Wastin’ Time: A Mancini learns to live with nature. Mostly.
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All I can remember of the infamous cat incident at the Mancinis' was it was about 6 a.m. on a Friday and I could hear dad getting ready for work. I was maybe 10 years old and upstairs in bed.
Dad, who worked at Sterling Faucet, must have been putting on his work boots when I heard him cussing in Italian (expletive deleted) about what the cat did in his work boots. Mom told him to shush because everyone would hear him, especially my brother and I.
But he started again when Uncle Tony came. Uncle Tony also worked at the plant and he and dad would trade who would drive to work. I could hear my uncle laughing and dad getting madder, both of them speaking in Italian.
Sixty years later, I can understand why dad got so mad at the cat. My problem isn't with cats. My neighbor has several cats and they like to keep an eye on the yard, probably waiting for an unsuspecting sparrow eating from the feeders, and go on the front porch where they enjoy sleeping on my chair.
Deer are another issue.
I know other people have worse problems with deer getting into their yards, eating their shrubbery and ruining the fruits of their garden labor.
I've searched the internet for solutions.
Among the suggestions was a sprinkler system activated by motion detectors. Not a bad idea. I'm too cheap to invest in one and besides, I don't water the lawn. I treat it for weeds and that's about it.
Another idea I found in the search by googling is to use milorganite. Milorganite is a fertilizer of which deer don't like the smell. Seems I've read that someplace before when I was researching how to rid a yard of fleas. A consideration with milorganite is it may contain PFAS, which is of the same chemical family as C8, a forever chemical that has been linked to human health conditions. For that reason, I'll nix milorganite.
I think this is one of those situations where you can find numerous hacks claiming to work, but I doubt they do. I'm leery of hacks that purport to make things easier. I tried a repellent. While I'm unsure of its efficacy, I am sure what it smelled like and it did keep me away from the shrubs.
What appears to be the most successful in keeping deer out of the yard, besides a costly fence higher than the beasts can leap, is to be physically in the yard. Deer avoid coming into the yard when I'm there.
Unfortunately, I can't be in the yard around the clock. Fortunately my neighbors' dogs spend more time outside than I do and they aren't shy about barking and scaring deer away. Alfie next door does a good job, so I repay him with Pup-Peroni and he is most grateful. I'm grateful, too, for Alfie who sits with me by the fence when I'm outside.
As for the deer, I have long since abandoned any attempts to keep them out. I'll watch them for a little bit and enjoy their company, but I'm not sad when they run away.
Unlike dad and the cat, I have learned to live in harmony with the deer.
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Unless you think this column wasn't enough of a waste of time, send ideas for "Wastin' Time with Jess Mancini" to Jess Mancini at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com.