VANDALISM...

Order was short lived with the newly mulched front garden bed. With all the rain and hungry birds a lot of seed was dropped by those messy eaters. Translated: a lot of sunflowers are sprouting around the feeder. Actually, the first one bloomed today but I'm going to allow a little more chaotic natural self seeding. 

Protection.  Protection for the birdfeeder.  Why would it need protection? Vandalism.

Well, after feeling good about almost completing two sides of painting its post and ready to move onto side number 3, I was going out to check out how well the paint had dried but something silver caught my eye from that painted flue. It 'had' been completed covered... 

It wasn't the paint peeling it was as if someone had keyed a car. Who / what did this damage?


It could be fixed but it wasn't until checking the post's backside that I understood what had happened...

One of the barn cats had decided to scale the post to pick off one of the birds feeding and the not quite dry paint peeled downward with her claws's efforts. 





                           
 Who us? Yes, one of you is guilty.

THE CULPRITS: ALIAS PARTNERS IN CRIME

Once finished the plan was to apply 3 coats of polyurethane to protect the post from the elements and also be slippery enough to not provide any traction for uninvited guests. 

The addition of butterflies, bees and some ants still needed to be added before that finish. Now it's pretty obvious where those additions need to go.

Unfortunately I also got ahead of myself by starting another side before finishing the first. A tough lesson to learn... 
 A new sign might help...

The water bottle is filled and ready to ward off the barn cats anytime they get near the feeder and there's some animal repellant that may also ward them off.  Perhaps those growing sunflowers can also help by serving as a bit of a deterrent ...  I'll just have to deal with yellow flowers in the front garden.