"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
Doug Kanter wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
Doug Kanter wrote:
"Bryan" wrote in message
m...
"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
"Bryan" wrote in message
. ..
"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
No squirrels at home???

Rats. Mice. Opossum. Skunk. Crow. Geese. Pigeon. Dove.
Egret. That's our suburban backyard. Some call it wildlife. Some
call it suburban wildlife. With the exception of the egrets, I just
call it pests. The lake is a wilderness area compared to our
suburban life, so the kids aren't used to seeing animals in their
natural habitat. Oh yeah, and I haven't seen a squirrel in the 10
years I've lived here.

Where's "here"?

Sonoma County near Santa Rosa.

I could package up a few dozen squirrels for you, if you're interested.
That would leave me with a few thousand.

My wife feeds the squirrels. Not close to the house, thankfully, but she
does put out their favorite seeds. She feeds all the other critters,
too. We have a couple of foxes that stop by for dinner at dusk. They
really are beautiful animals. One of our near neighbors has a pair of
llamas, but they are not roaming the forest.

Many gardeners would take your wife for a one-way boat ride. :-)
Squirrels can wreak havoc with seed beds. I like them, but there's no
need to attract them, and *definitely* no need to feed them. I've got my
entire garden caged, just so they won't dig around the various seedlings
which are sprouting all season long. Without cages, I'd never see
lettuce, carrots, or anything else.


She feeds "her" critters at the edge of our woods, so so far they haven't
come looking for anything other than her offerings. Some of those
offerings ain't too shabby. I left some fishheads out one evening, and one
of the foxes carried them off, one at a time, and then came back for the
tinfoil pie plate.

We grow some container tomatoes and peppers, that's about it. All the
other produce we get from local farmers.

I do that for some stuff. But, at least a couple of time each summer, I have
to have Silver Queen corn, from plant to plate in less than 5 minutes.
Amazing.