I shot the messenger

Well, I didn't exactly SHOOT the messenger.  (Jeremy would like to take a pellet gun to the birds in the mornings, but there is a $5,000 fine for shooting birds in town.)  I did, however, target the wrong culprit.  Have you ever done that before?  After further inspection of the garden yesterday, I found similar bite marks my cabbage and my beets that I had found on the chard and the spinach. Hmmmm....those plants are not close to the raised bed that was getting chomped on.  Hmmmm.....

I did what any sane newbie-farm-girl would do and call my new friend Amy, pest expert extraordinaire!  Seems she had the same problem with her swiss chard last year and had to use diatomaeous earth on the pill bugs that were eating everything in her garden and her greenhouse.  After the kids went to bed I water the garden well (rain and dew just do not provide enough water for plants in the typical Montana garden) and then my dear husband donned on face mask and gloves and spread the DE around the plants.  (The link above gives a fabulous explanation of what DE is, how it works, and how to use it.  For those unfamiliar, it is an organic pest control measure that is non-toxic to humans if ingested, but harmful to lungs if inhaled.)  It should take a day or two to see results and the DE makes the bugs explode from the inside out.  Is it evil to think the buggers deserve it for chompin' on my chard?

The birds weren't the only messenger who got it yesterday.  Although more self-controlled than usual, I also shot at the messenger that told me we need to pay almost $5,000 for a new boiler in the house we are trying to sell.  It is amazing how emotions can overcome reason and how the messenger can get the force of the emotions when bad news is shared.  Just like the birds were showing me that I had a bug problem (by visiting the pea patch and eating the buggers when they came out of their holes for their evening snack of pea leaves), my dear husband was just letting me know of the problem we were facing together.  We have a choice in those moments, don't we?  Fear or faith.  Falling apart, or looking to our Source of strength and wisdom.  I would like to think that in my almost 32 year I would be able to hear bad news and remain unshaken.  I'm still working on it.  The only way to get better in my responses is to keep having bad news come my way (not something I'm asking for!)  But maybe when bad news DOES come, I'll think of the birds and try not to shoot the messenger :)