The see saw gourds

Or, “The story of the bamboo teeter tottering  loofas”….

Last year I built a bamboo tower to showcase the birdhouse bottle gourd vines that would soon be taking over my back fence.

If you don’t recall how that worked for me, you can refresh your memory here:  OOPS

I was smarter than that this year; I left the bamboo leaning against the fence safely out of the reach of this year’s “luffa” gourd vines. Or so I thought…..

The other day I was admiring the fine bunch of gourds that had secured themselves behind my tomato cage storage area:

The bamboo from last year’s tower was leaning on the fence to the right of this bunch, “safely out of the reach” of the vines. I had noticed that a spur had taken off up the bamboo a few weeks earlier but wasn’t concerned since the bamboo was leaning against the fence, and my mighty fence sure wouldn’t topple over.

After I took this picture, I realized something had changed- something I was used to seeing recently wasn’t in view any more. At this point I noticed the someone had taken some of my longer bamboo, moved it outside of the fence and then leaned it back onto the fence exactly opposite of where it had been a day or two earlier. The picture below clearly shows this- some prankster was messing with me:

I wasn’t happy. I stormed out around to the back and had to stop and laugh when I saw this:

DOH!

How many luffas had taken roost up in the top of the bamboo?

The answer was “a lot”:

I can only imagine how I would have reacted if I was standing there when it happened; I could even picture a slapstick scene where I was launched though the air over the asparagus patch.

I forget that these things are still heavy like giant zucchinis; I keep waiting for some to start to brown and dry but I guess it isn’t happening until after Thanksgiving…..