Vintage Home and Farm

What is with the gardener snakes this year? We've seen them all over our property; some are pretty large. There is a mama gardener snake living in our flowerbeds. We first spotted her in the early spring and were startled when we saw her then (and every time since), as she is at least 4 feet long. She is the largest gardener snake I've ever seen! She's pretty thick in girth as well. Maybe a dozen other smaller snakes (probably her babies) are hanging around, too. Well, the snakes are not just plentiful here on our property. We were walking this evening and encountered the strangest thing on the road. Just up ahead of us, we saw what looked like a snake slithering across the road, and its head appeared to be bouncing as it went! As we walked closer, we realized the strange sight was a toad trying to escape from a snake. The snake had ahold of the toad's back foot, biting down hard to hang onto it as it hopped along. I broke a long stem from a hedge and whacked at the sna

This has been one of our most challenging years when it comes to caring for our ducks, bees, and the garden on our little farm. First, Barney, the beloved community barn cat, passed away, and since then, the critters he used to keep in check have taken over the garden and eaten everything in sight. Those critters are voles, a destructive rodent, and we have watched as they've eaten all of our corn and green bean plants before they even had a chance to bear fruit. They also knocked over multiple fava bean plants, snipped the pea plants at their base so the whole plant died, and ate the tops off the onions. I had no idea rodents ate onion greens, but they sure did! They ate the potato plants (the green part that appears above ground), so there I was a week ago, digging up the potatoes growing in the ground to see if any were left. It was hard to find them without a plant above ground to mark the way. Blessedly, we do have many nice potatoes to enjoy. Currently, they're wreaking h