Living with wildlife

I guess meteorologists are no longer calling our repeated returns to frigid weather polar vortices. It's just a brutally cold winter. Cold for everyone and every thing... I never wondered about what squirrels did over the winter but with such cold temps and frequent snow, I know one resourceful squirrel decided to make the move into our house.

Yeah, at first it was a scrabbling in the ceiling as the squirrel tried exiting after his one warm night inside, then he tumbled down a far wall into the basement. We grabbed a broom to herd him out without success, and just wow! squirrels have no fear if they decide to attack. Our next strategy was to create a "path to paradise" using a trail of sunflower seeds up the basement stairs to the garage & freedom. Well, once fed, squirrel-zilla found his happy place in our basement ceiling with evening trips inside bedroom walls to nestle in comfy insulation. Nerves frayed and somewhat sleep deprived, I called Handyman Todd who gallantly supplied a live catch trap to snag the critter. Little did we know squirrel-zilla was also the Einstein of squirrel-dom.... Squirrel snacked on the peanut butter sandwich bait and got out before the trap door snapped down. It took two more days before "Einstein squirrel" got hungry enough to try the now WD-40 greased trap but we got him! Handyman Todd then relocated our squirrel. What a relief! I can honestly say rodents have been scratched from my cute list.

With the brutal cold we have been indoors a lot... Passing the time getting a head start on Spring cleaning (yes, the basement post squirrel), watching movies, and playing boardgames. We hauled out Star Wars Monopoly for a retro evening of truly fierce wheelin' & dealin' with my savvy older kids. Even a few childhood card games have resurfaced  as current favorites, Crazy Eights (see here for game info:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy eights ), rule around here and a pack of cards now permanently resides on the kitchen table. Knitting of course, has been in hand and I shall have an upcoming post highlighting the current project soon.