Scavenging Squirrels

I really enjoy watching the variety of birds that come to our many feeders every day.  We feed them black oil sunflower seeds, which they love.  So do these little scoundrels...but they're cute, right?  Especially this little one, which I believe is a Red Squirrel.

Cute as they may be, the eat far more seeds than the birds do, are very quick, scavenge all around the cabin for other tidbits they might like, and chatter loudly when I chase them off.

I've done some research about options to keep all squirrels from the feeders.  My friend Patti said they make great stew...and though I am not opposed to trying it, the cleaning part of hunting is something I have not taken a shine to yet.  I did discover though, that squirrels do not like spicy flavors and birds don't care about it; adding cayenne pepper to the seeds could deter the scavenging squirrels!

Guess what, it works in the morning when the cayenne pepper is fresh, but it does seem that as the day progresses, the potency wears off.  It is especially effective with the large grey squirrels we have but the little red squirrels are stubbornly tenacious!  And shrewd!  This little one was pushing my limits...almost daring me to try to shoo it away.

It slyly jumped down between 2 posts and acted like it didn't think I could see it.

Then it climbed up...

...and crawled to a piece of wood holding a small garden statue and started nibbling on the wood!  This was actually pleasing to me, I'd rather have it eating wood than my bird seed!  These little squirrels are fascinating though...look how it's little claws are holding on...stupendous!

It got tired of the wood, and went for one of the feeders.  It hid behind this post, decided it wasn't going to jump to the feeder (I'm hoping it's because of the cayenne pepper)...

...and decided it was better to eat what the birds kicked to the floor (which makes me wonder if the cayenne pepper has anything to do with anything).

Then it slyly jumped back up on the railing, freezing stiff, as if it were no longer a suspicious threat...as if this statuesque stance would get me to go away!

I don't speak squirrel, but it sure did bark at me when I shooed it away...these little scavenging squirrel scoundrels are tough!

Visit ABCWednesday for more blogs highlighting the letter S.  Many thanks to the founder, Mrs. Denise Nesbitt, and to Roger for taking over from her.

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

Welcome Ruffed Grouse Chicks!

It appears that 5 or 6 Ruffed Grouse chicks have made it from the egg to their first trip leaving the nest to forage for food.  Unfortunately, we did find what looks like 3 or 4 chicks still in the nest that did not make it.  The good news is that this is Natures plan, because Grouse (like so many other birds) lay enough eggs to ensure the likelihood of some of the brood surviving to adulthood (I'm sure glad this is not the way of humans!).  I apologize for the quality of these pictures, but our critter cam was propped to a tree at ground level, and all the moisture from last nights storm caused it to fog up a bit (lesson learned, the cam will be secured a little off the ground from now on).

This is the sequence of the pictures taken as mama leads them from the nest, taken with our critter cam from 12:42 pm - 12:43 pm this afternoon.  I tried to make a video from these pictures so you could see the movement flow, but I can't get Blogger to upload it.  I'll narrate the sequence best I can.  You can click on the picture to make it larger if you like.

Mama leading 4 chicks, one directly behind her mostly hidden on her right side and 3 behind her to her left, and to the right of the picture.  You can also see a piece of an egg shell in front of the chicks.

4 chicks to the right of her now; leads me to believe the one that was closest to her in the previous photo stayed in that same location as they moved away from the nest.

 Still 4 chicks visible...

 ...the same 4...

...and again...

...and again the same 4.

 Here are 4 chicks, but mama has now moved out of the frame of the photo.

Now there are 3 chicks, but one may be coming from the nest, which would actually make 6 total...it's really hard to say.

 3 chicks here, I'm presuming the same from the previous photo.

 These last 3 shots are of 2 chicks following the others...

And then the Grouse family was out of the camera's range.  If my presumption is correct that there are 4 deceased chicks, it is likely there are 6 following mama.  Since this would mean a 60% survival rate at this point, I choose to go with it!  I hope they all survive out there in the woods.

We did dry out the camera, replace the batteries and the memory card, and posted it near the nest but facing away, in case mama or any of the chicks return.  I do find that unlikely, since the ones that didn't make it are still in the nest (I'm not posting that photo, though I did take one for my records).

So here are a few things I learned about our nesting mama Grouse after studying the 924 pictures our critter cam took over the past 12 days...

• when she left the nest due to a predator (like us) or to forage, she returned within 30 minutes or less
• when she left the nest, she varied her departure and return routes, creating no sure predator's path to the nest
• she left the nest less frequently as the chicks were getting ready to hatch  
• she did not frighten easily, because a squirrel came right up to the nest, and she ruffed herself up and the squirrel left
• at one point we saw 3 adult Ruffed Grouse in a photo, not sure if one was her mate, but we thought that was awesome
• mama Grouse and her hatching chicks were not affected by the hail storm last night; you could see hail all around the nest, but mama obviously knew what she was doing when she chose that sight!

I feel so very grateful that my life presented this opportunity, the Universe is good to me...it makes me love living in our cabin in the woods so much more.  Now I am on the hunt for other wildlife learning adventures!

