Henry is back again, and once again, in broad daylight. This is the part that worries me. If he is confident enough to make himself at home in the middle of the day, where does that leave us? Can I still feel okay about letting our Emma outside to run around in her fenced yard?
Here’s Henry coming from the woodshed where he had a drink of water that I had put out for the squirrels. He’s heading straight for our house.
In the first video he comes right to where I have the wheelbarrow in front of my veggie garden, which is in front of the house. In the second one he continues on to the trees on the other side of our deck. He was so close to the house I had to stop the first video, run to the other end of the deck and start the second video.
Here he is already up pretty high, but he keeps going up on the back of the tree until he gets to a big branch where he has a place big enough to stop for another nap, as he’s in the habit of doing in the daytime. He’s safe up there and has a lovely view.
But I’m going to have to start charging him rent, and maybe a playground fee.
Henry knows all the comfy seats up high in the fir trees. It was time to get off ground level. So many dogs were being walked in the nearby path. Up he climbed until he needed a break from the exertion. Just in time, he found his cot in a high-up perch and lay down for a midday nap.
I think I see an eye. I definitely see his right front foot. Count his fingers! His right (?) back foot is sticking up into the air. Apparently his bed is too small for him.
I brought some hazelnuts out to the squirrels and put them by the post in the middle of the woodshed.
Crispin helped himself, and then nearly choked on his food.
“Yikes!” he mumbled through a hazelnut. His teeth chattered.
“Wh-wh-what’s Henry doing here?”
“I heard about all the free food,” Henry said.
“I’m comin’ up there to get me some of that, and you’d better be gone if you know what’s good for you.”
But Crispin had already stashed away most of the hazelnuts, and only a few sunflower seeds were left.
*****
Watch as Henry roots through the wood chips and dirt to try to find leftovers. Notice his fingers and the toes on the end of his long feet. But he’s a dainty eater when he does find a morsel.
Having eaten his fill of leftover sunflower seeds, he climbs a tree to look for a safe place to have a nap. Must check out the now-vacant birdhouse on his way up.
When he gets beyond the birdhouse, watch how he looks down and then decides to risk a little jump to the next branch for a new grip. He’s fussy about which branches to pull himself up on. One is rather skinny and dead, so he contemplates it only for a split second before moving on to a thicker branch.
And up at the top he found a very fat branch that provided a cozy platform for him to have a nap in the sunshine, out of reach of lower level dangers.
Reggie Raccoon is honoured to be the selection for the letter R in our countdown.
He’s waiting for that woman with the camera to go away before he’ll come down from the safety of the tree.
Next time he’ll only visit after dark when there is no danger of getting his photo taken, and when that curious Emma-dog is in the house.
That might be a good time to check out the garbage can by the back door. Last time there was a stick of pepperoni. The wind helped knock the can over, and I had a buffet midnight snack.
It was almost midnight when Reggie Raccoon came to visit. He was blinded by the light so he didn’t do anything but squirm in this eight-second video clip. Then I took pity on him and turned off the camera.
It’s nowhere near dark, but Ralph Raccoon felt safe enough to come check out our yard.
Just then, the Captain brought Emma (our English cocker spaniel) outside for a pee and in no time the barking and growling started. Luckily, Emma was on the leash because she has a pulled muscle in her leg and we don’t want her tearing around the yard just now.
With one last growl, Ralph clambered up the tree for safety.
Once Emma was out of the scene, Ralph wondered what to do.
“Should I stay here where I’m safe,” he wondered, “or should I come down while I can and get out of here before some crows find me and try to peck my eyes out?”
Turn on your sound and watch what Ralph decided to do.
To watch the video, you have to be very quick. It’s only about 4 seconds long. You may have to replay it a few times to see the top raccoon stuffing his face, with the feeder at an angle so the seeds fall out better, and the other raccoon sitting underneath him, cleaning up.
I should be thankful that they clean up after themselves.
I think I see him. I hope he’s got my bag of grubs.
Yes, you’re right! And I see the big sack full of hazelnuts for me.
Er, ah, HERE I AM, Santa. OVER HERE!
