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Inter species meetings happen quite often in our backyard.
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Sometimes these end peacefully.
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Other times not.
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The not requires turning on three Scentsy burners and multiple fans.
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This was definitely a not.
🤢
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A stinky encounter.
Tag Archives: backyard
Such a tease….
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When you’re a housebound cat, squirrels on the patio furniture are the ultimate tease.
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So close!
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Poor Dudley.
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Even Momma Red got in on the game.
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His Lordship was actively cackling when she showed up.
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So close, and yet so far.
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Because I’m not totally heartless.
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Mother red squirrel was perched in the boxwood this morning.
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And though I could have chased her out…
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She was happily munching so I let her be.
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As long as she’s not trying to take up residence in our house again?
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I suppose I can call a temporary truce.
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I think this qualifies.
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Have you ever had an oh shit moment?
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The look on this woodchuck’s face says he’s about to have one.
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My worst nightmare come true….
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She’s back.
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And this time she brought reinforcements.
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She was running to and fro, across our deck, up and over the roof.
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Plotting her next invasion location.
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But the worst part?
Look….
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She’s trying to recruit the grey squirrels!
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Apple munching cuteness.
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I want to stay mad at them.
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But when they’re this damn cute?
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It’s hard.
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They’re leaving my flowers alone for now.
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And seem to be satisfied stealing the deer apples.
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Cute little buggers.
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Because I had to….
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We had a spell of wicked dry weather this summer. No rain for weeks… so everything was brown and dry.
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Including the chucker family. They’re too short to reach the bird bath I kept filling, so I took to offering them a drink on their level.
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I’d never watered woodchucks before and wasn’t sure how they’d take to it….
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But the poor thirsty things ran right to the bowl as soon as I walked back into the house.
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Guess they needed something to wash down those weeds.
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From Hell it came….
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Moving around the corner of the house with the husband’s new toy….
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More shrubbery was tamed. (Yes, I’m aware we’re missing a few shutters. They’re in the garage, where they’ve been since they blew off the house 4 years ago. That’s how long I’ve been bugging the husband to put them back up. 😖 )
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And in the other corner?
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The flowering quince bush from Hell. I annually curse whoever planted this abomination of a plant.
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Every year we wack it down.
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And every year it grows back up to the roofline. If we let it go unchecked? I believe it would swallow the house in one gulp.
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It’s pretty when it blooms, and yes….
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It produces (inedible) quince fruit, but it’s an utter nightmare the rest of the year. Did I mention the beast is also full of thorns? Good times when you have to gather it up, stuff it in a garden cart and haul it down to the woods, over and over again.
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The woods that are wayyyy down there. At times it seemed like the trimming would never end.
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But we finally got it down to the last few branches.
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Before….
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And many sweaty hours after….
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Is it pretty? No.
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Heck, with the husband wielding the trimmer it isn’t even straight. But it’s smaller… and we can see out the windows again.
That’s a win when battling demonic shrubbery.
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There’s safety in numbers.
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In life, you sometimes have to fight for what’s yours.
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And if you’re a baby woodchuck, you have to fight birds.
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They’re always in the way…
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And always eating your food.
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At times, you’re outnumbered.
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And when that happens?
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You call in reinforcements.
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When the buffet gets crowded.
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When the nightly buffet of apples and deer grain is laid…
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I also put out some special grain free dry dog food with taurine for the fox and skunks.
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Problem is the woodchucks and ducks like it as well and scarf it up quickly.
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But sometimes they have competition.
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And a stand off with Starlings begins.
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Sometimes it gets physical.
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River's world..... 