[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Latest news, a rodent got into my GH and was making a nest under my RO tank and lining it with pieces of Dendrobium. My cats are now spending there days in the GH. Think I may have scared him off before I sealed up a hole he may have been using. No further damage seen this morning. I'm going to put hardware cloth up between tank and GH, and the openings to the cold frame.

Tried to turn on my back up heater to drive him out if he might be hiding there, and found the thermostat was defunct. Great back up heater. I'm burning a ton of propane to keep the pilot going and couldn't get the heater to run if needed. After a lot of looking on the internet, I now recognize I would need a 750 mv power supply to cause the heater to start, and tho I have a power supply in the basement, in a power outage, I'd probably would have a hard time finding it. Think I will go down and see if I can locate that power supply while I am waiting for my new thermostat.

The last time a rodent got into my GH back in Glendale, he came in the roof vent, later covered by hardware cloth, and ate and killed an Isochilus linearus coerulea. Have you ever heard of such a plant? If so, let me know, as I'd like to replace it. But, for the last 20 years I have not seen it offered anywhere, and Andy of Andy's Orchids and some of the South American growers have never heard of such a plant. Well, it was a recent jungle collected import and bloomed on a few of the old stems while getting established. I certainly knew coerulea when I saw it back then. I am hoping the current rodent has not killed such a valuable plant, and it looks like I can live with the damage so far.