Too Many Chipmunks! - Summer 2007


One Chipmunk Has Been Deported to Doolittle Park (Update: Two Chipmunks)

Word of the Day

Clingypookie - The small piece of dust on the floor in the corner of the kitchen under the cabinet that refuses to be swept up or vacuumed.

Best laid plans.... I was going to get up and go berry picking before breakfast. I changed my mind after I took the seed feeders outside and felt the heat and humidity settle around my shoulders. It's hot! Actually, 80°F isn't all that hot but when you factor in the humidity? There is no way that I'm going to be able to hike our 1/2 mile driveway and back without getting sick. Not in this soup. The humidity seems to settle on your shoulders and press down on you. It takes all your energy just to walk around with all that added weight. There's an actual haze outside (not to be confused with my glasses fogging up due to the change in temperatures from outside to inside). Sis and I had planned to go out fishing today. She called me this morning and we both decided that it was just too darn hot out. Maybe another day.

I decided to set up Havahart traps in my garden yesterday. The chipmunks are taking more than their share of my green beans. I was only able to pick a handful of green beans to go with our supper last night. I already caught one chipmunk and added him to the population over at Doolittle Park. Miles from here. When I slogged (you don't actually walk in this humidity)out to the garden to check my traps this morning, I noted that two had been tripped. No chipmunks. I re-set them and I'll check again later this afternoon. I suspect that I should oil one of the traps that used to belong to my Grandparents. I'm beginning to think that a chipmunk can do a hula on the bait tray and it wouldn't trip that trap. My little trap (brand new) works great...but I only have the one. I borrowed a bigger trap from my folks but it's too big for chipmunks. Maybe I'll get a squirrel. I'll keep you posted on my running chipmunk count. I don't kill them...I deport them.

Murphyism of the Day

Esther's Law

The fussiest person will be the one to get the chipped coffee cup, the glass with lipstick, or the hair in the food.

Noteworthy Quote of the Day

Soar, eat ether, see what has never been seen; depart, be lost, but climb.
-- Edna St. Vincent Millay