As anyone who likes to cater to backyard wildlife knows, it’s not difficult to simply attract the common ones to your yard, if you really want to. But I said I’d relate my specific tale, so here it is. It’ll be long, because I tend to ramble in a disjointed fashion more and more, so fair warning there.

Our yard doesn’t actually have any trees within the fence borders, but all our neighbors do. The people behind us have a big, tall tree (maybe 35 feet?) that’s very close to our back fence, as well as a very large palm bush/tree that stands directly against the tree trunk. The squirrels seem to treat this is a main hangout and treetop-chase-playground. One neighbor side has the large avocado tree and a lot of smaller, skinny trees along the fence. The other side of our yard has a power pole in the corner and a widespread low tree in that neighbors yard that is also adjacent to the fence. Thus our entire yard is like a big open space surrounded by trees. So when we first moved here, the squirrels were many and obvious as they treated the fences and power wires as hiways and jumped from tree to tree.

Mid-summer last year I started putting out birdseed in a dish in the middle of the yard for the small birds. I noticed some squirrels coming to pick the sunflower seeds out of the birdfeed, which amused me. One day late last summer I decided to buy a big bag of roasted/unsalted peanuts in the shell and I’d occasionally leave a small pile of first-come, first-serve peanuts next to the birdseed, or sprinkled them around the lawn for the squirrels to sniff out. And I was happy with this arrangement, because my main goal - to have the squirrels come close enough for me to take photos of them now and then - was served well enough.

But then in late winter the bluebirds started coming. Apparently they like peanuts too, and would snatch them up faster than the squirrels ever did. I didn’t mind giving the birds a few peanuts, but the birds meant that the squirrels would often look in the yard and see nothing, so….I started carrying peanuts around in a pocket whenever I went outside. If I saw a squirrel in the yard/on the fence, I’d tap a finger along a peanut for a few seconds to make an associative sound, and then toss it in their direction. At first they’d run away as I made the throwing motion and wouldn’t come back to investigate the peanut for long minutes. But eventually some seemed to recognize I was tossing yummy food … they’d watch and wait for me to back away then go immediately for the peanut. I did more stuff like that which I won’t bother to describe … suffice to say they became used to my presence in the yard and slowly the distance I could gain before they’d run away became more.

Eventually, one squirrel was smart enough to completely associate the finger-tapping sound and me with “peanut” and began to run up to me. He’d get within a few feet and stop, I’d toss a peanut, and he’d sit and eat it. Often he’d turn his back to me, which by human standards seems insulting, haha, but by squirrel standards supposedly means they trust you/don’t see you as a threat. During this time I also began to put a dish of peanuts close to the sliding door, in an open-sided box to protect it from rain. The bluebirds were more hesitant to “steal” them so close to the door. But I began to worry whether peanuts were actually good for the squirrels - I’ve read that peanuts can lack in some nutrition and squirrels who eat nothing but peanuts (whether raw or roasted) can end up malnourished. While “my” squirrels aren’t eating only peanuts by any means, I started worrying and began buying a bigger variety of things to make sure no squirrel would OD on any one thing. I mostly use nuts, but occasionally I’ll put out slices of apple, grapes, dried corn, and other fruits. They obviously prefer nuts but if fruit is the only thing there they’ll eat it happily enough.

Initially the first brave squirrel was the only one who would come close to me and stand in the doorway. Then I guess the others started watching, and a few others also became bold enough to come close. I continue to put the variety of stuff in the dish in the morning, and most of the squirrels eat from that - most also still run away if I approach the doorway or open the door. But those few that are braver will, if I leave the door open, hop inside a few steps to see if I’ve left certain treats on the floor nearby. I didn’t intentionally entice them to do that - they were smart enough to associate “open door” with “human who hands out treats” and started hopping into the doorway on their own. It was an easy way to keep the bluebirds from stealing everything so I let them. Again, only the few with bold personalities will come inside like that, and I haven’t encouraged more to do so. Like any animal, squirrels have varying temperaments etc. The brave ones are the squirrels that go crazy about burying extra food. If I let them, a couple would run back and forth between yard and door all day, wanting nuts just to bury. But letting them take and grab nuts from my hand or shelf all day would be no good for them (or my wallet), so I limit it. Still, it’s often hard to resist since it’s a hilarious and cute delight during the periods where I stand in the door or sit on the couch letting them come in and out. One in particular will trot all the way inside to the table if I’m sitting there.

