Today I put dry chopped up leaves into my garden to keep the winter weeds down and add organic matter to my sandy soil in the spring. I noticed that some of my strawberries had leapt overboard from the raised bed and were looking for a new home. To dig them up I moved the long board that lay alongside the raised bed (this board once helped to anchor the netting I had over the strawberries).
I pulled the board forward and found hazelnut shells, all empty, and all opened from the top (not cracked and left in two halves).
The stash of hazelnuts went down the whole length of the raised bed.
Each one was empty. Each one opened the same way, with the top eaten out, presumably by something with a small jaw and sharp teeth.
Not my Lincoln then. That squirrel would have hidden and stashed the nuts, possibly buried some near the trees where he sleeps, and the shells would have been cracked lengthwise.
Some weeks back I had seen a mouse in the strawberry bed, but this was a huge stash for a little mouse.
“It wasn’t me. Really, it wasn’t.”
My main suspect is Templeton (E.B.White’s rat). Since Charlotte’s Web, every rat in the world is named Templeton.
He is very brazen, but he’s cute, don’t you think? Once he tried to build a nest in our old truck. That was not so cute. He even went for a ride in it and came back without falling out. We had known he was in there but couldn’t get him out (until much later). After the Captain drove to the wharf to check the boat and came back home, Templeton was still hidden in a space in front of the door hinge.
“How do you like my new digs?”
So tomorrow I’ll go out to the strawberry bed and see if there is a tunnel dug through my newly added leaves that I put over the entrance at the side of the treasury board.
And then … we’ll see.
October 31, 2019 at 4:44 pm
As much as those rogue critters are a pain, they are just so darn cute. As long as they stay OUTSIDE, I don’t mind them too much. Templeton is obviously very well fed.
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October 31, 2019 at 7:33 pm
Definitely they have to stay outside and if they make themselves seen too much, they are toast.
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October 31, 2019 at 4:55 pm
He is quite cute, not my favourite rodent though😏.
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October 31, 2019 at 7:32 pm
No, they carry diseases and do have a bad reputation. But they have something about them that’s kind of sweet, one on one. But a pack of them? No, thank you.
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October 31, 2019 at 5:07 pm
Cute 🙂
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October 31, 2019 at 5:50 pm
Beautiful animals, except the naked tail 🙂
All beings deserve to live ?
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October 31, 2019 at 7:30 pm
Think of them like a guy with a bald head – still likable. 😉
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October 31, 2019 at 5:52 pm
Looks like he’s playing hide and go seek. 🙂
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October 31, 2019 at 7:29 pm
Definitely.
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October 31, 2019 at 6:27 pm
Very cute Templeton 🙂 but all that hazelnuts? 🙂
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October 31, 2019 at 7:29 pm
Over time, yes. Maybe a few weeks since they starting falling off the trees.
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October 31, 2019 at 7:05 pm
I love your animal menagerie! It could be the start of a children’s book. 🙂
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October 31, 2019 at 7:37 pm
Oh, we have all the characters here. Some are a bit elusive, but it’s a regular little “Critter Community.”
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October 31, 2019 at 7:51 pm
Love it!
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October 31, 2019 at 10:19 pm
I once had a rat eating from my bird feeder during a cold, snowy winter. I felt sorry for him and named him Ratatouille. He broke through a vent under the deck and got into the crawl space. Then he called all his friends and told them what a grand place he had found with food and my insulation for bedding. It cost me a LOT of money to have it all cleaned out. Sadly, I no longer have bird feeders. Don’t be charmed by them and check your crawl space!
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October 31, 2019 at 10:55 pm
Don’t worry, Juanita. I don’t let them get that friendly or close. But what an experience you had. Ratatouille – hahaha. 😉
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October 31, 2019 at 10:32 pm
They are so adorable, but yes, outside please. That nut stash is sizeable, and such a neat chew job. 🙂
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October 31, 2019 at 10:56 pm
I’m still not sure if it’s a mouse or a rat. I’ll be watching though.
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November 1, 2019 at 2:34 pm
That critter certainly left a trail of evidence behind! What a little piggie – oops wrong critter, eh?!
Putting the garden to bed for the winter is a very soulful activity IMHO…
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November 1, 2019 at 3:05 pm
I agree on all counts, Laura. 😉
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November 1, 2019 at 5:17 pm
Looking forward to your next post.
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November 1, 2019 at 5:25 pm
Well, it might not have answers yet. But I hope sometime to figure out this mystery.
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November 4, 2019 at 1:42 am
They are so sweet but only outside. Inside they all look ugly.
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November 4, 2019 at 10:22 am
You mean outside in the yard (not the outside of their body), right? Yes, we don’t want them in the house!!!!
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November 5, 2019 at 3:46 am
Yes, in the yard! LOL
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