Munch, munch, crunch!

Something decimated our garden last night. Our dog was outside (not intentionally - sorry buddy) and he went crazy barking and then chased something off into the woods.

Eventually we got him back into the house and went to bed. I forgot about the whole incident -- until this afternoon when I went out to check the garden while the kids were napping/resting.

The first thing I noticed was the sunflowers -- the knee-high sunflowers that were the pride of my garden -- were now just stems. I had actually been thinking earlier in the day that even though the rest of the garden looks pretty bad (weeds are out of control), at least I have strong, healthy sunflowers growing in my garden for the first time ever. Or I, should say, did have strong, healthy sunflowers growing in my garden.

The next thing I noticed was the peas, which are trellised into a bean pole Tepee, broken and lying on the ground.

And then I saw the big, bushy wax bean plants were now also just straggly chewed off stems.

Lily and I went out to the garden together later in the afternoon. I mustered all the optimism I could find as we watered the damaged plants and sprinkled them with Rescue Remedy, which we've found the plants (and chickens), seem to respond really well to.

I'm so frustrated and disappointed and sad that I will (once again) not have big, beautiful sunflowers growing in my yard (last year it was the squirrels that took them out as seedlings).

But mostly I am very grateful that I am not dependant on the garden harvest for my livelihood or for my family's sole food supply and that this is just a minor aggravation and not a major catastrophe.