– I Really Don’t Hate Squirrels –

Except when they are raiding the bird feeders!

I think they may have gotten the idea though. I haven’t had to use the “Bell” in at least two weeks.

I was sitting on the back porch/deck the other day and I notice a “tree rat” wandering around east of the dog pen/garden with an acorn in its mouth. It hops up onto the stump of a tree we had to take down a few years ago. We don’t normally try to dig out the stumps. We usually just square off the top of the stump and use it as a stand to put flower pots on or sometimes use them as a place to sit. That particular stump is beginning to rot away and we dug out some of the rotting wood, put in some soil and planted flowers in the stump.

The deer however decided that the stump was a salad bowl and ate the flowers. They’ve also done a number on most of the pepper plants. For the first time since we’ve had a produce garden the damn Bambi’s ate just about all of the rhubarb. I don’t consider that a loss but the Wife-Unit is much displeased about that. What really p***es me off is that they destroyed about two thirds of one of the “Snowy Dahlias.” What remains however is still producing flowers.

Anyhow, back to the “tree rat”.

The dumb tree rat must be trying for reforestation.

It buried the acorn in the dirt in the center of the tree stump.

The next two photos I was just playing with the camera and trying something.

BTW:

I purchased a new camera and a zoom telephoto lens.

The Youngest Son and his Wife-Unit got me this for Father’s Day. He told me: “Now you can sit in the middle of the yard with the “Bell Button” and your camera and terrorize the squirrels.”

He didn’t know I was planning on getting the new camera.

Tomorrow I load most of the possessions of my late best friend into the car and go to the house of one of his cousins. We will see what she wants and then possibly next month I may be taking a little trip to a town in Michigan just north of the Indiana/Michigan line to meet with another of his cousins.

On the 23rd of this month the Oldest Son and possibly the Youngest Son will be flying to Montana to spread Gary G’s ashes. I hope to visit the property he had owned there and take some photos without snow.