Squirrel Appreciation Day + 15

That is two on the ground and one on the squirrel-proof bird feeder with the funny red hat. Apparently the word is getting out in the squirrel community that there is a place on Ramada Drive that needs their attention. It seems only yesterday that I was surprised to see one squirrel in my back yard.

In some places the appreciation depends on the color of the squirrel. Would I joke about such sacred topics?

This may well be a losing battle. Does anyone have an air gun they are not using?

Any recipes for squirrel? Do they taste like chicken?

In case you need any help on how to celebrate this holiday next year, here is the necessary website. Seems to be useful for lots of other things too.

Squirrel Appreciation Day +4

This is the latest weapon in the continuing battles between bird-feeding Me v. fat-and-sassy Squirrels. The red plastic top is supposed to not allow the little beggars to come in from the top. My advisers tell me that I need something on the bottom of the pole as well. I will let you know how things go.

Snow Melting

When the snow melts in my garden it reveals my back yard. So, instead of having a garden as nice as my neighbor's I have an ugly, messy back yard. The birds and squirrels are not helping either. How does one discourage grackles and squirrels while encouraging most other birds? I think the first sentence in this paragraph may be useful in a poem.

I think if I move the bird feeders away from the trees then the squirrels will have difficulty getting at the birdseed. Perhaps they will go to one of my neighbor's feeding stations. Since I don't have a leaf-blower this seems fair enough to me.

All Saints Day in Billings MT

We survived All Hallows Eve by hunkering down in our basement, ignoring the few rings of the doorbell that we heard, watching Gone Baby Gone, a very thoughtful look at Right and Wrong despite the limited and foul language of most of the players, delivered in the loveliest of Boston accents; and drinking some very nice Chardonnay from southeastern Washington (the state that is; there is no room for grapes in DC, it is filled with former "community organizers.") If the characters in the movie are really representative of Boston then it is easier to see how the city and state become one party places.


That is our chokecherry just outside the front porch to the left with the aspens a little less bare just behind and the junipers behind them, pretending to be ever green.





Nature's cleaner-uppers (Arbortech) of early Fall snowstorms have come and gone. Now our backyard catalpa will start over again the slow process of building its limbs and leaves after it rests up over the winter. Watch this space.



That is our resident fat reddish-brown squirrel here at 3033 Ramada Drive to the right. He or she has been driven up the tree by the relentless pursuit of Maggie the Squirrel Chaser. See below.

We only see the one squirrel and we think it is the same one, so how do they reproduce? Go to other neighborhoods? Visiting stud service? Or what?

Sorry about the positioning of these two pictures. Maggie the Dog below really was paying attention to the fat reddish-brown squirrel trying to hide at the top of our apple tree right.