Darn Varmints

Got another one tonight! That's right I've killed 5 red squirrels inside the walls of my apartment in the last week. All summer long we've heard chipmunks and squirrels running around in the floors and walls. It really hasn't been a big deal. My apartment is attached to a farm house that's at least 75-years-old so there are bound to be lots of entry points for critters looking for a good home. Well now that it's getting a bit colder outside the action inside the walls has picked up. The additional noise this fall didn't bother me until the squirrels decided to start living in the wall near the head of my bed. What started one night as faint scratching directly above my head turned into a week of absolutely no sleep with what I thought was two or three squirrels. 

Finally I said enough is enough. I went and talked to my landlord.  At first I was nice used only live traps with full intentions of letting the little guys go. Those little buggers are smart though; for three days they took the bait in my live traps without setting it off. Finally I pulled the plug on operation live trap and entered a fit of Ted Nudgent varmint killing rage. 

The kill count over the weekend was a shocking 4. Two nights of peaceful sleep until last night about 4:00a.m. I hear this little scratching and scampering again right above my head... dam. Sometime today Erika was at home taking a nap when she heard a loud pop that scared the S-H-you know what out of her. She thought something had fallen off the wall in the other room but later realized the trap we had set in the crawl space had gone off. When I got home tonight I opened the door and saw that little sucker stuck in the trap. I hope he enjoyed his last meal of peanut butter and cashews. Until you have this problem in your house you have no idea how obnoxious and annoying it can be. Not sleeping for a week will make your head go crazy. 

That brings the kill total to 5 squirrels and 4 mice since moving into this apartment about 9 months ago. I guess there is a small price to pay for cheap rent. 

In other news Erika and I were up in TC the past two weekends. Here are some recent photos of Porter: 

Porter loves the front of the boat on a sunny day...who doesn't? 

"Can I drive the boat?"

"I DON'T CARE IF I HAVE A LIFE JACKET ON...I CAN'T TOUCH, I CAN'T TOUCH!!!!!"