Pesky rodents beware!!

So if you know me at all, you know that I don't do rodents of any type. Not mice, not hamsters, not bunnies and totally not squirrels. Squirrels drive me nuts. No pun intended.

I have been fighting this battle with the squirrels for as long as I have lived in this house. I like to feed every bird in North America. It's just something I do. I have serious over nurturing issues. But the squirrels are a huge pest and get in there and drain my feeders. In an afternoon sometimes if I am not on top of it. So I have to get out there and chase them off.

How do I chase them off you may ask......

I am a super soaker comando.


I can't actually bring myself to hurt them. I just don't want them in my yard.

This is how I have spent the majority of my day. Chasing these little punks out of my yard. I am like the proverbial old guy in a bathrobe with the shot gun and lawn chair screaming "get off my lawn!!" Except I am......well....me. And I have a child's squirt gun.

Oh sure I could just get "squirrel proof" feeders. The ones that claim to keep out the squirrels. But where is the sport in that? Then I would have to do something real and productive with my time. We can't have that :)

Someone has to teach those crafty little buggers a lesson.

My gazebo

So I had this great gazebo that rockstar got me last year.







It was my salvation in the warm months. When the sun is out I am physically incapable of being inside. So the gazebo is where we spent the majority of our summer. We ate nearly every meal out there and would even drag the laptop out. I loved it.









Then tragedy struck.......dun dun dun!!!!


We had this insane ice storm that took out everything. The weight of the snow and ice tore the canvas of the gazebo. I thought well, it's annoying, but I'll have to get a replacement canvas roof. They are not all that expensive and it sort of was a learning lesson that I should have taken the canvas off for the winter.






Then as if that was not enough, once the snow melted, we got this vicious wind storm and the wind literally picked up the steel framed gazebo like an umbrella and threw it across our yard Wizard of Oz style. It completely crunched up the frame and bent the support beams. Rockstar had to take a hacksaw to it and pull it apart for scrap metal.







It was dead and gone. I was sad about the whole thing. I know it is just a thing, but I really loved that gazebo.

But the healing process had to begin and we started thinking about getting another one.

I looked and looked, but I couldn't settle on the right one.

But then I saw it across the Sears showroom. The one!!

Luckily we had just gotten our tax return and had budgeted to get another one.

So we got it and Rockstar went to go pick it up in our van. It was all disassembled and in a giant box. He barely got it in our van as the whole thing came in one box.







It weighed about 4000 lbs and took 3 men and a boy to get it in and out of the van.

But after 7 hours of assembly and a lot of his his own hair being pulled out, he had it together.



And it is glorious. A little bigger than our last one and a bar with stools attached so that the kids have somewhere to go other than a separate "kids table" on the deck when we have company. Already we have eaten the majority of our meals out there since it went up. It makes our little house not quite so cramped.

What a little punk!!!

So I have been watching this drama unfold for the past couple weeks in my front yard. I have this little punk of a squirrel that has been raiding my bird feeders and teasing my cats for some time.


Last year I had had enough with the squirrels in the bird feeders so my rock star husband took a super soaker to them every time we caught them red handed. That took care of the problem for the whole summer.

Now we have a new generation that clearly is scared of nothing. What makes it worse is that he is just a little bit faster than my cats. So now he just likes to tease them.

Notice the picture above.

That is him in the middle just casually munching on some sunflower seeds that had fallen from a bird feeder above. About 7 feet to the left (left bottom of the picture) is my cat Annabelle in pounce mode. Just waiting for her chance. About 5 feet to his right (right near the top of the picture) is my neighbor's cat, Metro. Also in pounce mode.

This particular stand off lasted about 20 minutes until Annabelle couldn't take it any longer and ran to him. He took off across the street and up a tree. All the while Annabelle was only about 6 inches behind him swiping as she ran.

Every time he just barely gets away by the skin of his teeth. I totally expect to find a headless fur pile in my yard as a glorious gift from my beloved cat.

Just for the record I don't endorse the murder of any animal, so PETA you can just back the heck up....But hey, nature is nature. What can you do.

Don't flirt with death and you won't meet your maker by an overweight feline.

You have made your bed my friend. The end is nigh!!