Hi Nic
Wondering how your hog is doing, glad it’s one who doesn’t mind boxes as cats eat so much of their precious food. The feeder I bought is great to use, the doorways each end are off set to the opening at the end of their hallways to the central area, the hallways have a floor which is easy to clean but the centre is open to the ground – I’ve cut a piece of vinyl flooring to fit so can remove daily to wash it. It’s positioned so it’s difficult for a cat to gain access either end & so far has been successful. Two dishes of Tesco kitten food get emptied in it most nights & one in the front garden feeder.
Both front & back garden feeders are busy every night & the house someone spent winter in is in use by somebody, maybe the patter of tiny feet this year, what a scary responsibility! There were 3 hogs out the front a few weeks ago, some of the ones I’ve seen in the gardens are huge.
Next door have removed the lawn & flower borders & replaced the grass with large slate pieces with a brick edging & the borders are shingle, no soil in sight. A couple of flowering cherry trees & a few plants miserably sitting in the shingle & that’s it. Bird baths & a feeder are the only nod to nature, the gaps under the fence the hogs used to go through have been blocked off with bricks & shingle – which is falling into my garden, it’ll help lighten the clay soil if I dig it in! Next door the other side haven’t cut the grass yet this year, it’s a glorious field of dandelions, longish grass & dog poo (yuck). Hoping they won’t get the strimmer out & cut the grass afterwards, only usually do it once a year & hack the few shrubs down to stumps but it’s the strimmer that bothers me especially as one way the hogs access my garden is via theirs as the gate blew off years ago. Obviously it’s a haven for them anyway with the long grass. The house behind me has a gravel/slabbed garden & last year they used a spray weed killer strapped to their backs to keep ‘weeds’ out of it all, few plants in a raised bed in the corner.
I made a squirrel feeder & that has customers most days, the sparrows are busily nesting in the front of my roof this year as well as the back, the feeders are doing good business, trying to make up for my neighbours’ shortcomings if I can.
Getting noisier as lockdown is lifted a little, preferred it as it was. Hope you’re well & enjoying the Spring.
