You are Nuts

Before we left Snowflower, I forgot to share a most humorous story.

Our family from Sacramento visited us the weekend we stayed in that gloriously beautiful forested preserve. Being in a forested area, it was rather natural that the wildlife was quite abundant.

We saw animal tracks and scat everywhere (not literally, yuck), including raccoon, deer, coyote, and maybe even bear. Ooooh, scary. They are known to be in the area, you know. Don’t leave your ice chest unattended overnight or you may find your hotdogs and Hersey’s bars munched and your root beer guzzled. They like root beer. Just ask the A&W bear.

As we relaxed, only 20 yards from the lake, all of a sudden we heard a loud bang. It sounded like some prankster had thrown a rock at our roof. Then a few minutes later, boom! again. And again and again and again every few minutes. There really wasn’t much we could do, once we spotted the culprit.

It was a squirrel, and the “rocks” were pinecones. He was busily chewing at the base of each pinecone, releasing it from the tree and dropping it, quite literally in one case, on our heads.

He was relentless in his pursuit to destroy our vehicle rooftops. And his shenanigans cut our evening short, after one of his missiles landed directly on our son-in-law’s new car.

Oh my, if Dale and Ken could have gotten ahold of that squirrel, Tinker might have gotten a real squirrel to add to her squirrel obsession, er, collection of toys, I mean.

Not to be beat by a mere rodent, as the pinecones hit the ground, Ken scurried to collect each one he saw drop—six in all. Needless to say, the squirrel saw his hard work being stolen, and he gave Ken the worst scolding I have ever heard from such a little creature.

Over the past few weeks, those heavy, metal denting, sap-laden pinecones have been drying out, under Ken’s careful watch. They are now giving up their prize—gloriously tasty pine nuts.

Oh, the pesto we can make. Dale, I’ll have to save you some, for the trouble you have endured because of one pesky little squirrel and trying to get that dent fully out of your roof. We love you, and honest, we aren’t laughing at you. We are laughing with you. If it helps, you can show these pictures to the insurance company!

Love and hugs,

Jenni