We all know the saying – when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  Sometimes it is difficult to see the sunshine when we’re waiting for the rain.   Until recently that was the case, with many “weeds” and “pests” inflicting grief in Quiet Creek’s gardens. 

We used to consider those unwanteds as liabilities, but now we welcome them as assets.  For instance, in our yard grows a choke cherry, a tree thought of as a weed in most settings.  This tree is a host for the swallowtail butterfly which lays her eggs on the leaves and whose caterpillars consume it as youngsters. 

In addition, the choke cherry is routinely the recipient for tent caterpillars.  Many home owners burn these ugly larvae from their trees, however they attract and feed Baltimore Orioles.  We love the sight and the sounds of these flashy orange visitors.  They are beautiful in color and their flute-like melodies are joyous. 

There are even more many “lemonade” plants, we now view appreciatively.  Over the years we have discovered how the multi-flora rose provides winter food and nesting spots for our feathered friends.  The quaking aspen supplies us with peppery-tasting oyster mushrooms.  The young shoots of Japanese knotweed are an alternative to asparagus and treat Lyme disease.  The early dandelion leaves provide a spring salad full of Vitamin C and the flowers feed the honeybees. 

Even animals can satisfy as a “lemony” refreshment.   We gladly give wasps and hornets their freedom to fulfill the purpose of eating aphids and houseflies.  Snakes are welcome to devour slugs, insects, and mice.  Spiders take care of sixty percent of the insect pests allowing us more fresh fruit and vegetables. 

The positive attributes of God’s creation quench our thirst as we drink His lemonade with gusto.  

A few members of the Quiet Creek crew are over six feet; some of them don’t see eye to eye.  Specifically, Rusty and intern Ryan don’t particularly care for “Bert,” although they sure do respect her. 

This affectionate name, coined by apprentice Kevin, is our resident black rat snake, Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta.  Bert and his mate Ernie, who is only five feet long, show up in the strangest places. 

They set up housekeeping in the dead sugar maple behind the honeybee hive a month ago.  There they were spotted stretched out on a limb collecting solar rays for a few days.  Following that rendezvous, they snuggled into a big black ball nestled high in a large knot hole of the same tree. 

Bert made her acting debut during theatre camp by climbing twenty feet straight up a hemlock tree while twenty-five youngsters played underneath her on the tire swing.  An adult observer was amazed and pleased that these children showed no fear of  the climbing serpent. 

Ryan admits he’ll squeal like a pig, if he is surprised by a snake; Rusty agrees.  The entire crew, with our boys at the forefront, help educate visitors on the benefits of our big black buddies and their smaller slithering allies. 

Bert and Ernie have cleaned out the chipmunks inhabiting the rock wall and a nest of starlings in our family tree.  They left their skins on the stone ledge in the basement no doubtedly taking care of any unwanted rodents. 

The garter snake, a much smaller cousin found in the worm bin, is a great insect eater as well as a consumer of slugs and worms.  Milk snakes, a bit larger than the harmless garters, are the true constrictors that help keep down the mouse and vole population in the compost piles. 

To mimic snakes, Stephen our summer student worker, hung black pipe in and around the blueberry bushes in hopes that the hungry robins will give the “snakes” a wide berth, just as Ryan and Rusty do. 

In speaking for the majority of the Quiet Creek crew, we welcome all slithering reptiles to the farm and will continue to encourage the uncomfortable with fascinating sightings.