On Tue, 24 Nov 2015 13:41:29 -0500, Keyser Söze
wrote:

We put out grain blocks, corn and sunflower seeds at the edge of the woods

Yup, if you had a pet rat, that is what you feed them.
We had a bird feeder for a long time and never saw a rat, until the
night I took a 2 pound Norway off the feeder with my .22
Then we started watching and there were lots of them coming around
late at night.