Recent Adventures

Okay, so i promised some more stories as soon as i got a chance, and here i am.

Squirrel in the Basement
     A few weeks ago, The♥Hubster was startled by a squirrel in the basement as he left for work.  He called up the basement stairs to warn me, but i saw neither hide nor hair of the beast all that morning or evening.  I did however see some of the wreckage its wrath incurred (ceiling tiles down, various things on the floor that should have been on shelves, etc.), not to mention squirrel poops.  That night, we figured out that the squirrel had gotten in through our woodstove chimney -- we had not lit a fire the night before -- & had dislodged a piece of the pipe, through which it escaped into our basement.
     Our gameplan was to leave the basement door open (to the outside world) for a few evenings in hopes that "Lucky," the squirrel, could get away... on reflection, that decision could have been disasterous, should we have inadvertantly invited in more squirrels, the neighborhood family of skunks, or one of those creepy, glowing-eyed marsupials with a rat tail (whose name i refuse to write, lest it conjure one of them from night's abyss -- eww)! We thought our gameplan worked, but little did we know...
     The day after we quit leaving the basement door ajar, The♥Hubster returned from work to find the squirrel sitting on a box in the laundry room.  Our "fearless lioness," La Femme Nikita (or Kiki, for short), entered the house on The♥Hubster's heels, eager for her canned dinner, until she saw the squirrel (which was apparently fairly large) and she turned tail and ran the other direction. Some hunter.  The♥Hubster called me to let me know that we still had a visitor (who had shimmied into the bottom of the box on which he sat) & then took our "hellhound," Oscar, with him to the basement.  Oscar is too smart for his own good sometimes.  The♥Hubster pointed out the squirrel in the box & told Oscar to get it.  Oscar sat down & looked at him like "i'm not sticking my nose in there! it might bite me!!"  So, The♥Hubster decided to make a trap using our cat carrier & some peanuts.  It didn't really work, so he took Oscar back up stairs because the dog kept trying to eat the peanuts in the trap (not to mention that he's so socially inept, we can't allow for the chance he might escape the house through the basement & scare/hurt one of the neighborhood kids) before he came down to move the box (& squirrel) out of the basement.
     Naturally, as soon as The♥Hubster started moving the box, the squirrel shot out of it, ran into The Studio portion of the basement, scurried up a wall & hid in the rafters.  Visitor = 5, Home = 0
     When i got home, The♥Hubster and i spent more than an hour standing on the woodstove, trying to poke, prod, lure with food, dog-catcher noose, squirt-gun, reason with, make squirrel noises at, & sweet-talk the squirrel out of his hiding spot (a space in the rasters about 8 inches wide & 2.5 feet long).  The poor thing was not looking well, but we think it was just dehydration and/or malnutrition -- he had been down there about 3 or 4 days with no water or food. Finally, after switching from a cat carrier to a bankers' box with peanuts & using a piece of narrow PVC with a little plastic hook on the end, we were able to sweet-talk/poke him in the tush to urge him out.  He hopped into the bankers' box & we popped the lid on & rushed him outside.
     We stood back after opening the lid, but nothing happened.  We crept forward... the little bugger was contentedly eating peanuts & not interested in leaving at all!  Gently, we tipped the box onto its side & Lucky reluctantly hopped away (we think he may have broken one of his hind legs in the original 3-storey fall).  The♥Hubster says he has a better survival chance outdoors than indoors. I agree, but i hope he got to his tree, since it snowed later that night.  We know he was able to climb well, since he scurried up the wall of The Studio, but i hope he got to his nest in time!

The Daniel Fast
     This isn't much of a story.  I started The Daniel Fast with HCAOG on 9 Jan 2011.  It's been difficult when i'm away from home (lunch at work, traveling with Chosen, etc.), but i'm finding that a lot of the recipes in the paperback are pretty good -- naturally, if i weren't on the fast, i'd add some cheese to many of them (or chicken, or honey), but i'm especially loving the herbed sweet potato fries & the black olive tapenade for snacks.  I have enjoyed having more fruits & veggies in my diet, too, so i'm going to try to keep that up after the fast, as well. Today is Day 9 of 21. :)