What did YOU do today?

[Rick W]

My mom passed away in December, so this week I spent the whole week going through junk and tossing the useless junk on the street for the biannual junk heap pickup the city has. She saved everything. There were bread bags from a grocery store called Alpha Beta that closed in the 80s. Receipts from Sears, Wards, Gottschalks. She saved broken spatulas, worn out non-stick pans, pens. There were about five shoeboxes full of old pens. Little tin cans that are decorative to entice people to buy whatever was in them. Dozens of bottles of every type of cleaner. A week of hauling junk to the curb, and I'm still nowhere near finished. I saved the good cookware that was made in USA. I think a few things were made in Canada. I found an old Wapak cast iron skillet. Wapak went out of business in 1926. The bottom of the skillet is pitted from the days before sulphur was removed from natural gas. I cleaned it up and re-seasoned it.

Anyway.....I feel like I'm never going to complete this task.

So sorry about your Mom passing. In my prayers.

But I have to say, she sounds like my kind of woman. Why would you throw out all that stuff that you might use someday for something else?

 

[superj]

alpha beta? i haven't heard that store name since the 80s.

we must have had them in socal too, or i just remember from going to my grandparent's house in vallejo regularly

 

[Rick W]

Steve moved in the south side of my attic a few years ago. Gray squirrel. It’s when I was pretty sick and beat up, so I just tolerated him. When I felt better, I drove him out with the flashing lights and radio blasting, and then cut the tree branches down, and I thought he was gone. I know he’s back because Lincoln spotted climbing up the post of my covered porch, and then going in and out of a hole above my covered porch, I’ve seen him too. I’m not quite ready to cut the porch down.

Steve Jr. moved in the north side last fall. Flashing lights & radio drove him off, and I thought I cut down all the access branches from the giant Sycamore I planted 30 years ago. I covered the hole in the vinyl soffit with a piece of diamond plate facing in, that I painted the same color as the soffit.

A few weeks ago, he came back in through the “upstairs door,” a hole in the soffit that he chewed out that is literally at the peak of the roof of my house. I already bought another extension ladder for what I have to cover it, mine was too short. I knew he was there in a heartbeat because he makes a racket up there when I’m in my bedroom. I knew I was going to have to take bolder action.

Discharge of a firearm in this county is illegal. My involvement with the town and the police would make it doubly bad if I were caught blowing Steve Jr‘s head off. So I bought a trap for the “humane“ capture, and I was planning on relocating him. I have to admit I’m not an expert on squirrel things and laws.

So after buying the trap and the ladder, now I have to spend $20 in gas to put him somewhere else. Then I read a little bit more.

Turns out I could go to the big house if I release the squirrel without a department of natural resources permit. I wonder what that costs? Probably have to drop. Him 100 miles away or something. I’m probably gonna have to rent a limousine to do it so he has humane transport..

Lotta you guys are country boys, so help me out with this. I bet a couple of you are lawyers. Do I just thumb my nose at the law and release him 15 miles away anyway? I could probably find some politician I don’t like, and release it at their property, so even if I get caught and go to jail, it would do something good.

I could just murder him in the attic with a shot shell and hope that nobody hears. Then go down the other end of the house and take care of Steve. Save the last bullet for myself if the coppers come and corner me in the attic, one last bullet just in case, I can’t serve time

Then I found out, the humane solution, that the mortality rate if you relocate the squirrel is about 97%. Apparently, when you relocate them to a new habitat, they’re not the new cool kid in town and they don’t pick up the cute little brunette squirrel, and live happily ever after. The local squirrel gang could gang up on him protecting their women, and for being on their turf. Or, in their confusion when they’re trying to find a sip of water or a nut, predators can make them a morsel.

Too many choices. I just want the two little bastards out of my attic. But there’s another alternative, I’m talking to moving companies and thinking about where I wanna permanently retire.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Steve moved in the south side of my attic a few years ago. Gray squirrel. It’s when I was pretty sick and beat up, so I just tolerated him. When I felt better, I drove him out with the flashing lights and radio blasting, and then cut the tree branches down, and I thought he was gone. I know he’s back because Lincoln spotted climbing up the post of my covered porch, and then going in and out of a hole above my covered porch, I’ve seen him too. I’m not quite ready to cut the porch down.

Steve Jr. moved in the north side last fall. Flashing lights & radio drove him off, and I thought I cut down all the access branches from the giant Sycamore I planted 30 years ago. I covered the hole in the vinyl soffit with a piece of diamond plate facing in, that I painted the same color as the soffit.

