Who's Eating My Chocolate? or, Welcome to Squirrel Hill

The Saga of Rocky continues...but here it gets a wee bit creepy!

Waking up early in the morning, I heard a familiar scrabbling noise. I had heard it before, but never thought much about it. Squirrels running on the tin roof were a common noise. Sometimes I would hear branches dropping down. Now, as I listened, I knew what it was. We had company.

I checked the kitchen island but nothing seemed amiss. As I was dusting the hutch, I noticed slivers of aluminum foil. Moving a silk plant I found the evidence.



Squirrels like chocolate! Who knew! (Our exterminator told us later that rodents love chocolate.) Our night visitor had stolen a Hershey Kiss from the candy jar, gently peeled it and taken it off to nibble. Thanksgiving couldn't come soon enough!

Saturday after Thanksgiving we were enjoying a peaceful night at home after traveling 1200 miles round trip for a turkey dinner (and of course a chance to be with family and friends!). As I cleaned up dinner, Larry suddenly appeared from the basement, where his office is, with one of those looks on his face and holding his hands far apart. If you've ever seen a spider, roach or god forbid, a snake in your house, you know the look. If you've ever seen a fisherman show the size of the 'one that got away', you know how far apart his hands were.

"You gotta come down here! Something just ran by me and it's THIS (insert hands far apart) BIG!!!"

Frankly, I'm wondering why I have to go down there, but I think this is where that concept of Supportive Wife comes in, so down the stairs I go, into the deep dark, basement. Well, really not that dark. We did have the lights on. And when I got there, we had EVERY light on.



"It ran under there" he says pointing to the couch. So we crouched on the floor with a flashlight and sure enough, the shadow under the couch was definitely bigger than a mouse. After consulting we decided to:

Flip the Couch
Trap the critter under a clear plastic bin we had handy
And then, somehow, wriggle the lid under the bin and TRAP THE SUCKER in the box!

Sounds good, until you attempt to execute it.

Larry was going to flip the sofa and I was going to TRAP THE SUCKER!
Before we made our move my ever supportive husband looked at me and said, with full confidence:
"Oh yeah, you're gonna let him get away."



And I did. He flipped the sofa. Rocky and I took a split second to eyeball each other. I threw the tub over him....well, in his direction, and we both ran in opposite directions. Rocky headed into the bedroom.

And now it was apparent why Rocky looked so big! Our pest control company had placed sticky pads around the house to help trap mice. Rocky had inadvertently touched the sticky pad with his tail and it was going everywhere with him, making him look twice his size. That's a good strategy if you are trying to scare off a bear, but not real good if you are a squirrel trying to hide.



We were able to corner Rocky and this time Larry took the tub, while I poked under the bed and moved Rocky in Larry's general direction. Larry, being a GUY and much more stalwart than ME, held his ground as the squirrel came his way and dropped the tub over him.

Now came the tricky part. And as things go, the creepy part. But if you have a sense of humor, it is also the hilarious part.

It is the part where we try to slide the lid under the tub to trap the squirrel.

As we slid the lid in the back, somehow, the squirrel managed to wedge himself under the front of the bin. Then he grabbed hold of Larry's pant leg. And held on. And dragged the sticky pad over Larry's shoe. I wish I had a video. I can't begin to explain the following sequence of events, but here's the gist of it.

The squirrel was stuck to the pad. The pad was stuck to Larry's shoe. Neither of them could get away from each other. THEY WERE STUCK!

Somehow Larry got the squirrel off his shoe, and into the bin, and got the Lid on.

















Sorry, Rocky. As long as you stay in your world we are fine. My house takes up but a tiny bit of your forest and there are plenty of oak trees and squirrel nests, and bird seed out there. But once you ruin my blinds, it's war. We won this battle.

The exterminators have plugged the holes and set the traps. It was a warm day when they were here, and hopefully all the critters had gone back outside. So far, none have been trapped inside. And the token tomato and apple I keep on my counter as a checkpoint have been untouched.

So maybe we won the war! I will update you if we see more critters. For now, I'm hoping Rocky decides to reunite with Bullwinkle and move to Minnesota.

In Search of Rocky--(The Flying Squirrel)

It all started this way....

It was a dark and stormy night...

No, Really! It WAS a dark and stormy night when Larry walked into our house to find things amiss. In fact it was Halloween! And he was spooked. A magazine was on the floor. Dish towels had fallen off the towel rack. A votive candle holder had been knocked off a table. As he investigated further, he found the Venetian blinds in our bedroom on the second floor were tangled or down and he couldn't fix them.
    
There were wood shavings on the window sill.... and then more under a closet door in the loft where something had chewed the entire bottom of the door and pulled 4" slivers off, just for good measure.


More proof of the invasion and perhaps the entrance point was discovered in the basement. Something had chewed a hole in the ceiling tiles, and left a mess on the floor.



Where was I? In Iowa, and very happy to be there as he called and relayed what he was finding. I think I was happier realizing it was not a burglar, but an animal, but at any rate, I was really happiest knowing I wasn't there! So much for being the supportive wife.

Fast forward a month and here's what we know. Our home was invaded by both mice and flying squirrels. When I got home a week later, I realized the squirrel had actually run across the tops of the valences in the living room and the top of the china hutch, knocking over Styrofoam pumpkins that were on top.