I suppose it sounds like I might be over-doing it, but I’m not. They’re all still wild - even the ones who come indoors a ways and take nuts from my fingers. I don’t put out enough food for them to not have to forage on their own. They aren’t getting fat and slow. Many a time I can go outside and there’s not a squirrel to be seen for hours. I think most treat the dish box as a ’spot to check’ during their foraging routine. If it’s empty/the door is closed they run on, but if the dish is full/the door is open they pause to eat/check it out. In the late spring/early summer I’ll fill the food dish less often, too, since “wild” food will be more abundant then.

And if you’re wondering, Baby-kitty leaves them alone. :D

The above photo is actually from the fall, when all the maple trees were turning. Right now they’re almost bare. But it’s prettier to see fall foliage than naked trees. Since I live in the “evergreen” California coast, this is probably the first time I’ve lived anywhere that had a lot of tree color in fall. It’s kinda cool.

I’m always a “hibernator” in winter, but this year it appears that includes being away from blogging. I’m sure I’ll return to it on a frequent basis at some point - this kind of activity always goes in sporadic spurts for me - but at the moment I haven’t had anything on my mind that inspires me to come here and blabber about it in public.

I could blog about the current season of House, or about the current video game I’m playing, or about my opinions on the economic crisis that is currently plaguing America, or how sad I am that Gil Grissom on CSI:Vegas will be leaving (the actor who plays him is leaving the show) and how that means I’ll probably stop watching the series. American Idol will be coming up soon…will I blog about that again? I’m not sure. Such opinion writing exercises don’t interest me too much at the moment.

Oh and btw, Merry Christmas. I wonder how many people this year are re-discovering, due to economic woes, that Christmas is not about how expensive or desired a material gift is … it is really, in my opinion at least, an extension of Thanksgiving. A time to ponder and be grateful for what you have, instead of being cranky/greedy about what you don’t have.

So be grateful, not cranky…and try not to give in to that sale-mob mentality and avoid trampling any more Wal-Mart employees to death, k?

I decided tonight that I was going to update my version of WordPress. Easy enough. Everything looks fine…but wait, what’s this. A new dashboard/write/settings menu layout for the writing and managing of all your bloggity stuff.

It’s a vast sea of white. White white white. What is the obsession with white backgrounds. Where’s the option to change the color? I haven’t found it yet, maybe I’m blind. Can’t we start making the default background color of word-processing type interfaces something more like, oh, say, light beige?

All the little menu options such as ‘tags’ and ‘categories’ are no longer next to/on the side of the writing area, but below. I don’t like that. No, I don’t. Maybe this is because I use 1600×1200 resolution, tho. I suppose if you still use 800×600, the writing ‘area’ and those menus wouldn’t fit. I don’t know. But now there’s a huge empty nothing of wasted space to the right side of my screen, and I have to page down endlessly - and unnecessarily - in order to click/check all those option boxes. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, and I agree … it’s a major catastrophe! One that could send our planet spinning out of control towards the sun. Say your last prayers and hallelujahs, we’re all going down, and it’s Word Press’ fault. Yup.

Other than that, the update is peachy-keen.
Yes, I said “peachy-keen.”

And yes, I haven’t written anything in months.
No, I don’t know if I’m going to post regularly again.

That’s the joy of life … the mystery … the wondering wonderment … the not-knowing.

Right?

As I blogged about a while back, we’ve planted some tomato plants in our backyard. Four of them, to be exact. And while they’ve grown pretty tall, two of them have a few small clusters of tomatoes growing, while two have…zero. El zippo. The tiny flowers bud, open, dry up, and fall off.

