I am smarter than a Chipmunk. I hope.

One week ago, on Wednesday, we put up a fence.  It's the deer guard fence I posted about before, and it's really nice because it's practically invisible from afar.  It also has really small holes to prevent rabbits and chipmunks to squeeze through into the garden.  I thought I had won.  I replanted beans, peas, and more peppers Sunday.  It was so hot!  They were growing so good! 
Monday I went out at lunch.  One Box in the garden was gone.  The beans, the peas, the peppers, the broccoli, all completely destroyed. I walked around the exterior and interior of the fence.  I couldn't find where they burrowed in.  They couldn't have fit through the holes!  Did they fly?   What could have done this?  I cried. Then I decided to fight back. 

A co-worker suggested slugs ate my garden.  They can destroy plants over night, he said.  I googled slugs.  Their biggest predator?  Chickens.  Guess what, I don't have any chickens.  And all the pictures online of slug damage looked nothing like my poor plants munched right to the dirt.  When I came home that night there were two little chippies perched on the garden bed.  I ran toward them, shoe in hand, determined to bash in their nutty brains.  They ran into the woods, out of the garden, through a hole they had chewed in the corner of the fence. I saw they had dug up my freshly planted seeds, they had taken bites out of all of them.  Like Ramona, they decided the first bite was always best and threw the rest away.  I cried some more. 

Today I went to the hardware store.  I don't even try to find anything in our local hardware store.  The men stand around and if a worker can't help you, a patron will.  I asked about Chipmunks and how to get rid of them.  They suggested rat traps, buckets filled with sunflower seeds floating on water, a 22 with a scope, traps to release them somewhere else, and all of these don't appeal to me.  I don't want to see or touch these chipmunks that have run rampant over my entire homestead.  I just want them gone.  Some poor boy took pity on me.  He gave me pellets for killing moles and gophers, you shake them down the hole and they eat them.  It might take days before you notice they're gone he said.  I grabbed that and a package of mice killer that looked like corn.  Tonight I walked around the house, sprinkling pellets in all the holes I could find.  Under the steps, next to the flowers, under the back porch, and finally around the hole in the fence.  I left the mice poison for next week if this doesn't work.  I'm really hoping it does.  It's not just the garden it's affecting, it's the foundation of the house they're burrowing under and my sanity with the constant chirping and stealing of bird food. 

In other news, I've harvested spinach and broccoli, and most beds are growing great.  I'm having much better luck with the lettuce and spinach than last year, and even sunflowers and squashes are growing great.  We just won't be having beans or peppers this year.  BUMMER.