caused Maddie to have extreme temper tantrums(oh wait, thats just Maddie). If anyone has any natural suggestions on how to get them to stay away let me know. We wont use chemicals-that defeats the purpose of our garden.

Now for the good that nature has put in our yard. A mother rabbit has made a nest of 5 baby bunnies under one of my daisy bushes. I discovered it about 2 weeks ago. It has been the funnest thing for us all to watch these rabbits grow and change. Also a point of much anxiety due to constant worry about all the predators and wondering if the mother was coming back to feed them. They are ready to be on their own and leave the nest when that little white stripe on their head is gone. It's almost gone now.

Thats a picture of Liv looking at the nest-look how close she made the nest to my front door! Amazing, I sometimes think animals know who is going to be kind to them and who is not. For example, our neighbors across the street told us they would have gotten rid of the nest if it was in their yard. And who's yard did she choose? Growing up we had a cat just appear at our back door whining-it was a cold winter night and my mom let her in. We discovered shortly after she was very pregnant. She is still my parents cat. She choice our house out of all the homes in that neighborhood. Could my theory be true or did she maybe try every other home and no one else let her in? Anyways I feel privileged that this mother rabbit built her nest for us to help watch over her young-and I believe she knew what she was doing. I've caught her often, watching us in the front yard and she lets us get so close to her. I have not touched her but I almost think she would let us. Mother rabbits do not stay over the nest, but they watch on from a distance-it's safer for the babies since the babies have no scent and the mothers do. We've learned they are very good mothers, even though it appears they are not since they're not seen much around their young.

But here is a picture of Nature at her Finest-Sophie
Look at how big she's getting. In a strange, and some people might say an insane way, I feel a connection to this mother rabbit. We are both raising little ones and want to protect them desperately. I pray for those rabbits every day along with my own babies-am I crazy?-maybe hormonal.

She's smothering her favorite toy in this one-it's a stuffed lion that plays music when you pull it, she LOVES it.