One squirrel in the trap, but at least two more playing on the roof as I type. I won’t bother with pictures. They would not be a pretty sight. However, I needed to update those who have been following our saga.
We are determined to foil them. They have now started eating our gutters.
Pardon the interruption. I will move on to more pleasant things, like decorating for Christmas, next week.
I really hate getting ahead of Thanksgiving with the Christmas decorations, but I have to admit that I've been on the lookout for ideas. Here's one that I couldn't wait to share with y'all.
I refuse to climb on the house to do anything with lights, and Lbeau is no help when it comes to Christmas decorations. So any of you are welcome to steal this decorating scheme from the neighbors on the right. Just be sure to share the pictures.
Since I've written about almost every other family birthday this year, I would be remiss if I didn't say a few words about my own birthday, which I celebrated last Saturday.
This year, I am using deer hunting as my brother's excuse for failing to remember my birthday. Although there is wifi at deer camp, there is no cell service, so I guess I'll let him off the hook.
This year we celebrated my birthday in Little Rock. On Saturday morning Claire's aunts had a baby shower for her and my granddaughter Lucy, who will be born in February. Saturday afternoon, we celebrated my great niece Emma's birthday. She was a year old on Friday.
My nephew Scott even offered me my own birthday cupcake, but I refused to wear the frosting coated birthday hat or to smear my face in the icing. Best leave those things to the one-year-old.
Saturday night we enjoyed pizza at my sister Margie's house and watched the Razorbacks beat Troy 56-20. At halftime the family "sang" to me, and presented me with my own birthday cake, a carrot cake made from scratch by Claire.
Footnote: Earlier in the day Walker called and sang "Happy Birthday." At 2 1/2 he knows all the words, and unlike the rest of my family, he can carry a tune.
LBeau says he had experience in college making similar contraptions. The fraternity boys used them to launch water balloons at the sorority houses. I'm sure that made a good impression on potential dates.
Anyway, I'll let y'all know how it goes.
While we were in London we noticed that the British Royal Legion was in middle of its Poppy Appeal, a fund raiser held in conjunction with Remembrance Day, their equivalent of our Veterans Day and also celebrated on November 11. At Westminster Abbey, poppies were displayed on small wooden crosses in a Field of Remembrance to honor those who had died in service to their country, and they were also offering poppies to wear on your lapel for a donation of any size.
I was reminded of the small paper poppies from my childhood that people in this country used to wear on Veterans Day. They may still be worn, but it’s been years since I have seen any. So in honor of Veterans Day, coming up this Wednesday, I am reposting something I wrote last year.
A Sunday Favorite
On this Veterans Day I am reminded of my father, Captain Thomas Benton Walker, Sr., who served with the Timberwolves during World War II in Germany, France and Belgium.
After reading Scott Turow's Ordinary Heroes I became intrigued by The War and started going through a scrapbook that my Aunt Sissy, Daddy's sister, compiled with letters, photos and other things Daddy sent home from Europe. Unfortunately, I didn't even know about the scrapbook's existence until after Daddy died.
We've tried hiring professionals to catch them and carry them off to another zip code. They've put traps on the roof, traps on the deck, and traps in the attic, but in the past four or five years, they've only managed to catch one squirrel. And he died anyway, because it was on Christmas day, and by the time they were able to come carry him off, he had succumbed to nature.
This fall, however, LBeau got out one of the traps and set it in a flower pot on the deck. He placed it close to the spot right outside our bedroom where I have on numerous occasions watched a squirrel take a flying leap from the deck, scurry up the brick beside the den window, scramble onto the light fixture, and leap onto the roof, all in the span of about five seconds.
A few days later, the trap was sprung, but we failed to catch a thing. Then one day LBeau came home from work and found the trap missing. After a quick search of the area below the deck, we found it in a flower bed. Something had obviously been caught but had managed to free itself. In fact, a closer look at the trap revealed a tiny toe caught between its jaws. At this point we decided we should probably nail the chain that's attached to the trap to the deck.
At 2:30 this morning, I was awakened by a commotion outside our bedroom. At first I thought it was probably a squirrel running around in the gutter, but I soon decided that the trap had finally captured its prey. Although I had to relocate to another bed to get back to sleep, I was comforted knowing we were about to be rid of the squirrel.
Not so fast. It seems that what we had really captured was a rather large raccoon.
When I went outside to take his picture before LBeau turned him loose, he took a flying leap, pulled the chain loose from the deck, and headed down the steps into the early morning darkness. Fortunately, the chain caught on the deck railing, and LBeau was able to set him free.
In the meantime, during his captivity he decided that my garden hose had something to do with his predicament, and he proceeded to chew it in half.
So we're back to square one with the squirrel. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.
When I got this picture in an email earlier this week from my sister-in-law Susie, I knew I had to share it on Pink Saturday. It makes me happy just looking at it.
It also reminds me of a saying that I have pinned to my bulletin board. I'm not sure who gave it to me, but I think about it all the time, since I'm married to an engineer. So here's my thought for the day.
"Arguing with an Engineer is like wrestling in the mud with a pig. After a while you realize that the pig enjoys it!"
