Sunrise – Sunset and Critters vs. Varmints!

…pausing my ongoing posts and narrative re: our August trip to the northeastern USA…

Retirement here in East Tennessee has been a very positive experience for over 9 years now.  Seasons come and go, although much less extreme than in Chicago, and the local critters still come by and entertain us.  Even in Mt. Prospect Illinois northwest of Chicago, we had lots of birds, opossums, an occasional raccoon, cute little squirrels and from time to time, a wandering coyote.

But this is all about life here in East Tennessee…

Laurie captured these photos showing a nice sunrise over Tellico Lake.  They are unusual photos because we’re rarely up this early in the morning.  We stay up late and get up late…the reverse of my days in retailing.

Yes, we do get snow here in Paradise… These photos show the result of the only snow ‘storm’ that we’ve had here (south of Knoxville) so far this year. (As of 2/16/19) It melted in a day and a half!

Now about the critters… We do like critters!  The more birds and animals we see in our neighborhood, the happier we are.  Our feeders are well maintained by my better half.  Finches ruled at the moment this photo was taken.  Hawks occasionally visit the feeder too...if you know what I mean.

Flocks of turkey, numbering up to 30 or more frequently graze their way through our yard.  FYI, we haven't seen any coyotes in the neighborhood but we have seen a fox cruising down the street.

We get lots of deer too, although new homes in the neighborhood have reduced the number of visits.  The first photo is of a deer checking us out as we near our home.  The second shows a doe peeping over the deck to see what we’re doing…

Even though we don’t provide meal worms, hungry bluebirds still visit our feeders!

Now the question is, when does a critter become a varmint?  I’ll use these black vultures to define the difference…at least in my mind.  These vultures are sitting on one of our neighbors roofs. 

Note the white fecal blotches in the first photo. (Vultures are carrion eaters…and rotted meat fecal matter stains and smells) On our neighbor’s roof, these vultures are ‘critters’.  If they were on our roof, they would definitely be called ‘varmints’.  Fortunately, my Red Ryder BB-Gun irritates them just enough that they stay off our roof.  They have great memories too.

So, what is this truck from Varmint Busters Wildlife Management Services doing in our driveway?

The answer is quite simple.  A number of ‘our’ critters have now become varmints!  We were invaded by squirrels!  Russell from Varmint Busters has to climb up on our sharply peaked roof to set traps for the buggers.  (Yes, they’re being humanly removed…)

So...as the movie line goes, "Who ya going to call".  This time it was Varmint Busters...

Here is one of our unwelcome guests poking his head out of his temporary home.  We’re not sure how a hole was made above the soffit at the peak of the roof.  Was it a falling branch from a recent tree removal, a bit of chewing where we lost a shingle or what?  We’ll never know.

Since the weather forecast called for significant rainfall, Laurie suggested that Russell should tack down a roofing shingle on one side so that it would keep the rain out but not trap the squirrels under the roof.  In effect, they now had a temporary door on their very temporary abode!

What we do know is that we started hearing critters running around above us in the house.  A mama squirrel apparently delivered her brood under the protection of our roof… For a couple of days, especially in the morning, it sounded like there was a race going all over the ceiling area above us! 

The traps do work!  The little b_____d on the left is asking his sibling, ‘what are you doing in there?  Come out and play!’ 

…and another one bites the dust!  First Russell caught the mama and as I write this we’ve also caught 3 of her offspring.  We think that we have at least 2 more that will have to be moved before we can really squirrel proof that hole in our roof!

Update!  We apparently caught every squirrel that mattered!  No activity for 4 days so Russell repaired the roof and life goes on...

One positive is that the trapping routine has provided a bit of entertainment for ourselves, a few neighbors and especially the construction crew that is already way behind on completing the new house next door.  They checked the traps more than we did!  FYI, Russell has shown us possums and skunks he’s caught in his daily rounds.

Squirrels are expensive… There is a significant initial service charge for evaluation and set up plus a charge for each of the little b_____ds that are removed.  It adds up fast!  Then of course, we needed a little repair work…

Varmint Busters Wildlife Management Services are based in Knoxville Tennessee.  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Varmint-Busters-127734886099/. 

So…as the moon rises over paradise, our remaining squirrel population is  wondering where mama and her 3 siblings went, and things are much quieter in the ceiling above us.  It’s been just one small glitch in our happy life in East Tennessee. (Moon rise photos by Laurie)

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by to check out the excitement at our house!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave