You Know, ...Mr. McGregor Has a Compelling Point....

From Google Images.

As a child, I loved Beatrice Potter's Peter Rabbit stories. Loved Little Peter, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Mrs. Rabbit. I cheered for Peter to outsmart Mr. McGregor and his cat and get out of his garden. When I was expecting my son, I made sure I saved my small green book for him that I loved as a child and decorated his room with a Peter Rabbit plaque.

Lately however, I'm starting to see things from Mr. McGregor's point of view....




When I was a new homeowner, I had lovely visions of creating a house with lots of gardens. My first year here, I placed a garden behind my garage as it was the best spot for it as the sunniest part of my yard was also my leechfield as obviously not desirable. So I planted and tended, weeded as much as I could and expected to have a bounty of produce for all my work.

Instead I discovered my nemesis, an evil woodchuck.


This little brown monster wouldn't be content with just eating one plant or even two. No... he had to take a bite out of EVERY LAST PLANT OUT THERE! He even ate the leaves off my pumpkin plants! Pumpkin plants! Do you know how scratchy and painful that should have been. I swear  he did it just to be mean. There was completely no other reason.



What I could salvage.

As I had no intention of repeating that experiment, I moved my garden closer to the house. For the last sixteen years everything was fine until this week. That little monster has moved his hovel right under my diningroom window. Yesterday I saw his squatty, snotty self out in my newly weeded garden. This morning I awoke to my bean plants massacred all over my garden, he just plowed through it! I rescued what I could but I hope at a minimum it gave him indigestion.



 





Now I am an animal lover. I've taken in several cats, had fish and grew up on a farm with cows, horses, dogs, cats and chickens. But I now thoroughly understand why Mr. McGregor would chase young Peter with a hoe. Here the guy is just trying to raise food for his family only to have some little vandal sneak into his garden and run away with is family's food he's tried so hard to raise. I totally understand Bill Murray's character in Caddyshack trying endless to destroy his little pest. I though about trapping that little brown vandal but he's smart, strong and terribly fast so I'm not sure he'd fall for that. Any suggestions would be helpful. If you have any ideas please post them in the comments,

                                             Mr. McGregor totally had a point!