A few weeks ago, he came back in through the “upstairs door,” a hole in the soffit that he chewed out that is literally at the peak of the roof of my house. I already bought another extension ladder for what I have to cover it, mine was too short. I knew he was there in a heartbeat because he makes a racket up there when I’m in my bedroom. I knew I was going to have to take bolder action.

Discharge of a firearm in this county is illegal. My involvement with the town and the police would make it doubly bad if I were caught blowing Steve Jr‘s head off. So I bought a trap for the “humane“ capture, and I was planning on relocating him. I have to admit I’m not an expert on squirrel things and laws.

View attachment 138924

So after buying the trap and the ladder, now I have to spend $20 in gas to put him somewhere else. Then I read a little bit more.

View attachment 138923

Turns out I could go to the big house if I release the squirrel without a department of natural resources permit. I wonder what that costs? Probably have to drop. Him 100 miles away or something. I’m probably gonna have to rent a limousine to do it so he has humane transport..

Lotta you guys are country boys, so help me out with this. I bet a couple of you are lawyers. Do I just thumb my nose at the law and release him 15 miles away anyway? I could probably find some politician I don’t like, and release it at their property, so even if I get caught and go to jail, it would do something good.

I could just murder him in the attic with a shot shell and hope that nobody hears. Then go down the other end of the house and take care of Steve. Save the last bullet for myself if the coppers come and corner me in the attic, one last bullet just in case, I can’t serve time

Then I found out, the humane solution, that the mortality rate if you relocate the squirrel is about 97%. Apparently, when you relocate them to a new habitat, they’re not the new cool kid in town and they don’t pick up the cute little brunette squirrel, and live happily ever after. The local squirrel gang could gang up on him protecting their women, and for being on their turf. Or, in their confusion when they’re trying to find a sip of water or a nut, predators can make them a morsel.

Too many choices. I just want the two little bastards out of my attic. But there’s another alternative, I’m talking to moving companies and thinking about where I wanna permanently retire.

Air gun and an iron skillet with some garlic butter. Save the hearts when you skin and quarter them, fry up the little hearts in garlic butter, they’re definitely worth a try.

 

[Rick W]

Air gun and an iron skillet with some garlic butter. Save the hearts when you skin and quarter them, fry up the little hearts in garlic butter, they’re definitely worth a try.

I’m not familiar. What wine would you recommend with that?

Update: Btw, I baited Steve Jr with some peanut butter in a clean tuna fish can, and a couple peanuts dribbled to lead him in. Now I hear him rubbing that tin can can back-and-forth across the side of the cage like James Cagney did and George Ralph did in the old gangster movies, running their metal cups back-and-forth on the jailhouse bars.

I don’t have an air gun powerful enough, but maybe I could make a shiv and get him in the shower…

 

["Risky Bizness"]

Bill, I'm so sorry to hear of your mom's passing. Even though mine passed a few years ago, I still hurt from her passing. Mom's are wonderful people. I hope any pain caused by her passing is soon gone.

"Risky Bizness"

 

[pjtoledo]

I’m not familiar. What wine would you recommend with that?

Update: Btw, I baited Steve Jr with some peanut butter in a clean tuna fish can, and a couple peanuts dribbled to lead him in. Now I hear him rubbing that tin can can back-and-forth across the side of the cage like James Cagney did and George Ralph did in the old gangster movies, running their metal cups back-and-forth on the jailhouse bars.

I don’t have an air gun powerful enough, but maybe I could make a shiv and get him in the shower…

put an owl in the attic. when food runs out they fly away.

fragrant drier sheets or mint oil are supposed to be repellents.

get some low power/powderless silent .22lr ammo. it really is silent but shot placement is a must. it's also dirty, will foul the barrel.

22 LR SUPER COLIBRI

THE STRONG SILENT TYPE. The Super Colibrí was made for hunting and target shooting. Ultra-quiet, it offers higher velocity and energy than the standard Colibrí for when that little extra punch is needed. It’s designed for bolt-action or revolver platforms.

www.aguilaammo.com

 

[97RangerXLT]

I don’t have an air gun powerful enough, but maybe I could make a shiv and get him in the shower…

my grandpa fed the local cardinal population back in the 1980s. issue was that the local squirrel population also enjoyed the sunflower seeds specifically set out for the cardinals. so much so that they would not only eat all the seeds, but run off the cardinals as well. Grandpa had a Crossman .22 air powered pellet gun, and 10 pumps and that would pretty much send any squirrel to meet its maker. On a visit to them when I was a teenager, Grandma told me that Grandpa had spotted a squirrel running along a power line that went through the alley behind the house, grabbed the gun, pumped it up and dropped the squirrell in one shot. no real noise, and nobody in the city of West Frankfort, officialdom included, was any wiser for the squirrels untimely demise.

AJ