This ought to teach him/them...

We've had some problems with animals venturing into our garden and using it as their nightly buffet. The previous owners of our house had warned us that there was a groundhog living under the chicken coop that loved to dine on their garden. They solved the problem by putting an electric fence around the garden. We didn't want to go to drastic measures (especially with little kids around) until we could see ourselves how bad the problem was. Well, this groundhog proceeded to eat all my broccoli, cauliflower, and kale plants in one night! I'm sure he had some 'gastro' issues the next day but it serves him right. I planted more beans in their place and then urged Colin to get that electric fence up as soon as possible. There's nothing more discouraging than planting a full garden and then letting all the four legged creatures dine on it.
So, this past Friday Colin got our electric fence up. He then proceeded to test it's effectiveness. Upon giving it a good grab, it barely did anything at all. "That's kind of useless," he remarked. He then had me try it and I had the same experience, barely a shock. Naomi had been helping Colin all along so he had her give it a try. She gave it one touch and then fell forward crying loudly and saying it really hurt. We thought she was just being a wimp and overreacting. It turns out the poor girl touched it while she was on her knees. The shock went through her knees as opposed to our rubber soled shoes. Colin then proceeded to test the wire again, this time with his socks and shoes off. Yup, he got a good shock that time :) He felt so bad for Naomi that he immediately went off looking for a treat to give his big helper. So, that's the latest in our garden saga. No more animals should be perusing our garden now for their midnight snack. And, for that matter the kids either :)



































The good helper.




















The electric fence is hooked up to the hydro in the shed.