Henri the Squirrel

Listen To Mama

Liz James · August 15, 2017 ·

Yesterday was such an awesome day! So fun…. Henri brought the kid(s) down for a meet and greet. Honestly, I’m not sure if there were one or two babies. Briefly, it seemed like there were squirrel sightings all over our porch. In retrospect, I believe there might have been two. Teenage squirrels are not the best climbers. It’s definitely a skill that is honed with age and experience. Neither is jumping and leaping….. I would have to give them a solid ‘B’…. and that only for attempting everything their mama asked of them.

Henri chattered pretty much incessantly all morning. She scolded, coached, and cajoled them, and then would talk to me. Her body language was so very interesting. She wanted to make it very clear to ‘the kids’ that I was a friend. Henri jumps on me occasionally…. maybe once or twice a month. Yesterday, she bounded back and forth between my shoulder and the porch railing as if to say, “See, she’s harmless!”. She also spent time with the dogs, talking to them ….. venturing close to them…. and even once left the porch railing to run between their legs.

In addition to introducing the teens to me (and the dogs), Henri also made a clear effort to show them the food stations, where the water was, and how to get from the roof to the porch (there are a few ways she does this). The coaching lasted well into the afternoon…. a surprise……she usually takes a siesta during the heat of the day. I’m fairly certain she was giving them all the info so that she could shut off the free ride/milk supply. They are about the age Henri was when we began acclimating her to living outdoors. I guess we handled that right as adoptive squirrel parents!

I’m praying that these little guys/gals will decide to relocate to the trees behind our house and not choose to live on the porch with Henri. Everything I read states that squirrels generally prefer solitude vs running around as a pack (technically, a scurry)….. and I hope it’s true. I don’t want to get a reputation as the crazy squirrel lady!

Top O’ The World(or at least the chimney)

Liz James · August 2, 2017 ·

Henri has not yet revealed her babies to us. We can tell they are still nursing, so we just have to assume they are ok. Surely we’ll see them soon!

Squirrels are such interesting little characters. They truly are one of God’s cheeky little creatures….. full of sass and impertinence. As vulnerable as they are, you’ve got to give them credit for ingenuity and confidence…. well, until their indecisiveness kicks in when they are trying to cross a road!
I was curious about literary greats who used squirrels in their works. (Don’t ask me why… it was a squirrel moment for me.) Sadly, squirrels don’t seem to portend anything happy or good according to a list I found…. at least in literature. But for me, they are a symbol of joy with a dash of bossiness thrown in for good measure!

I did find this poem in my search. It’s clever. I read a fair amount of RWE in high school and college. He too apparently saw sass and impertinence in our fox tailed friend!

The Mountain And The Squirrel
By Ralph Waldo Emerson

The mountain and the squirrel
Had a quarrel,
And the former called the latter
“Little prig.”
Bun replied,
“You are doubtless very big;
But all sorts of things and weather
Must be taken in together
To make up a year
And a sphere.
And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.
If I’m not so large as you,
You are not so small as I,
And not half so spry:
I’ll not deny you make
A very pretty squirrel track.
Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;
If I cannot carry forests on my back,
Neither can you crack a nut.”

Source

Y’all have a blessed day,
Liz

Conversations with Henri

Liz James · July 18, 2017 ·

Henri continues to keep her babies hidden, although we can hear them now. I’m pretty confident that we’ll soon see how many she has. She leaves them for longer periods of time, and is spending time relaxing on the porch with us, the cats, and the dogs. The interaction between species really is an amazing thing to witness.

She loves rosehips, but in this pic she looks like she’s giving me ‘the treatment’.

She doesn’t like it when I wear tank tops because when she jumps, there’s nothing to hold on to. I don’t care for that either! Squirrels have sharp claws!

Here’s a few pics from one of our afternoons together. She is a wild squirrel now, and much like a temperamental cat, she chooses when and where she wants interaction. There are days that she is incredibly affectionate and wants petting, and there are other days where she just wants food and a brief hello. Aren’t we all like that, really?

