I love the city, and I am happy that two of my boys are living in New Orleans and loving every minute of the history, music, and art, but let me get back home to my spacious lawn with straggly azaleas and gardenias, spindly pine trees and lazy oaks constantly shedding limbs.
When I left the classroom six years ago to take an intervention job in downtown Slidell, every evening I would come home and sit outside on my patio just breathing in the sound of the birds chirping as I watched squirrels scamper and leap from the tree tops. There were no train whistles or sirens, no horns blowing or tires squealing. In fact, one of the many joys of living in small towns and open spaces is getting to interact with Mother Nature, which is why I had quite a laugh reading a recent post from very old and dear friends who live in Franklinton.
It seems the beauty of a simplistic small town life has its limits especially when squirrels begin to attack. Their lights had begun to flicker causing apparent power surges and a quick inspection from the linemen revealed wires had been gnawed down to the steel core by squirrels. Sharpening teeth? Bored? Or a greater conspiracy? Our neighbor recently cut down every last shrub, tree, and branch around his two story house for this exact reason, leaving the house looking quite bare but apparently safe from invaders.
We had another neighbor who reported a squirrel had built a nest in his brand new riding lawn mower and chewed through the wires, ruining it. Being retired, he now sits outside on his open patio and shoots at them. Problem is he was never a hunter and grew up in the city in Wisconsin, so the squirrels just seem to find it all a game as little pellets bounce off trees and they scamper all over his rooftop and rob his bird feeders.
Throughout the years, on multiple occasions we have found baby squirrels so small they had yet to grow fur. They would get knocked out of the trees when a tropical depression or storm would blow over. The boys would nurse them back to health with a heating pad and pet milk, and soon they would be released to the yard.
When Jacob was little his dad took him and his brother squirrel hunting in the woods behind their grandmother's house. After a few hours or walking up and down hills they gave up frustrated only to return home where my husband heard three shots in a row. Jacob soon appeared carrying three squirrels by the tail. At ten he was a better shot than the old guy next door and, truth be known, yard squirrels are tamer than the ones who live just hills away in the woods. The yard squirrels never knew what hit them.
All the small critters that dwell in our neighborhood intrigue me, from the rabbits who rob my garden living beneath the azaleas, to the fox who has dug a den under our old shed on the back corner, to the birds who relentlessly build nests too close to the lab's curious eyes. However, there is something on the market that claims to do the job if these critters are refusing to cooperate with your lifestyle. It is an Ultrasonic Squirrel Repeller that emits high-frequency sound waves humans cannot hear, but squirrels can and as advertised leave for good.
Personally, I am skeptical. I can imagine the LED flashing light and the motion sensor triggering quite a few conversations in those tree top nests like, "Well there goes the neighborhood. The noisy humans are at it again!" as they pick their teeth with a lawn mower spark plug. But, the gadget doesn't seem too expensive and may be worth a try. Likely as effective as my fake owl I put in a tree to stop a woodpecker. I stepped outside to see the bird perched on the fake owl, looking down at me. They had become friends. Mother Nature always gets the last laugh.
