Bad Blogger, Bad Blogger!

(Read the title in a stern voice while mentally hitting me on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper.  :D)


I cannot believe that it has been almost a month since I wrote a post.  Now, my life isn't especially busy and I haven't really forgotten about this blog, so the only explanation is pure laziness.  And I am going to try to be better.  Yes, I make false promises all of the time.  I guess I should be a politician!  :D

Since I was here last, a few things have happened.  The weather has turned warm enough for us to need a/c, so we installed two of the units we have.  Tomorrow we need to put the one upstairs because The Youngest and her husband are coming here on Wednesday and it is impossible to be in that bedroom without air!  So, tomorrow is planned for us.  I can't wait for them to get here--I do miss her so much.

Of course, we have the 4th of July coming up on Wednesday.  I am not a holiday person, so I don't get caught up in any of the festivities and don't miss it at all.  And K is on night shift, so it isn't as if I have the opportunity to do anything anyway.  What I WILL be doing on the 4th is getting ready for company.  Not only is The Youngest and her husband coming to stay, but The Oldest and her family will come here for the day on the 5th.  So, I will be entertaining and feeding 13 people that day.  And that is what I will be preparing for on the 4th while others are eating, drinking, being merry, and watching fireworks displays.  And I am okay with that.

In other news...

I have, over the years, talked far too much about our chipmunk problem.  Because we live in the city, we can't shoot the little buggers.  And K won't poison them for fear that someone's (illegally) roaming pet might accidentally get into it, so we are pretty much screwed.  With K working full time, he just doesn't have enough free time to live trap, so we just try to deal the best we can.  I have been getting increasingly worried that our yard might collapse from all of the underground tunneling, but we haven't seen any indication of that--yet.  I can't begin to count the number of holes we have in our yard--it is starting to look like a prairie dog village.

The biggest reason for our chipmunk problem is our neighbors.  They have a food pile that they keep year-round, so wildlife of all kinds are in our neighborhood every day/night.  They set up their trail camera and found that deer, raccoons, skunks, fox, and coyotes show up.  Of course, part of their food pile is strictly for birds--they feed the ducks--and that is what mostly attracts the chipmunks.  They finally figured out that the chipmunks were getting to be a problem when they started going through 50 pounds of sunflower seeds per week, so they decided to do something to decrease the population. Also, the rodents were tunneling under their driveway and it was beginning to affect the stability of it!  Both are retired, so L decided to do live trapping--his wife won't allow killing the little rats, so he had no other choice.  L put out three traps and as of last week, he has already caught and relocated 108 chipmunks.  And I am definitely seeing the difference.  Chipmunk sightings have decreased--a lot!  I was seeing multiple chipmunks every time I looked out one of my windows and now it is a bit rare to see two at once--or even one--whenever I look outside.  I am ecstatically happy about this and can only hope he will continue to trap.  The only way I could be happier is if we get rid of every single chipmunk from our neighborhood--something that I know will never happen, but I can hope.