We don’t push her, we just appreciate her presence. I’m still toying with getting her spayed, and really need to start investigating my options (ie: look for an exotic animal vet that will do it). Otherwise, we’ll be rehoming youngsters for the rest of our lives!

War, Volunteers, Gnomes, & Mama (Whew!)

Liz James · June 21, 2017 ·

I’ve been so busy this last month that I’ve barely had time to come up for air. I feel like I’ve left so many discussions hanging. And now, I’m so far behind, that in order to be sequential, I’d have to write about six posts just to get you caught up on current affairs on the farm. Sheesh. May and June are just flying by! That said, this post is going to be a mish mash of current affairs…. cliff notes country style!

Garden Warfare You may recall my frustration with cucumber beetles. I’m happy to report that my non toxic mixture of beetle repellent worked remarkably well. It at least allowed us to get past the tender seedling age unscathed. As you can see, my garden is a hot mess of success. We were out of town for about 8 days (that will definitely be a different post!), and Lord have mercy on these weed pulling hands. We’ve got a lotta pickin’ and pullin’ to do! I’m harvesting peppers, beans, tomatoes, onions, garlic, CUCUMBERS and zucchini with many varieties of squash nearing pick-ability. My melons are looking good but no where near picking yet. They got such a late start. Our blackberries started coming in last week, so we’ve got at least a month of intensive picking before that season ends.

Volunteers: There came a time during the dark days of beetle domination that I feared my garden would fail this year. I was literally feeling victorious when ANYTHING survived beetle mastication. I guess that’s why I let every little volunteer tomato plant grow where it was naturally sown last fall. I literally did not plant a single one of these plants. In fact, I thinned them tremendously prior to our eight days of absence… but you could never tell it. Anyone need any tomatoes? We are about to be tomato heaven around here.

Teen Mom: Henri has still not given us any clue as to exactly where she’s stashed her babies. She comes down daily and asks for food, and I can tell she’s tired, as all mothers of multiples must be. She’s even taken to hiding her nuts closer to home…. tucking them here and there on the porch. One afternoon, she came down and asked for nuts. I gave her a few…. she ran over to a spot of sun on the porch rail and lay down for about five minutes with the nut in her mouth, almost like she was too tired to eat. She seemed to relish the sunshine, silence, and stillness.

I had a talk with her and told her that this is what happens when you get frisky with male squirrels. Hopefully, (doubtfully) she will take my advice to heart. I am still looking for a vet who is willing to spay a semi wild squirrel….

I’m already speaking of June in the past tense… even tho it’s the 21st, it seems like July is already here knocking on our door. The garden tugs at our time persistently like an impatient child and the summer heat has settled in today, the longest day of the year. I love the long daylight hours, I’m a farmgirl who easily could throw her clock out the window and simply live according to when the sun rises and sets, if only the rest of the world could too! More later ya’ll…. I’m headed out to pull weeds.

“A Year”, They Said

Liz James · June 20, 2017 ·

Remember that post where I breathed a sigh of relief because Henri wasn’t preggers?….and then I breathed another sigh of relief because “they” said that squirrels don’t reach sexual maturity until they are 10-11 months old? Well, who ever “they” are needs to rewrite their squirrel biology book…. either that, or Henri is one incredibly precocious 8 month old squirrel, and has clearly been flitting around when we weren’t looking when she was 6 or 7 months old.

Look what’s going on here…. (I’ve circled the evidence). Somebody(s) is being fed the traditional mammal way….. via the mammary route. Lord help us. As my husband said…..”And NOW, we have a squirrel problem”. (He smiled when he said it, but we’re both thinking the same thing). We’ve not seen the wee ones yet, but I’m sure we will in a few weeks. That will give us time to put a plan together. I’m open to ideas, suggestions etc as to humanely catch and release littles into the world. We have acreage so I do think we could simply move them about 20 acres away and that should be sufficient. I fear the same would not be true for Henri. Her home is here and she knows it. Does anyone know if it’s possible to spay a somewhat wild squirrel??? I’m doing the ‘if 1 squirrel has 6 babies, and .5 of them have 6 babies etc story problem in my head and I see us quickly outnumbered’. This is going to be an interesting summer!