Where? I don’t see anything.
When he does come, I hope he brings me a lot of rosehips. Wonder what they’d taste like. In the winter I get tired of these holly berries and mountain ash berries. But maybe the rosehips are too fuzzy inside. They look good though.
Oooooh! Look! He’s got sleigh troubles. His reindeer are conking out. Should’ve got a Tesla Sleigh. With inflation, the price of reindeer food today is high, even for Santa. But even so, the cost of the Tesla Sleigh itself is enough to break the bank.
Yeah, he’s in trouble all right. Look! He’s turning around. Sniff… there goes that box of dog biscuits I asked for.
I see that. Hmm … I think I hear them complaining about being hitched up so close. Something about social distancing.
Sigh! No herring for supper tonight. Not by special delivery, anyway.
Well, I never! He’s going back to the North Pole. There goes that bunch of tree bugs I asked for.
I’ll go round up some recr-hoots.
Hey, you. Santa’s looking to hire you, Al and the Paca, to be his reindeer substitutes.
What’s that you say? You don’t play second fiddle? Huh! You’d think that in the spirit of Christmas, you’d oblige an old man. I see you are related to those llamas next door with all their llammering. You’re just lazy, the All Packa ya. Well, see if I give a hoot.
Here’s a likely crew.
Say, would you pronghorns like to save Santa’s bacon tonight?
But we’re in Montana.
That’s okay. He’ll have to go by there when he limps home with his rainydeer crew and drops them off. Maybe you can hop on and help get them home before the nightshift begins. Thanks a lot.
I’ve been watching and I don’t see him coming back yet. Must be in the workshop, adjusting the harnesses to the new team.
I think I see him now, with his fresh crew of pronghorns. Funny-looking reindeer. Better than nothing, I guess.
Oh, this is so exciting. We just can’t sit still.
Children, children, not so loud,
Reindeer’s nervous of the crowd,
Send a delegation out,
Find that sleigh, and kids don’t pout.
Let’s go meet him.
This way! This way!
Santa’s big sleigh.
Sliding, gliding,
Santa’s riding.
Now settle down or Santa will think you’re all quackers.
Look how well behaved we are; black and white, eating at the same table together. One big happy flock. We’re a “blended flock.”
Oh, listen to you guys. You think it’s easy being the black swan of the family?
Whaddaya mean? You think you’ve got it bad? You try being a rat. All I did was chew on a few of those lovely black licorice cords in the truck and WHAM! They lifted the trunk and exposed me to the elements. But they won’t see me hiding in the corner. Bet you can’t see me either. I’ve got a really good hiding place in the door well too. I’ll just wait there until Santa brings new wiring for me to nibble on.
One thing we all got for Christmas – not sure if Santa had anything to do with it – was darn cold weather. So when Santa had to fly back to change his Rainydeer tires for the more heavy-duty Pronghorn brand, he asked the North Wind to provide some Puddle Puzzles for us to play with while we await his return.
Actually, I thought the puzzles were more like A-maze-ing. You just try it. See if you can find a path out of this maze.
I hope your Christmas holiday time is amazing too.
Did you find the rat in the truck? Look on the far back right-hand corner of the picture (actually the left side of the truck).
If I’m not already a nut job, then after doing this nut job, I will be one.
I had thought there were no hazelnuts on the trees this year but I was wrong. They were a bit late to develop, but they were quite prolific. When I saw that the raccoons and the squirrels were harvesting them, day (squirrels) and night (raccoons), I thought I’d better get in on the action. Looks like a little black cocker is also wanting to get in on the action.
I let the nuts sit out in the sun to dry out for a couple of weeks, and then, as the nights grew cooler I had to do something with the nuts or watch them go moldy. It’s not cold enough to make a fire in the woodstove so hanging the nuts in burlap bags by the fire was not an option.
I decided to crack them and put the nutmeat in ziplocs and freeze them. This way I can take out what I need to use for baking through the winter.
I tried them out in a batch of banana/blueberry/hazelnut muffins. Turned out quite good.
wordsfromanneli 