Squirrel Wars

Mark got the last egg this morning for breakfast to go with his blueberry pancakes and sausage. I had used the rest of them on Thursday to make 2 pumpkin dump cakes. One for potluck today and one was put in the freezer for Tuesday. At 9:00 am I left for mom's. Karin was working on a new portrait and I recognized who it was instantly. His head isn't quite right but the smile was perfect. In case you are wondering who it is, this is a picture of our dad. 

Mom and I checked out poor Jackie sitting on her 3 eggs during this awful storm in California. That poor eagle was covered with snow and sleet. We watched her shake her head but she really did look miserable. We did some research and found she had been sitting for 30 hours straight. Shadow brought her a big fish as a reward but Jackie wasn't willing to let him sit on the eggs during that time. While talking with mom I noticed that cheeky dead beat squirrel was back stealing the sunflower seeds from the bird feeder. He is a fat good for nothing young male that instead of working for food like the other squirrels just bullies the birds. I opened the door to shoo him away and he just went behind the pole.

He didn't even wait for me to go back inside before he was back at stealing.

Mom feels sorry for him and told me to let him eat but I decided, NOT ON MY WATCH. After the first time of yelling loudly and scaring both mom and the cat I was a little more discrete on shooing him away. The cat was shocked and had to get off her couch to come to the door but refused to chase him away. 

Mom needs to borrow Israel's dog Rizzy for a few days. That dog would take care of the dead beat. Check out the video below to see how insulted that squirrel is when told to leave even trying to come back for another mouthful. 

He was not in a hurry unless I got close enough to hit him. Mom really enjoys watching the birds and someone gave her a beautiful glass hummingbird for the winter.

I left for home when Karin came home. About 3:00 pm it started snowing and snowing hard. We were supposed to leave for potluck at Amy's house in Tremont, IL about 5:25 pm but the snow was coming down and covering the roads so quickly we decided to leave at 5:00 pm giving us an hour for a drive that usually takes 35 minutes. It was a good thing we did. The roads were snow covered and slippery. The traffic was moving but very slowly and it took almost the entire hour to get there. We had a wonderful time at Potluck and were joined by Lynette & Ron, Diane & Scott, David T & June, Beth, Amy & Ken and Bruce. Amy's potluck has been together for 50 years this year and WOW do they know how to cook. The meal was every bit as nice as a 5 star restaurant with the added bonus of being with friends. As it was Valentines day Amy had given each of us a heart shaped box of chocolates. 

With dessert she also gave each of us our own special Valentine. We really enjoyed the evening. Mark and I were the first to leave though as we had to drive home yet. Even though it was only 28 degrees the snow had changed over to rain and sleet. As the plows had been out salting the roads we were able to make it home in 45 minutes instead of taking the hour. We were both glad to get home and crawl into bed.