From a garden to Stalag Luft III.
Speaking of trying to foil wildlife, I’ve done quite a bit of upgrading to our raised-bed garden since I put out those fig trees.
See how natural and innocent it looked back then?
Well, not long after that, something ate off one of the three measly leaves the smaller of the two trees back. And it still hasn’t been able to grow any new ones since then.
My wife had donated that space, since she didn’t feel up to the struggles of gardening this year — too many hassles, too little produce. So I decided I would do the rest of the boxes — except one we’ve left fallow for the year. Of course, I’m planting okra. That’s my area of agricultural specialization.
But while I was planting the okra, I was thinking about that missing figleaf. I was also thinking about how the deer (who dwell in those woods you see beyond the garden) had feasted on my okra leaves the last couple of years (not the pods, just the leaves — which of course kills the plant). Last year, we put up fences with those green poles and light plastic netting around a couple of the boxes.
This year, with my heavy investment in okra — and the danger to the figs — I went much bigger — I used heavier netting, and I went all around the whole shebang, except for the fallow box. I left one small, easily-blocked gate where I can get in and have access to all the boxes.
I was very proud when I finished putting it up two days ago, just before the rain came.
But then, the next time I walked out, intending to admire it, instead of a garden I saw … one of these. Yeah, a POW camp. A Stalag.
But it isn’t! This isn’t to keep people in! It’s to keep critters out!
It’s morally very different, I think. Oh, and if you think I’m trying to starve the deer like The Squirrel, note all those leaves right behind the garden. Millions of them. Also, I planted some okra in large tubs outside the wire. It’s my “rabbit garden,” only for deer.
And for The Squirrel, I may put out a dish of sunflower seeds. I think that’s what he’s after in the bird feeder…
Don’t tell me I’m going to have to build guard towers now…
I think my headline translates to “Welcome to the Stalag Garden.” But maybe not. I’ve been “mistaken” for a German, but I’m not one.
Maybe Ken can help me in case I got it wrong…
So who’s your “Cooler King”? 🙂
There is, of course, only one:
Of course, there was NEVER one, historically. There were some Americans involved with the plan early on, but were separated from the Brits by the time of the escape. The moviemakers just made up some Americans in order to sell tickets — Hilts, Hendley and… that other guy.
So, since he’s fictional, we can say he’s my Cooler King as well.
I suppose, despite my protestations that I’m not German (although Ancestry says I am, to some extent), the Commandant. The one in Hilts’ world was a pretty good one. Which I suppose is in a way related to why the Gestapo took him off (presumably to be shot) at the end. Remember how he only reluctantly gave a “Sieg Heil” at the beginning?
Of course, he enforced basic military discipline. But I will, too. If anyone wises off to me the way this guy did, I’d throw him into the cooler right away. That’s what a cooler’s for:
OK, I said this is not to “keep people in.” However…
Right after I wrote that over the weekend, and before the blog crashed. I discovered what looks to be the start of a huge, complex escape project. And as Kommandant, I must take this seriously.
I found three tunnels that had been started in the okra compound. In keeping with tradition, I have named them “Tom,” “Dick,” and “Harry.”
If you’ll recall, in the original, real-life escape (and also in the film), “Tom” was discovered by the ferrets, causing Hilts’ coolermate Ives to run suicidally into the forbidden zone, and get machine-gunned.
I forget exactly what happened next in the movie, except that Big X ordered that all efforts be invested in one of the other tunnels. In real life, that was “Harry.” They shut down “Dick” and used it for storage and a place for covertly manufacturing things they needed for the escape work…
My wife says it’s probably birds digging for worms. Which is probably right, but less exciting…