Wednesday

UPDATE ON SQUIRRELS

Here's your sign, "Stupid", is back to his old ways ...
My new metal feeder is nice to look at, keeps the food dry, smart squirrels have learned how to get in to get the food .. but not "Stupid" .. now he's chewing the support post that the feeder is attached to (along with the top deck!!!). I suppose it's out of frustration or maybe he thinks if he chews long enough, the feeder will fall and the bounty will be his!
The only thing I could think of quickly was aluminum foil, so I wrapped the post in foil . . between the bottom of the feeder and the deck railing. This was a great deterrent for three days but now he's torn the foil and started chewing the post again. I just don't know what to do to stop him.
When I go to the store, maybe I'll buy some tabasco or cayenne and put that on the wood ... and when one of our friends returns this weekend I'll see what he can come up with .. maybe wrap the post with wire or metal of some kind. If anyone has any ideas, please share them with me!
Will post pics. later ...

Thursday

Grand Nephews


Here's a photo of my two 'grand nephews' ... James who is almost 3 and William who's 7 weeks.




Here's another photo of dear little William.

Tuesday

Squirrel Feeder

I returned home yesterday after a weekend in southern California and went to check on my new metal squirrel feeder outside the kitchen window. The food seemed untouched ... sunflower seeds and peanuts (sans shells) ... so I was a little dismayed that the squirrels hadn't figured out how to access the buffet yet!
This afternoon I was unloading my shopping when I saw movement around the feeder and spotted one of the little furry creatures inside the metal feeder. I dashed upstairs for my camera and managed to catch this shot ...

I could barely see him inside the feeder but there was a big furry clue as to his whereabouts!
He must have seen me move because he jumped out and landed on the deck railing. I attempted to get a photo of him coming out but he moved so fast ... anyway, hoping he'd reconsider, I froze! He decided he wasn't finished eating yet and jumped up again, as easy as pie. In one flash, he was on the feeder, lid was raised and he was inside .. this time without the tail hanging out ...


If you look closely, you can just make him out ... my first thought was "what if he poops on the food" ... but not knowing how well 'housetrained' they are, I was hopeful that he'd ingest and not egest his snack.