Chateau Wood Wildlife Reserve and Gardens

15/05/2024

Our beautiful mountain sanctuary home is officially on the market. Jeff and I are moving to Tampa to be near family and a great career opportunity for Jeff. I am looking forward to continuing my work with wildlife and conservation. This was a huge decision as this home is the happiest home either of us has ever had, but we know that legacy will continue for its next caretakers.

Open house this weekend. Please share. Any questions please contact Shaun Chess or Nora Chess

This 2541 square feet Single Family home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. It is located at 22812 25th Street NE, Snohomish, WA.

13/12/2023

While you may say it is worth it because rodents are on the victim list, did you know studies show owls are more impactful on rodent population and cover a larger area. Keep mittens inside to play with toys and install owl boxes and habitat in your yard and neighborhood. In this effort we also need to stop putting poisonous bait out to kill rodents, it kills the whole food chain, especially the species you want to protect so they control the rodents!

More scientific evidence has surfaced to show that while mittens may be your sweet angel, letting her roam outside is also a big threat to biodiversity.

08/04/2023

It’s a busy rush hour this evening

14/03/2023

When the local slug patrol decides to do a fly-by 😂

I love our migratory bird slug patrol. We get mallards and Canada geese every spring and lately I find their arrival more helpful than the calendar in gauging pruning and seed starting. This year everyone appeared within 24 hours of each other so I’m now going to prune the roses, trim up dogwoods and shrubs, and in the greenhouse/indoors start all my annual seeds plus get the new dahlia tubers started. It’s going to be a busy week but at least our slug patrol is helping and fertilizing. ❤️🦆

19/02/2023

Tell me you’ve been to the NW Flower & Garden show without telling me 😁🌷🪴

03/01/2023

When you build a safe place for community sometimes the locals stop by to say hello. Whether it’s humans, flowers, or even this tiny Ruby-Crowned Kinglet.

I was working in the garden today and this little guy hopped onto my coat. These are tiny, hyperactive little warriors who are happy to share their thoughts. Usually the males will display their “ruby-crown” when agitated or threatened but this guy was happy to hangout for a photo. (The second picture is what they look like when they display the crown.)

A wonderful welcome to our 2023 garden year.
Garden chore list is light this month:
-check for any areas in need of extra mulch
-trim all bad snow damage
-make sure birds haven’t kicked mulch up against tree trunks or large shrub bases
-plan for this spring projects

22/12/2022

We are having quite the cold snap here but the wildlife are all doing fine. We only trim plants that could have catastrophic snow damage, this means that there are plenty of seed heads, and snow shelters for birds. To find the deer just watch for a flush of birds leaving whatever the deer are exploring. These plants are established and do just fine with a little deer pruning in the winter. Our pond and stream, along with other water features, keep running water available so we see high traffic during freezing weather.

We do offer help for the hummingbirds I noticed staying. We have 3-5 stations of food and heat around the property all out of direct line of sight to keep territorial behavior/stress to a minimum. Pictured is our regular front greeter, Attila The Hum

12/09/2022

You can help your local wildlife and plants if wildfires are near you. These tips are especially important if you have ash falling:

- Empty, rinse, and refill all outdoor water bowls, bird baths, etc. daily.
- Run sprinklers. I’m running them 1x a day during active hours. This rinses surfaces of plants and leaves water drops for insects. Don’t need to run long, just enough to rinse things off.
- Keep water available as bugs, birds, amphibians, and mammals all need extra in this smoke. Plus more animals may be moving through the area. (Our water sources are HIGH traffic right now. It’s fun to see all the different animals we support)
- If using any deep container place rocks in it or another escape material in case an animal falls in after water level has dropped.

Stay safe out there ❤️

04/06/2022

Gus’ Slug Patrol has been so busy he brought in more talent. We now have 8 geese doing morning and evening shifts. They arrive and depart within an hour tolerance, rarely missing a visit. I have cut my need for Sluggo to nearly none even with baby plants in the ground. They do a great job pulling up old dead grass at the base of this years growth. Plus when big birds are working through the lawn and flowerbeds all our bunnies spend more time snacking in the wildflower meadow. Plus it’s fun to be in the greenhouse with a peanut gallery, which one is the zoo animal? 😂

16/05/2022

Lovely evening light after the rain

24/04/2022

Love these stories

The owlets we recently re-nested are doing well and have settled into their new “nest”. Once again thank you to Canopy Cat Rescue for getting them back to their family! Thanks to Paul Dreyfuss for this great photo.