7/8/2012: Squirrels!!

I can't believe I ever thought squirrels were cute.  They are thoughtless creatures!!  I have so much more empathy for Elmer Fudd and Mr. Magregor than I ever thought I would when I was a kid.  I totally get where they were coming from, now!  Shhhh...be vewwy, vewwy quiet...I am hunting wabbits...and squiwwels!

Last Monday, Jack found a cardinal trapped in my tomato garden and had to take the front panel off to let it out.  How did it get in there?  I examined the cage and, sure enough, there were a couple of holes gnawed through the netting.  I immediately patched those holes and when to bed Tuesday night thinking my tomatoes were safe.  I thought wrong.  This is what I woke up to:

And this...

And this...

Obviously this was unacceptable, so Jack and I spent the 4th of July on yet another squirrel abatement project.  We headed to Home Depot, bought chicken wire (only because Jack said razor wire was not a viable option), and spent a couple of hours in 100+ degree hit fortifying the cage.  This is what it looks like now:

There are a couple of sections higher up on the cage that don't have chicken wire yet, but, so far, the squirrels have only chewed holes through the sections they could reach from the ground.  We did cover the top, so the squirrels couldn't sit up there and chew through.  So far, it's held up.  I don't think the squirrels can get through the chicken wire, but if they do...I'll think of something else!!

Why do I fight so hard to win the war against the squirrels?  Because I love preparing meals with veggies that I picked that day from my garden.  Here are five of the vegetables from my garden that were in tonight's dinner:

And here are the dishes they went into:

Minty Carrot and Beet Salad

This salad contains four items from my garden; carrots and beets (obviously), mint, and chives.  It was delicious!!!!

Tossed salad

This is just a simple tossed salad, but the tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers were all picked today!  The only sad thing is that it is too late for lettuce, we ate it earlier in the spring, so the greens came from the market.

In addition to the items above, we had left overs from last night, broccoli (I harvested a beautiful head yesterday) and rosemary chicken (yep - you guessed it, the rosemary was from the garden, too).

I get a huge kick out of the fact that I grew 9 of the ingredients that were part of our dinner tonight.  So bring it on, squirrels, I am not giving up the fight!!!!