by Mrs. Cog

Late Sunday afternoon there was a knock on our door. The lady who owns and operates the local greenhouse and her husband were on our front porch. They had come to present us with the winter's snow plow bill for clearing our private road three times this winter. With a road almost ¾ of a mile long, the invoice came to a whopping total of $160.00 lol.

The couple, ages easily into their 80s, are known by everyone here on the mountain. She has beautiful flowers and perfect vegetable plants for sale each year. People come far and wide to buy her magical plants. They also own the cows and donkeys that are often grazing in the fields on the upper dirt road, with whom we stop and chat with when we are coming or going.

While we made small talk on the front porch, the lady was very complimentary of my beautiful hanging flower baskets. I had bought them from her, along with my stinky geraniums, about a month ago. I doubt she understood what a big deal it was to have her praise my green thumb since I am still in the "Oh m'gosh I didn't kill it" phase of growing plants.

As our conversation ended, Cog and I walked them out to their truck and what did we see? THERE WAS A BUNNY INSIDE THE GARDEN!

Now, for anyone who has not followed along with the epic saga of Mrs. Cog's Fortress Garden Fence, we are erecting an impervious barrier around our ¼ acre garden and fruit orchard. The problem is, the gate is not yet up. So the old falling down fence with most of this year's garden growing resides inside the monster fence with its gaping hole for an entrance.

Quickly dismissing my embarrassment over my creation being so ineffective in front of our mountain's farm royalty, I said goodbye and dashed off running towards the bunny. As he frantically bolted back and forth, temporarily trapped between the old and new fence, I correctly surmised that in his state of alarm he had nowhere to run except through the old fence and into my cabbage patch. I would not find out until later that our company and Cog were hysterical with laughter watching these antics.

I managed to make enough noise hollering and clapping to get the bunny, now past the cabbage and broccoli and crouching under the apple trees, to run past the kiwi patch and out of the old garden fence into the wide open space inside the newer barrier. He examined the entire inside perimeter and found no way out. This, by the way,  is a huge victory. The new fence does indeed seem to be bunny proof.

As I looked around for the best way to coral the bunny through the open entrance where the main gate will go, a new challenge was presented to me. Tramp, our twenty pound Maine coon cat, was entering the garden through this very portal. He immediately set his targets upon the bunny and the chase was on. There was absolutely nothing I could do.

Tramp tore through Cog's small corn field where the rows of sweet corn had just popped through the soil over the past few days not even two inches tall yet. There was a loud crash and I saw the bunny disappear, but wait! He somehow got away from the cat and was tearing back through my inner garden which Tramp had no idea how to access. Through the kiwi, under the apples, back through the cabbage patch and out the other side of the old fence, the bunny was once again where he was when I had first encountered him.

It was at this point that Cog entered the garden laughing loudly at the hoopla. The bunny, darting back and forth searching for a way out of the impervious outer fence, must have been near heart attack state at this point. I came up somewhat behind him clapping and he darted along the perimeter of the fence at an incredible speed. It was as he approached the missing gate and potential freedom that Tramp spotted him again. But adrenaline favored the rabbit and with one huge bound, he took a right turn and leaped out of the entire garden area at an altitude of almost four feet high. Even Tramp was impressed.

What a fun way to test our efforts. All that work digging trenches along the fence posts and burying bunny wire so they cannot burrow under looks like it will do its job. We are really hoping the woodland creatures will put it out on their scuttlebutt that this is not the garden they are looking for.

With the lower 4 feet of fencing in and the bunny wire attached and buried in the trenches, we only have the upper four feet of fence to mount and the gates to build and install before we are able to start dismantling the old fence inside.