That was just the beginning

Well, little red set off a ridiculous spending spree with wildlife management services (a quality company, Andy is referral-worthy).

First, there was the trapping of little red, which was super unpleasant.  Andy put the cage up, and I'm sure before he made it to the main road the squirrel was trapped, where he would stay until the next day.  Did I mention that window is right next to my side of the bed?  yeah, we were sleeping in another room, that freaked out squirrel scratching noise was not good.  Then, day 2 of trapment yielded a grey squirrel.  And another grey on day 3.  And then the hole was sealed.  Hooray!

Except, during the inspection Andy found a "major mouse infestation" in the basement.  I'm sorry, did we just buy this house?  like a sieve down there, and they come and go... and so, there was a massive effort to get rid of the mice.  We had to move a ridiculous amount of firewood (that the previous owners stacked next to the house), have the basement sealed up, and start operation mouse-kill with anti-coagulant.  I am thankful to say we are no longer cleaning up dead mice, and the basement is ours again (to finish, someday).

So, that's it, right?  we can start saving for said basement finish??? oh no, that is not it.  Here at 845 we are a woodpecker sanctuary.  I am not kidding, we have every kind of woodpecker you can think of, including those big duck-sized woody-woodpecker ones.  And, as the weather turns cooler one of the little ones decides he does not want to migrate and becomes hell-bent on making a home in our wood siding.  I can tell you he can make a 3inch hole in 3 hours, rip out the insulation and move in.  And then there is the call to Andy, who comes and patches the hole.  See how many holes? 

This is one persistent bird!  So we decided to try the why-is-it -so-expensive mylar "predator balloon".  This is actually our second one.  The first was yellow.  It worked for 6 days, but we came home from apple picking on Sunday and little Woody had made a new home (yeah, the one closest to the balloon), and now we have black.  We are on day 3.  I *really* don't want to have to either decide what new siding to get or pay for it.

The upside of all this is an awesome story from the neighbors (we've talked to neighbors maybe three times since moving here.  why is that?).  Anyway, they tell us that when they first moved in across the road they heard a loud noise early in the morning, looked out the window and found J, in his underwear, with a pistol, shooting at a woodpecker in this vicinity.  That's funny.  and makes me think new siding is in my future.

ps.  Mom and Dad, I'm going to try hard to give you a daily dose of life here, we miss you!