Oh how wonderful it was to have the sun out all day today! It actually warmed up enough to melt some of the snow off the sidewalks and streets. Of course with the cloud cover lifted, we’ll be having some colder nights along with early mornings and late afternoons. I’m in full agreement of global warming, but it sure hasn’t been felt these past twelve months. For sure there are many of us still bristling over not having a real Spring, Summer, or Fall. Something I read about ten years ago spoke about the upper Midwest receiving more precipitation as a by-product of climate change. I’ll have to see if I can find something recently published that’s saying something similar.
There’s no question we’re approaching Christmas when seeing all the more delivery trucks scurrying about town loaded down with parcels. Even the USPS has be out with their little delivery vans. While heading out to my car, I ran into one of them carrying three good sized boxes to the upstairs apartments next door. I couldn’t help but say, “Wow! Looks like somebody’s getting something a little early.” He didn’t seem very much in the mood for sideline comments due to his being on a non-stop run.
While driving down a street today, I couldn’t help but notice a home that I recently sold which had a about five very old Concord grape vines growing on a wire fence while it was listed, but today, there was not a single trace of those vines along with the fence they were growing on. The owner’s son told me at the time, those vines were well over 50 years old. It didn’t make me very happy seeing them gone, but when a property transfers title, the new owners can do as they please.
Both yesterday and today I heard some frightening stories about squirrels getting into a big building and the amount of time, money and trouble they’ve been having just so to keep them out. They’ve had tall tree branches trimmed so they can’t get on the roof, vents screened over, along with every nook and cranny searched as possibly being their points of entry.
Today I shared a story with them I heard earlier from someone who knows all about squirrel infestations. His story happened to be about a man who kept getting them in his house. He’d live-trap them and then take them to various park and release. Then one day, while he was looking at a newly trapped squirrel, he thought it looked too much like the one he’d released about three days prior. Just so to make sure his suspicions were confirmed, he spray-painted the end of its tail red and then drove it up to a wooded area near Manly and then released it. Wouldn’t you know, about three weeks later that red-tailed squirrel was back in his live-trap. I’d always known squirrels could travel far, but not that far, so what he told me today, was to make sure they didn’t have an opportunity to return, which was an “between the lines” encouragement for captured squirrels to be exterminated.
Last night I figured I’d do a little research on squirrel meat and why it has always been for me more agreeable than any other wild meat I’ve sampled.
The following is an excerpt from an article regarding their meat. “What makes it unique, is more than its appearance and flavor, it’s the texture–squirrel is buttery. Wild animals are usually athletes which makes it rare that their meat is buttery. Instead, we’re forced to add butter and/or other fats to prevent wild meat from becoming unbearably dry. Squirrel is different. It also roams the woods like many others, but it feasts on nuts, which are wonderful sources of fat. They have the very same diet as those Spanish pigs called “jamon iberico” that people buy thin slices of for $170 per pound. Squirrel costs decidedly less, but still has that sweet flavor. It’s a buttery, tender, medium-dark meat which makes it a rarity of meats coming out of the wild.”
It kinda makes a person wanna go squirrel hunting and come home with enough of them for a big Sunday dinner. My mother used to bread them with seasoned flour and then into a frying pan to get browned, and subsequently placed in a big covered roaster and baked with a few onions and various other root crops. I’ll not forget how yummy her version of baked squirrel was. Now there’s always a down-side, because if you’ve ever skinned squirrels, you’ll not forget how thick their hides are and never the easiest to get stripped from their bodies.
Tonight’s one-liner is: Life’s greatest paradox is that we’re all doomed to make choices.
