Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 2017)
10 Wednesday, August 23, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Tales from a Sisters Naturalist by Jim Anderson And you think you’ve got trouble! We all know that in Sisters Country it’s tough to grow veggies outdoors. Corn is almost impossible, fruit trees often bloom beau- tifully in spring, only to be frozen out the next day (like my crab apples!) To circumvent this com- mon problem, my son Caleb built me and Sue a very beautiful greenhouse out of sandbags, lumber and green- house Solexx facing the sun. For several years we’ve enjoyed tomatoes, squash, peppers and cucumbers with only the pestiferous aphids to battle. By using clever placement of blankets and space heater we can keep the greenhouse going into December and January most winters. Oh, those little mouth- watering sungold tomatoes, the huge deee-licious beef- steaks and about six other good to perfect tomatoes Sue raised. How I wished we could keep them going through winter, but when the temperature went to zero we’d throw in the towel and Custom Design & Repairs 549-9388 call it quits. It was a very sad day when we cut off the heat and water and let our tomato plants turn to ice… I saved as many of the young sun- gold tomatoes as possible to ripen, and when they were gone I’d really get the win- ter blues. That’s the way it went, year after year — until this year. Then something moved into our greenhouse that just loved to commit mayhem! It didn’t eat hardly anything — it just went on night after night destroying tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and our milkweed starts. Every morning we’d go out and find another tomato plant chewed off at the surface, lovely, green and healthy pepper plant leaves lying about, and felled milkweed. Whatever it was it didn’t touch all the quaking aspen invading the greenhouse, oh, no it just killed my sungold tomatoes, left and right. I’m usually at peace with Mother Nature (all except her big, slobbering mule deer that hop over Sue’s seven-foot fence to eat her beautiful strawberry plants) and now this “creature” who has moved into our greenhouse, bent on destroying every- thing Sue is trying to grow. It wasn’t mice. I tried my small Victor snap traps on them and came up with nothing. (Using peanut but- ter as bait, they never fail.) It wasn’t gophers, we looked for their sign in all the raised beds and not a piece of soil was moved there. I suspected the California ground squirrel who has taken up residence under one of my shops, but they’re diurnal, and the critter who was doing in our tomato plats was nocturnal. By the size and shape of the drop- ping left behind I suspected a packrat, so I went to work again with two of those big Victor rat traps. Now, Good People, I DO NOT like to kill anything. But I do snap-trap mice. The Hopi People have a say- ing that I firmly agree with: “Never allow mice to live in your house, they will steal the breath of your children.” That’s one of the symptoms of the hantavirus, and no one wants that in their house! Besides, the dead mice are going to a good cause. Marley, a great horned edu- cational raptor that rehabber Gary Landers watches over, loves fresh-caught house mice. The various chipmunks around my place are all harmless and have never moved into the greenhouse, so they’re left alone. The big California ground squirrel and bushy-tailed packrats have to move on because they — like our Belding ground squirrels and golden mantels — are known carri- ers of the bubonic plague. I feared we had a packrat coming into the greenhouse, but not knowing much about their preferences for food, I wasn’t too sure. However, Sue has a lot of money and TLC wrapped up in our greenhouse plants, and the infernal killing was going on WE’RE NOT JUST TIRES! We do... Alignments, Brakes, Shocks, Struts, CV Joints, U Joints, Axle Shafts, Drivelines, & Tire Siping ...not only cars, but trailers, too! DAVIS TIRE Fancy Colored Sapphires, 18k 541-549-1026 Serving Sisters Since 1962 every night. Soooo…. I put out the big Victor rat traps and started with pea- nut butter bait. That didn’t work, so I went to baiting with organic wheat chips, then went to good old Lay’s potato chips and finally to cheeses of all kinds. Nothing I set out was the right bait — until I used boiled left-over brussels sprouts garnished with butter. That was it! The beast swiped it from one of my live traps. “Ah, ha,” says I and moved the smaller live trap into the cupboard and placed a deli- cious butter-soaked (just the way I like ’em) brussels sprout on top of the treadle. “Jim!” Sue announced PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON Double trouble on four legs, the bushy-tailed packrat. “Peter made my day: No exaggeration! The carpets looked new when he left. He was thoughtful, focused and did an excellent job.” — Kelly Sheets 541-549-6471| 35 Years Experience | Peter Herman, Owner VOLLEYBALL 188 W. Sisters Park Dr. In Sisters Industrial Park across from SnoCap Mini Storage Thrift Store YOUTH & MIDDLE SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL ReStore Registrations being taken for 3rd- through 8th-grade volleyball. Cost: $120 Season: September-October Register with SPRD 50% OFF Natural Treatments & Counseling to Support Wellness Kim Hapke, Naturopath 971-409-0908 Sisters Art Works Building A lab of lov or e s Siste e r d! n Ow SISTERS HABITAT FOR HUMANITY MEANINGFUL MEDICINE the next morning. “We got him!” When she brought in the live trap, there was that beautiful whisker-twitching, bushy-tailed packrat with tomato juice on his breath. Yes, it’s still alive as far as I know. I took it far from any structures to one of BLM’s wildlife corridors and turned it loose. If it can find its way back it’ll take a long time, and I’ll know who it is with that dab of red marker ink I put on his tail. So, if you suddenly have a packrat turn up with a dab of red on its tail, boil up a few brussels sprouts, lay some butter on ‘em and call me, I’ll loan you my live-trap. It’s back-to- school time! ALL GARDEN Get your Duck INSIDE & OUTSIDE and Beaver items today. owers Do your g fl gie beds or fall ve some TLC? need 541-549-1740 541-549-1621 541 549 1 141 W. Main Ave., Sisters 254 W. Adams Ave., Sisters Hours: Mon.-Sat., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, 12-4 p.m. Donations accepted Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Hours: Mon.-Sat., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Sundays Donations accepted Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. View activities & classes, and register online! www.SistersRecreation.com 1750 W. Mckinney Butte Rd. | 541-549-2091 SNO CAP MINI STORAGE Sisters Industrial Park 157 Sisters Park Dr. • 541-549-3575 www.SistersStorage.com • State-of-the-art Security Technology • Sizes from 5x5 to 12x40 • Individual Gate Codes • Long-term Discounts • On-site Manager