– Can’t Say I’ve Won The War –

But I have a couple of vey frustrated squirrels around the ranch.

This spring there have been only two or three occasions when I’ve had to chase the squirrels off the bird feed at the dog pen.

BUT!

The feeder is damn near full at sunset and empty in the morning.

I don’t think raccoons are the culprits. They would probably pull the feeder down because of their weight.

My guess is that the squirrels work at emptying the feeder starting shortly after sunrise before we are even thinking of getting out of bed.

Last Thursday went to Lowes and got a ten foot length of two inch PVC pipe. A two foot piece of two inch PVC, a tee, and two end caps. A couple of J hooks, some hex nuts, washers and a couple of stop nuts completed the package.

Sunday we set the concoction two foot into the ground and this is what we get.

All day Monday and Tuesday we had light rain off and on throughout the daylight hours. No squirrel activity.

This morning not bright and sunny but no rain. Bird feeder still full. I must have spent two or three hours sitting on the back porch/deck drinking coffee and lmao at a very frustrated and vocal squirrel walking the top of the fence around the dog pen, stopping abreast the PVC pipe facing the feeder, crouching down as if preparing to leap and rapidly flicking its tail. I think the flicking of its tail is a nervous reaction. Never once did it attempt to leap the nearly ten feet to the feeder. The cross arm at the top of the pipe is eight feet off the ground. That puts the feeder at least a foot above the top of the fence.

Gravity Rules!

Several times the squirrel climbed down the chain link fence and attempted to climb the PVC pipe. It would get eighteen or twenty four inches up the pipe and then slide back and fall off the pipe. If I had used a four inch pipe I doubt that it would have gotten that far. It just couldn’t get a grip on the pipe and its nails couldn’t dig into the pipe.

If they do finally succeed in getting to the feeder I’ll just wrap wires or hardware cloth around the pipe and hook that to a twelve volt battery of low voltage transformer.

That or some other Non-PETA approved scheme.

The Wife-Unit is pleased that this is finally blooming but would like to a lot more blossoms.