The Impenetrable Forest

Kia Rio has her very own Impenetrable Forest!

Yup, dense thicket of trees and vegetation that is increasingly gobbling up the “grounds” of Kia Rio.

The IF does an amazingly good job of blocking the wind that comes from the west and southwest, which is where most of the wind and weather comes from. When I say most, yes that means that on the hot days that actually have a breeze, I don’t get a single bit of it.

Nope, I talk to mom, 4 miles away and she says “boy it sure is windy” or “there sure is a good breeze out” and I say, “go ahead, rub it in bitch, I don’t have single leaf moving!” She laughs. Ha ha.

I am going to attempt to breach the IF this fall to try to contain it a bit for next summer. I have not investigated techniques or approaches yet, but I need to reduce the thick bushy vegetation. I hope that I can free it up enough to allow some air movement.

The IF has at least one family of raccoons. Here is a link to some cute pictures and some sound clips: http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/raccoon.htm.

If you scroll down to the sound file “Raccoon distress call” or the “Raccoon complaint” you can hear some of the night-time noises I hear after I have thrown out fruit and vegetable scraps to them.

Now, I walk down Route 4 and throw them towards the middle of the IF, so as not to attract the raccoons towards the grounds of Kia Rio. I love raccoons. Really. They scare the bejezus out of me when I am out at night, but in general, if they are not attacking my cats, or me, I am a fan.

I don’t want to modify the IF so that it negatively impacts the biodiversity, but I do need a freakin’ breeze of some type in the dog days of summer. Hopefully, I will find a way to reduce the thicket some!

The edge of the IF has some wild blackberry bushes, and every time I go to pick I end up with 1 mosquito bite per half dozen berries.

Tashi spends his days under the cover of the IF, or on the porch lying in dad’s blue lawn chair. I like that he has made Dad’s chair his own. I cannot sit in it for the layer of cat hair, but, it sure is nice to see him in it.

Jaz occasionally ventures into the IF, but mostly spends his days leeched onto me, or sleeping somewhere in the house or on the porch.

Snuggie is still adjusting to Kia Rio. He spends a fair bit of time in the IF, some on the porch and increasing amounts of time in a cardboard box by my desk. I now spend some time luring him to the great outdoors. He’ll relax, but he is being a slow adapter. I think the smell of raccoon around the house each morning makes him, wisely, nervous.

I still have not bought a new camera, so I will get mom’s and post a picture of the KRIF. You can also get a sense of it by putting my address in google maps or google earth.