Woodsorrel

03/10/2026

Eight inches of silent nocturnal pest control has been circling your neighborhood every night looking for a cavity to move into.

The Eastern Screech Owl hunts mice, voles, moths, beetles, crickets, and cockroaches — every night, year-round, in any weather. She hunts by sound with asymmetric ears that triangulate prey in total darkness. She catches mice under snow, in leaf litter, and inside open garages.

She can't find a place to nest. The old dead trees have been removed. The fence posts are capped. The eave gaps are sealed.

One box fixes it.

🦉 The build:

- Untreated cedar or pine planks, three-quarter inch thick. No stain, no paint, no pressure-treated wood — the chemicals leach and owls press their bodies against the interior walls
- Interior floor eight by eight inches, chamber fourteen to sixteen inches tall
- Entrance hole exactly three inches — this admits screech owls and excludes starlings. Every quarter-inch matters
- A small wooden baffle inside, four inches below the entrance hole — this prevents raccoon arms from reaching eggs on the floor
- Four small drainage holes in the floor corners. Two inches of dry pine or aspen wood shavings on the floor — she doesn't build a nest, she lays eggs directly on whatever's there
- Hinged side panel for annual cleanout in late September

🦉 The placement:

- Eight to twelve feet up on a tree trunk or standalone pole
- Entrance facing east or south — morning sun warms the box, storms come from the west
- Clear flight path with no branches within three feet of the entrance
- Partial afternoon shade — full sun overheats the box in summer
- At least fifty feet from bird feeders — she'll hunt feeder birds if they're close
- Mount a metal cone baffle below the box on the pole to block raccoons and snakes from climbing

🦉 What to expect:

- Mount before April — she's scouting cavity sites right now in March
- If she doesn't move in the first year, leave the box. Occupancy rates jump in the second season once the box looks established
- When she's not nesting, the box attracts secondary tenants — flying squirrels in winter, great crested flycatchers in summer
- If a starling claims the box first, remove the starling nest material weekly — European Starlings are invasive and not protected

Forty-five minutes. Fifteen dollars in lumber. The owl is already in your neighborhood — she just needs an address 🌿

03/09/2026

Wild edible and medicinal plant ID walk! -

Join me on this mini-adventure, discovering the hidden treasures flourishing in my cottage garden and the neighboring field just across the street!

03/09/2026

03/03/2026

02/27/2026

I’ve looked at this stretch of seaside for many decades and I’m ALWAYS taken by its deep beauty. ❤️

02/26/2026

A few spaces left! 💚🌿🌼

02/26/2026

More closely related to shrimp and lobsters than insects, pillbugs feed on decaying matter and store heavy metals as inert mineral deposits in their bodies.

Scientists use them to gauge soil pollution. Quiet cleaners of the ground beneath you.

02/25/2026

Right now, in garages and garden sheds across North America, opossums are raising the smallest babies you've ever seen.

Virginia opossums breed from late January through March. After just 12-13 days of pregnancy — the shortest gestation of any North American mammal — females give birth to up to 13 joeys, each the size of a honeybee. Blind, hairless, and smaller than a dime, they crawl into the mother's pouch and latch on for the next two months.

That slow, hissing opossum waddling through your yard at night is almost certainly a female with a pouch full of developing babies. She's not aggressive — she's terrified. The famous "playing dead" response is an involuntary stress reaction she can't control. She passes out from fear.

This is the season when homeowners make the call to animal control. They see an opossum in the garage and assume disease, danger, mess. A relocation in February separates a mother from pouch-bound joeys too small to survive alone. They die within hours.

What most people don't realize: a single opossum eats up to 5,000 ticks per season. They're nearly immune to rabies — their body temperature is too low for the virus to survive. They eat venomous snakes, dead animals, and overripe fruit that would otherwise attract rats.

The animal you find disgusting is cleaning your yard every night while carrying babies smaller than your thumbnail.

Leave her alone. She'll move on in spring.

02/23/2026

Herbal Ways for Women 2026! A few spaces left-

Herbal Ways For Women  A Hands-On Learning Series  with Suzanne Elliott, Master Herbalist  March - October 2026 (one Sunday a month) Journey into the fascinating world of herbs and the way of the herbalist! On your adventure meet many plant allies, hear their stories, and gather valuable knowledg...