An exterminator was called and he popped his head through the tiny 'man hole' in the bedroom closet that leads to a true crawl space and quickly proclaimed, "Oh yeah, There's a nest, food piles, tracks, (and other signs of rodent activity) up here." Oh goody!

He told me what it would take, (and what it would cost!) to get rid of the varmints and I wondered if it wouldn't be easier to call Bullwinkle to come round up his trusted buddy, Rocky. However, although we live in the North Woods, the North Woods of Georgia is not a familiar habitat for Moose, so Bullwinkle probably wasn't going to get us out of this fix. We hired the exterminator. He would start work plugging holes, setting traps, and removing said varmints, after Thanksgiving.

 Meanwhile, it was still evident something was visiting at night. One morning as Larry went to the kitchen to start his coffee he found mail knocked off the kitchen island onto the floor. I checked the bowl on the counter and discovered something had nibbled two of the tomatoes I had bought the day before. Mouse? Squirrel? Whatever it was, it had neatly skirted the sticky pad our pest control company had placed hoping to catch our critters. After that, I left an apple out, just as a 'critter activity check'.

Yep. We had critters in the house. We were counting down to Thanksgiving. Since we would be gone we needed to wait until after we got home to get serious about catching them. (After a week away, no one really wants to come home and find a dead mouse in the house.)

Our story doesn't end here. Stay tuned for Part 2.

To Be Continued.....

A New View

Research is not my strong suit. My daughter and my husband are very good researchers. Not me. I only research when I am really involved in an immediate, or need to know soon, situation. For instance, our dishwasher just died and now I need to get a new one. I will research that, because it is an immediate need. Larry is different. As soon as he gets an idea of something he may want to buy or a place he may want to go, he will hit the Google switch and start researching. Several years ago, he started focusing on retirement (which would happen this year). At least 3 years ago, he started house hunting. I went along grudgingly. I mean, really! Why are we looking at homes when we have no plans to buy one for another 3 years or so? It is time to admit, that although, I never would have done it his way, and as exasperated as I got, that 3 year research project probably worked for the best.

When we first started looking for a house in this area we were focused on View, Style, Room....but not too much room, and land. One of the first houses we found that we fell in love with was a chalet style home overlooking a vineyard at the edge of a national forest with a fantastic view of the mountains.

I envisioned breakfast on the deck in the morning and drinks on the deck in the afternoon, watching the deer and wild turkey roam below. I imagined the colors the sky would carry as the sun set over the mountains. However, Eden is a hard place to find and can be pretty remote. When I accepted reality, this is what I had to face up to. 1) It was a 30 minute drive from ANYTHING on a very winding road!!! I do mean anything. Gas, food, town. In order to start going anywhere you had a half hour drive before you got to town so you could start your journey. And coming home...once you made it to town it was a half hour winding tour back home to this peaceful abode. 2)...no cell phone signal, period, and no chance of getting one. It was at the edge of a national forest! For most people, it wouldn't have taken long to rule it out, but for me, it was tough. I loved that house, and that view. In the end the drive and the cell phone and internet service did us in.

Even so, I carried that house in my heart for months and measured it against every other home we looked at for years.

As we looked at other properties, I slowly readjusted my priorities.  Larry refined his. 2-3 acres of flat land turned into 2-3 car detached garage and a house with usable land. That's important because so many places are what I like to call, Cliff Hangers, houses that are built on the side of a steep mountainside, with a single car garage tucked underneath it. Master bedroom on the main floor, became a bedroom and bath on the main floor. And my desire for a room with a view, changed too. In the beginning we had a vision. In the end I think we got exactly what we were looking for.

When I look out my cabin window, what do I see? Mountains?  Not in the summer, but as soon as I leave the neighborhood and head down the highway, I can see them all around me. It makes every drive to town a treat. For those of you who like water, we have that too. The drive to Wal-Mart follows the lakeshore.

Trees? Ah, that's what I see! We are in the woods.
When I wake up in the morning I feel like I'm in a tree house.

View as I lay in bed

There is no vineyard to look out over, but we have a large yard behind the house that pushes the woods back and gives us a clearing.

Today we saw a fawn and her mother run along the fence line at the edge of the woods.

As I sit on the back porch hummingbirds buzz by me on their way to the feeders. If you can see the blurr just in front of the flower petal, that's my miracle shot. They take off as soon as they sense the camera. But my presence doesn't scare them. They fly so close by me, I can feel them.

Two bluebirds are raising their second family in the bird house out back.

They come and go all day long bringing food for the babies inside. When they leave a chorus of loud chirps follows them and then dies down as they wait for mom and pop to come back.

The biggest treat for me was watching them on the day they left the nest. It amazes me to think that a bird that has never flown can fly from their house to mine, and then up to the tree tops!

Birds can keep me occupied for hours. The other day a Carolina Wren sat on the rail ten feet from me and squawked loudly at its mate five feet away. And I love trying to identify a new species to the feeders. But sometimes they have a hard time getting to it.

This species I recognize. It can turn mild mannered me into a crazy woman as I charge down the porch steps flailing my arms and yelling. But sometimes I just watch and take pictures.


It is the view I always wanted. The distant, majestic one was exciting at first. But as time went on, I realized I wanted the closer, more intimate one. A place where I could watch life in action right outside my door.

I wanted this view.