i cayenne trick those squirrels

Over the past three days I've lost four tomatoes to some pesky little squirrels. In February, I attended the Rooting DC Conference where I learned about companion planting, composting, container gardening and other gardening goodies. The speaker for the container garden workshop was Liz Falk, founder of Common Good City Farm, D.C.'s largest urban garden/farm project. One thing she discussed was natural pesticides. She recommended using a concoction of water and cayenne pepper in order to ward off pests. After the first two tomatoes were destroyed, I decided to try her cayenne method. When I arrived home from work today, I found that two of my tomatoes had been snacked on, but from the looks of it, the cayenne spray worked. There were only a couple of surface bites. It looked like the squirrel tried to bite in several different places hoping the taste would not be there, but was unsuccessful. Turns out pepper spray works on humans and animals.

and so it begins

It's official, Al Franken has won the Minnesota seat, giving the Democrats 60 seats in Senate. Norm Coleman conceded yesterday afternoon after the Minnesota Supreme Court stated that Franken had won by 206 votes. This, hopefully, means good things for the passage of climate legislation in the Senate. In case you missed it, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) passed in the House Friday afternoon and is tentatively scheduled for a Senate vote in the fall. The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW), Foreign Relations, and Energy and Natural Resources committees have been working hard this session and I look forward to their guidance to the other members. Things that you can do: learn about the bill, sign the petition, and call your Senators telling them that you want them to vote in support of ACES.