Hubby did a Goggle search, and apparently, while tomatoes are self-pollinating (they don’t need male/female versions), they won’t do it very successfully without bees buzzing around the flowers to shake the pollen around. So its become apparent that we don’t have any bees around here. Or at least, not any that visit our backyard. Oh sure, we have lots of paper wasps that like to buzz around the grass and make nests in the roof overhangs, but no bees. I suppose it’s possible that it’s too early for bees to be in the area - maybe most of the city plants that have flowers which bees would like bloom later in summer, and so the bees habitually come later. Or maybe they don’t like it this close to the salty Bay and it’s heavy breezes. Who knows…whatever the reasons, they won’t currently help our tomatoes.

According to one website’s info: “Although all current tomato cultivars/varieties are self-pollinated, the transfer of pollen to the stigma under greenhouse conditions may not occur in order to ensure complete pollination. Incomplete pollination results in poorly shaped fruit. If the flower blossoms are hand pollinated, flower vibration using a mechanical vibrator must be done daily based on a preplanned program, following the procedure needed to keep from damaging emerging fruit.”

Did you notice the part about hand pollination and mechanical “flower vibration?” Yes? Well, that’s what hubby has been considering doing. ie, he wants to try to make some kind of “flower vibrator.” Now, this may be horticulturally correct and scientifically sound, but you have to admit…it sounds hilarious. But if that’s what he wants to do, I’m sure he’ll find a way to do it. My husband likes projects like that. Assuming, of course, he has the time. He’s been fairly busy the past few weeks.

At any rate…bees are important. You may not like them at your picnic, but without them - and other insects that do similar work - entire crops of self-pollinating food plants would have to be “vibrated” all over the world. And the noise arising from such mass vibration could possibly be so huge, even if the cycles were so fast that we ourselves couldn’t hear the vibrations, that it might attract the notice of aliens - with better hearing - passing by in their spaceships…aliens that were hungry and looking for a new source of meat to farm…so be kind to bees and their ilk, for without them we might one day, in our folly to twist nature to our personal whims, become dinner ourselves. :D

…and no matter how you serve it up, it’s still excruciatingly depressing to open my eyes each morning.

…the one bright spot within my obvious dark-attitude-of-the-month is that Blizzard, after a week of teaser-images on their website, announced Diablo3. That’s very cool. Now we all just have to wait 6 to 36 months for it to be ready “soon.” I hope it rocks.

I love Chinese food. Particularly Mongolian beef, chow meins, fried rice, BBQ beef/pork/chicken, etc. Problem is, ordering take-out gets kind of expensive. So I’ve tried making my own noodles and beef and stuff, and over time I came up with a basic concept for the meat/vegie portion.

It’s essentially this: stir fry together a pound of beef cut into thin slices, some jalepenos, some garlic, a little Bernstein’s Italian dressing and some of my homemade teriyaki sauce. The jalepenos are important - red pepper has a very different flavor, in my opinion.
For the vegie part, I use either bean sprouts or some kind of cabbage (shredded/sliced), cooking them till they’re largely wilted but still have a bit of texture/crunchiness. Then I mix the two things together, along with a lot of sliced green onions for a few minutes. Then I boil a package (sometimes 1.5 packages…) of very thin chinese noodles, drain, and mix them up with the beef/vegie mixture. It’s like my own Mongolian beef, or something. I could eat it all day. And yes, it’s cheaper than buying take-out, cause that pound of beef plus a ton of noodles makes a whole lot of stir fry. You can also not use noodles and just serve the meat/veggie mix over rice or something.

Here’s some old pics - back when I was using red pepper. Using jalepenos instead is a more recent development, but it looks essentially the same, just without red flecks of pepper. :P

With bean sprouts but without noodles:

With noodles:

(P.S. I was originally going to blog about my recent and amusing attempt at cooking some Chinese BBQ pork, but those photos are still in my camera, and I’m lazy, so…it’s about the noodles again)