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This is not what you want to find when rebuilding….

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Our old baby barn/shed has a dirt floor with heavy duty rubber mats on top. Due to numerous woodchuck holes and tunnels, we had to drag all the mats out. That sounded easy enough until I realized each one of them weighed the equivalent of an African elephant…

 

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Seriously.

A pregnant, morbidly obese African elephant carrying a suitcase I packed for an overnight trip.

 

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Did I mention they were all covered in pounds of dirt as well?

 

 

So as we’re moving the next to last mat…..

 

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This.

 

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A chipmunk burrow with tiny scraps of paper, plastic and leaves.

Upon further examination…

 

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A maze of tunnels, which I thought was pretty cool, until… it moved.

 

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Do you see the leg?

 

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Yeah.

 

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Not a tunnel.

A nursery…

 

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Which means we had to find the other end of the tunnel and relocate them. Not an easy task.

Five minutes after we found them?

Momma found us.

 

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And she wasn’t happy.

She ran around squawking and chirping and looking for her babies.

 

 

After a while I think she found them, because she stopped searching and started stuffing.

Stuffing her little cheek pouches full of all those little scraps of paper….

 

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And scurrying back for more.

Within minutes she’d cleaned up the whole lot.

Watch her cram a dried leaf that’s almost bigger than she is below.

(And please pardon my husband’s cursing. Things were not going well with the rebuild at this point…)

 

 

After we wasted time relocating chipmunks, we realized we had to relocate a bird’s nest as well.

 

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So many evictions.

I felt like an evil slumlord.

 

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Back to work…. and things did not go well.

Which was completely the husband’s fault.

 

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He had the crazy idea he could square the building properly  (After 40 plus years of Maine frost heaves? Madness!)  and changed the original footprint….. which in turn threw everything off kilter.

More good times.

 

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Did I mention he uses tools from the 1950’s picked up at a yard sale or the dump?

This little jewel feels like it weighs 50 lbs.

 

But he has the original box… and vintage lube.

So it’s special.

 

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P.S.  For those of you who pay attention, this post is actually out of sequence. That back wall is gone now. Apparently my blog scheduling has run amok.

 

 

 

42 thoughts on “This is not what you want to find when rebuilding….”

  1. Oh my goodness! Those babies are soooo cute! Did you pick them up and put them into the hole? What a strange place to make a home.

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  3. I’m glad the babies were reunited with Mom. We have chipmunks, and I’ve been worried that I am going to uncover / destroy their home. I’m worried, but they aren’t. They are undermining our walk and who knows what all with their tunnels.

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  6. Sooo could this be the asshole chipmunk that planted a sunflower in your patio table top flower/planter? They are cute, I’m sure mama chipmunk was having a fit when her babies weren’t where she left them, lol.

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  7. Maybe the chipmunk stuffed your blogs down in the hole with her babies y’all disturbed……you know. Just to get even with you so YOU are out of sorts like she was. LOL

    Would explain why they seem to have run amok….

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  8. Holy s**t that was cute! Squirrels will carry huge loads of stuff around with their mouths, but not actually stuff it in their cheeks. That’s the first time I got to see a chipmunk at work, and I’m quite impressed!

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      2. Not really. Chipmunks are like mice here, they chew through everything and wreak a lot of havoc. Had to have my car towed to the shop 3 times one winter because they kept building nests in my engine.

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      3. I had some “critter” store some food in the engine compartment of my Jeep once or twice when I lived on Minnesota. I only happened over about a week when i wasn’t driving the car. They also chewed through the fuel line ***I’ll bet that turned them off*** at that time. Still, never had the car taken to the garage as I was able to repair the damage with parts I had on hand.

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  13. Sorry you’re a slumlord. I’m kinda stuck on the whole VINTAGE LUBE thing. Dang it. Gotta get my head back outta the gutter. But the children! Won’t someone think of the children?? Those babies are the cutest 😀

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  17. It’s probably too late now but if you find any more animals, I recommend that you re-re-locate the bird and chipmunk babies back to your barn, hang a sign that says Animal Sanctuary, charge an admission fee, and build a new barn elsewhere.

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  18. Have I ever seen baby chipmunks? NO! How frickin cute are those?!
    I sure hope she did find them. Seems likely. If someone took my babies from their cribs I’da gone about squeaking to high heaven too.

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