permaculture

[EFMonaco <EFMonaco@compuserve.com>]

Toby wrote:
>Re talking to the bear: The only time I've had luck talking to a marauding
animal is when I've offered it something equally good in return. Just
asking it to go away has never worked; they, quite reasonably, seem to want
something in return for leaving their home territory and good food. Work
out a deal.<

I've talked to the mice people about invading the space I was using in a
cabin in the woods.  They ate a stash of ginkgo nuts I got from a friend
Caroline Mahon (Caroline are you out there?).  One morning I found a crust
of pizza my son had left out overnight shoved down the hole in the center
of the burner.  Actually it was pulled down from below.  I lifted the stove
top and found the shells to the missing ginkgo nuts.  It was getting out of
hand so I requested again that they leave my space alone, which they
didn't, so I reiterated that if they persisted I would have to kill them.  
Their response was essentially that they are mice, and they prefer my space
to other spaces where the weather is more at hand and the foxes can get
them easier.  It is important for them to reproduce and find food as these
are the laws of nature; that I wasn't as good a hunter as the foxes, so
they would take their chances with me.  I think this is true of the bears
too.  Nature has its way of reproducing to the maximum of conditions
available, until something changes.  There's always a struggle at the edge.

Gene Monaco
Knoxville, TN