Another Day, Another Chipmunk Tail

Who thinks chipmunks are cute? I do, I do!

I have lived in my home for 24 years and never saw a chipmunk until this spring. Lots of squirrels, rabbits, even skunks, but never a chipmunk.

At first I thought, oh how cute, and I enjoyed watching them bound along......
.....until they moved into my patio area and made a home behind my cement steps. That's a little too close for comfort.

You see...when I spent summers in PEI there were lots of chipmunks. And while they were as cute as they could be they also enjoyed living in my basement, chewing on electrical wiring and chewing up the insulation. I'm not good at killing rodents but it was them or me! I trapped them and let them loose in the forest but they ran back to the house faster than I could!!

I'm not able to reach the nest behind the steps because of a cement overhang from the doorsill. Lily has been doing her best to chase them out of our patio and will sit patiently for hours by the steps waiting for a chipmunk nose to appear.

This morning I was sitting outside, reading the paper, while Lily guarded the perimeter. Suddenly I heard the unmistakeable CHIRP of the chipmunk and next thing I saw was Lily playing with the fur off the chipmunk's tail!!

Ughh! She was having so much fun hiding the fur in a bed of myrtle and tossing it around like a cat does. I couldn't stand it (and I'll never kiss her again!!) so I put on a work glove and tossed the fur over the fence. Lily wasn't too pleased with that but I just couldn't watch her displaying her killer instincts!

Then I checked google, of course :) and found that when a chipmunk (or squirrel etc) is threatened with capture/death from behind they release their tail. In this case just the fur that covers the tail. Lily was just doing a good job keeping our patio (and home) free from rodents. I do understand that this is her instinct and she's not misbehaving.

I'm hoping that close call persuades the chipmunks to take up residence elsewhere! Otherwise my patio is going to be a battleground over the summer.

Should have named her "Killer"!

Whadda Week

I'm kind of glad this week is over.  I've debated writing about my little hike in Kilally Meadows earlier this week as my older sister reads my blog and she'll be telling me not to hike there any more or at least stay on the main paths!

I followed my usual route, parts of which are on secondary trails, because I love to explore and this particular section is a spot where goldfinches hang out. As I moved along the very overgrown paths I whacked at the bushes with my big walking stick. I do this because of spider webs that hang from one side of the path to the other - I hate getting them in my face and hair so it's become a habit to move my stick up and down to clear the path. As I got near the end of this path to where there is a little clearing I saw a man with his pants around his ankles sitting on a log or low-lying branch. Caught by surprise (to say the least) I heard my mother's words come out of my mouth as I said "goodness" in a withering voice and moved quickly on.

Now...I'm about 95% sure he was taking a "bathroom break" but I think if that were me I'd say something like "oops, sorry" or "caught short, pardon me" but he was silent. I quickened my pace and moved on. I moved across an open field looking back from time to time but I never saw him again. I'm sure he went in the opposite direction, hopefully mortified!

Then I caught sight of this beauty! It was a lovely few moments as we watched each other.  Until I realized something was biting my legs - I looked down and found about 10,000 mosquitoes sucking my very delicious blood. As I've mentioned before I am a "bug buffet"! I stood still long enough to get 3 photos then slapped myself silly watching the doe run off into the trees. Needless to say I've had a tough week recovering from all of those itchy bites. I try not to scratch at all as they seem to disappear more quickly that way. Anyhoo, I have survived and healed.

Once piece of good news - my daughter finally brought a pickup truck today from work to get her Jeep's hard top which has been sitting on my patio for weeks! Now it's going to sit on her boyfriend's parents' patio! (I'm told their yard is much bigger than mine - I'll take their word for it!) I'm so glad to have that monstrosity gone! So now I have to try and grow more grass in that area- I have successfully grown grass between the flagstones but now have a large area of just dirt.  (Now seeded) I have more room for my patio furniture and plants - but everything needs to dry out as we've had a TON of rain the past few days.

This was the sky on Thursday when I was playing slo-pitch. Shortly after I took this photo thunder started to rumble so the game was called. It rained the rest of Thursday and all day Friday. Today it's sunny and I look forward to everything drying out and having a nice bike ride.

Have a great weekend everyone. Any special plans?

Stormy Weaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaather

Around here it's all about the recent stormy blizzardy freezing snow squalling icy roads drifting snow and zero visibility. Nothin' else.

 With that said I consider myself fortunate because in east London we received (like it's a gift) about half of what they were blasted with in west London. Go figure.

 Even so, half as much was about 10 times as much as I wanted, which was nothin'.

Once you get past the "oh look honey, isn't it pretty? It's like a winter wonderland...." then you procrastinate about 8 hours til it's getting dark then you put on all the clothing you can find which in this train wreck of a house isn't much, then you take the broom and slog out to your truck, or in this case, my truck and you get to it.

 There's Dougie, under his nice warm blanket of snow, ain't it purty??

 Yup, no little "dusting" of snow just to get us used to it, no, Mother Nature let 'er rip bigtime, with snow forecast every day this week just for fun!

I guess it's a little too much to ask for one more patio day, candles, wine, conversation, bbq....hah!

 Le sigh...well, at least we get to really talk about the weather now...

 and for the next....oh....six months!!!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!

Patio Stones - GONE!

Going, going GONE!! That is the theme around here these days. I am quite enjoying the dismantling of the home I've lived in for almost 20 years and watching things disappear! Rereading the last sentence makes me wonder if I've lost it! Well, har har har, if I haven't lost it then I'm getting rid of it!! Good riddance!

The last in the long list of things to BEGONE are our old patio stones.

Remember these ugly things?

No, not my hand-me-down moccasins (I call my style "Early Kazi") but the patio stones behind them. Stained, not level anymore, ugly as sin patio stones?

 All 27 of them carried to Dougie the Dodge by Michael! #28 will continue to reside under the central air conditioner.

Only Michael could still muster up a smile when about to carry #27 to the truck! Honestly, we did try to borrow a wheel barrow with no luck. Michael also asked his son to come and help out but gave up waiting for him to arrive. Kids these days...

Once loaded Michael drove Dougie the Dodge to Bayfield and unloaded all of the patio stones at our old trailer, which friends of ours now own.  We thought they could extend the dance floor....

....which isn't nearly large enough once I get going!  And they could put them behind the trailer where the weeds are rampant...or both!!

I'm just glad they're Gone Baby Gone! (We watched that movie last night on Netflix! How apropos!)

Here's what we plan to do next....

...IF this were our yard...but since it isn't it'll look more like this...

...except we need to get more flagstones and fill in the spaces with something and of course it'll be a bright sunny warm day when we are ready to sell not cold and raining like today!! Hah!

So far we've purchased 1/2 ton of flagstones but they don't go very far. Each time we have to carry a load like that we are soooooo grateful for Dougie the Dodge. He's so big and strong!

And you too Michael, you too!!