popular What have you done today in the Garden?

My cat cleared out all the gophers I had on the farm. Then he'd bring them home to show me.

@Zigs Get that Grey Siamesey cat Grayham to go after them.

 

Grayham brings moles back and leaves them in the porch, doesn't like eating them

He brought a couple of rats in today

This is him inspecting a customer's van earlier

 

Today I started cleaning up the sticks and branches from the apple tree that I removed. I also removed two persimmon trees. I wanted to like persimmons, but the fact is, I don't, much.

I also pruned off a lot of tall offshoots (suckers) from the laburnum (golder chain) tree. It's interesting. Supposedly, it's toxic. But deer have been actively chewing on those tender offshoots.

I need to finish cleaning up that area, cut the trunks to ground level so not a mowing hazard, and remove some fencing. Then that area is completed for the winter.

 

Caught another Belding’s ground squirrel in the ‘Squirrelinator’ trap. Best trap I have ever purchased I have caught dozens of squirrels in the past 2 years. Been after the guy pictured in the trap below for several weeks. I’ve seen evidence of ground openings/mounds near the wooded side of the property.

In fact, Belding’s ground squirrels are the most damaging ground squirrel to agricultural crops in California and Oregon. They have decimated my garden in as little as 1 single year. Not only do they damage crops, but they can chew through irrigation lines, weaken levees and ditches with their burrows, kill trees chewing on roots and pose hazards for my maintenance mowers and other equipment. I lost a tire off the big tractor last year bumping in to a huge burrow . I lost 4 of my prized unusual trees from my collection of over 30 years of grooming and caring for due to ground squirrels. Had to have arborists/pros take them down - very spendy.

I spend a lot of time and money trying to manage them using methods as diverse as trapping, toxic baits, and burrow modification. Baiting with poison-coated seeds don’t work with them . But in my experience constant noise and movement by tractor and mower and keeping property extremely tidy has kept them at bay. They will devour unsalted peanuts and sunflower seeds. Bait the traps and in a few hours or days they will have taken the bait. It’s also been an unusually warm winter and they have not gone into hibernation yet.

The Belding’s squirrel shown in the cage below is a huge male, 12-14 inches long and I have forced most of them to stay in the wooded side of the property while treating occasional mounds that pop up in the garden and pastures. I’ve been playing WAC a Mole with this guy the last few weeks and I can finally rest at ease for a little while until I spot another while doing my rounds. Every day 2x’s a day thru rain, sleet and snow, I have to check the entire property. I think I could draw an entire map of every single blade of grass, plant, tree , weed, and shrubs all burned in my brain from patrolling the property so much to keep my property free from those extremely destructive Belding's squirrels.

Did I mention how destructive they are… I had a few choice words for them from loosing my beautiful 25 year old tree peony’s and hyacinths and so much more. . not replanting anything any more veggies either. Just managing to stay ahead of this demon of a squirrel is a lot of work where I could be enjoying life instead of plotting planning and eliminating squirrels that are as big as cats.

 

Oughhhhh, that's one Urrr-gly lookin' rodent you have there, but, one good thing: his tail would look really, Reeee-ally
good on a key chain.

 

A key chain with a long fuzzy squirrel tail . Well… ok I’ll send it over to ya.

 

I'll take it !!

 

Do you guys eat squirrels?
When I was there years ago there was a season for hunting them in the woods. They were a popular seasonal food among the farming community in some places. Those, groundhogs and rabbits.

I have eaten them and found them ok, but not as tasty as I had hoped. They are vegetarians, so I somehow expected them to be delicious.

Pac— good work. That ground squirrel’s tail looks awfully fuzzy. Those little red footsies look odd to me. That may be a new variation you’ve got there.

 

A lot of folks do eat tree squirrels in the US. Not tasted any myself. They are usually prepared in stews.

The pic above of the ground squirrel is not your average cutie pie squirrel. They are extremely destructive ground squirrels meaning they live under ground 24/7 and don’t climb trees . They can accumulate in huge numbers quickly and wipe out entire crops across several western US states in just a few weeks.

These ‘ Belder Ground squirrels’ live in underground huge burrows , have shorter legs, larger feet for digging underground tunnels , ( why their feet are larger than tree squirrels) , and shorter bushier tails. Similar to beavers that build burrows with trees and limbs from shrubs under water in ponds, lakes & rivers. Ground squirrels don’t eat plant seeds like other tree squirrels and they have huge cheek pouches for carrying food collected from underground roots of trees , shrubs , perennials , crops to their burrows underground for storage. Unlike tree squirrels they hibernate in underground huge burrows in winters for a short time.

 

Some people in the Country, meaning: sparsely populated areas, shoot and eat tree squirrel. We have both grey and red squirrels in Georgia. They haven't a thick coat and tend to be smaller than the ones up north and not as cute.

You can only shoot them in winter because they are full of worms the rest of the year, so they say. I ain't eatin' no wormy squirrel. I don't care for them alive. They are just pesky tree rats that make wild attacks on your bird feeder. Even the squirrel proof ones they still attack them to see if they can get something. AND, they fall out of the trees !! They can be adgile, but they do fall out a lot !!

I have a hankering for animal skins. I have my mole that I skun and a coyote face that I made into a knife sheath and a
purse I made from a tortoise shell and a purse from martin pelts. I know, I'm a bit weird.

 

Animal use objects described by Anniekay … nothing surprises me . I bet that Turtle purse made all those Beverly Hills housewives on tv green with envy!

PS: I have a beautiful cow hide hanging on the 2 story fireplace. And sofa cushions from cow hides. At least I don’t have to worry about fleas …

 

It's raining all day, so no garden work outside.

I puttered a little bit inside with the Phalaenopsis orchids. The three front ones recently started blooming again.

 

@Daniel W very nice phals… lovely blooms during the winter months.

Today was a rainy check of the garden and pastures. No critters noted.

 

I caught the Mole today, but not before he dug up a bit of Medieval pottery.

 

You could maybe train the mole to walk on a leash and take him where it's illegal to dig for relics. They can't arrest the mole, can they.?