Repurposing a Squirrel

I suppose there is a secret to skinning a squirrel. I have watched some YouTube videos on how to do it, and of course, these manly men get the skin off in short order. I did prepare squirrel stew once—and it was very good—but getting that skin off was so difficult I decided struggling with it wasn’t worth the effort, so nuisance squirrels that Richard shoots are offered to raccoons and opossums (whoever gets to it first).

But this time shortly after I put the squirrel in the basket, I was very surprised to see a tufted titmouse land on the squirrel and begin plucking fur for its nest. It collected quite a beak-full...

flew off...

and came back several times.

You’ll notice the duct tape on the feeder. That was to repair a crack in the plastic caused by a squirrel.

Richard can’t shoot them easily when they are on my side of the house (my side being where my office is), so I do have a live animal trap that I set and sometimes am successful at trapping them. Last week I trapped 4 squirrels in 3 days. The two squirrels that were here today stayed well clear of the trap, but I think that is probably because a chipmunk came and cleaned out the sunflower seeds I left as bait without activating the the trap.

At church yesterday morning, this book was on the pew where we sit. 

If I can figure out how to outwit the squirrels, then I will be happy to not have Richard shoot them. Having looked through the book yesterday after church -- and it is very entertaining -- but it appears that outwitting squirrels is just about doomed to failure.

Fifty Years and Counting...

Rumor has it that something always goes wrong at a wedding. It’s probably not true, but something did go wrong at our wedding, which was 50 years ago today.

The church where we got married had very strict rules about the songs that could be sung during the ceremony. No secular music allowed, and I had to choose from a list. My dad was very disappointed, because he wanted the song "Sweet Leilani" sung. I had some ideas about songs too, and none of them were on the list. I chose a song that was okay, and I don’t remember now what it was.

At the rehearsal, the minister was kidding around with the soloist and said, “See you at 8:00.” Well, the wedding was at 7:00.

When it came time for the soloist, he wasn’t there. The minister waited a beat and then carried right on, and so we began married life together. 

The past 50 years have seen some “ups and downs,” but I am very glad I said “yes” when he asked.