PS  Our garden only had a little hail damage, we were lucky the sprouts were still small.  Several flowers and bushes did not fare so well, but we are certainly grateful that it was not worse than it was.  Our hearts go out to everyone in Moore, Oklahoma who have been devastated by the tornado, may they find strength in each other and heal quickly.

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

A Day of Weeding, Exciting News and a Surprise Hail Storm

I'll start with the exciting news...I've shared previously that we found a Ruffed Grouse nest in our woods behind the cabin, and placed our critter cam there to capture the nesting, hatching, feeding and fledgling phases.  We periodically go by the site to check the batteries in the camera, and today, this is what we found (after mama moved away, extremely cautiously)...

...so we quickly checked the batteries and left the area to keep our disruption of the nesting area to a minimum (giddy the whole way, this is really exciting to get to experience!).  This was mama as we approached, watching more guardedly than she had before, and it's no wonder...her chicks were hatching.

I can't wait to go get the USB card...we've already captured some awesome pictures since the first time we found the nest...and tomorrow we should be able to see the chicks foraging for their food (they do this withing 24 hours of hatching).  I can't wait to share it all with you!

No less important, but much less fun than today's discovery of new life, we spent this morning weeding the garden.  This is my least favorite part of gardening...all the bending, digging, hoeing, pulling, over and over and over....I'm so glad we got the deep rooted weeds removed today.  And since I don't want to have to repeat this level of weeding again, tomorrow we will be making mulch out of all the branches from the trees we felled some time back, laying a thick layer around the outside walking path in the garden as well as the walking rows in between the vegetables. This should help keep the weeds to a minimum, and for those that do pop through, we should be able to pull them out easily.

While weeding, I was happy to discover that the second set of squash seeds we planted,

along with the watermelon, are sprouting.  It truly is gratifying to watch those little sprouts pushing through the earth...I do enjoy this part of gardening!

I was going to close today with a Pipevine Swallowtail feeding on my newly bloomed rhododendron.  I love this rhododendron, it is an incredible fuchsia color!  BUT...

...we got hit with a major, sudden storm...thunder, lightening, and hail, lots and lots of dime size hail...this is the front yard (notice the car is missing, when we realized what was happening, Johny ran to the car to drive it up to our neighbors carport to keep it out of the hail...the neighbors aren't here right now)...

 ...and this is our deck.

My level of concern for mama Grouse increased dramatically, as for our garden.  I did move all our herbs from the deck and got pelted (by big hail that hurt) in the process, but was happy to have saved them.  When this thing blows over, we'll walk to the garden to check things out.  Not sure if we'll visit mama Grouse, we don't want her to leave her chicks now, even if only briefly, but I sure would like to know she (and they) is fine.

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

Pickled Ramps with Saffron

I'm so excited, this is my very first time making and canning something that concludes with heat processing. Thanks to my friend Bertie, I now have the equipment I need!  I'll tell you more about that shortly...

...isn't this jar of pickled saffron ramps beautiful?  I can't wait to try them (another test of patience, we need to let them steep for at least 2 weeks before we open them).

Pickled Ramps with Saffron
I adapted this recipe from www.honest-food.net

Ingredients:

1 lb cleaned ramp bulbs (no greens for this recipe)
1/2 tsp saffron
2 cups of vinegar; a combination of 1/3 white wine vinegar, 1/3 white balsamic wine vinegar, 1/3 rice vinegar
1 cup water
2 tbsp clover honey
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tbsp sea salt

This is the saffron up close...it has a very unique earthy kind of flavor and gives whatever you use it in a pretty red color, I can't wait to taste how it flavors ramps, you can be sure I'll tell you all about it.

Directions:

Begin by heating the water in your canning pot, it will take a while for it to come to a boil.  Be sure you have enough water to cover the jar (which is a lot of water, so I have saved it to use in washing dishes...waste not, want not!).

Pour the vinegar and water into a sauce pan and then crumble the saffron into it.

 Add the salt and turn the heat to medium high.

Add the honey to the vinegar mixture once it warms and stir to combine.

When the mixture begins to boil, add the ramps and boil for 3 minutes.

Place 2 of the thyme sprigs into your sterilized jar (I always sterilize at least 2 extra, different size jars; I can use them if there is too much of the product for 1 jar).

After the mixture has boiled...

...use tongs to put the ramps into the jar (this will help temper the jar so when you pour the hot liquid into it, the jar won't crack).   Add 1 more thyme sprig to the top of the ramps (as soon as the heat of the ramps hit those first sprigs in the bottom of the jar, the lovely lemony thyme smell immediately filled the jar).

Use a funnel to pour the liquid into the jar, and once the liquid reaches the fill line of the jar, add the last sprig of thyme.  Place the lid and seal the jar with the ring.

Carefully (using a lovely tool like this one that Bertie gave me, thanks Bertie!)...

...place the sealed jar into the boiling water for 10 minutes (I know, seems like such a big pot for one jar, but I didn't want to make more of these pickled ramps until we tried them, and the pot had to be big enough to cover the standing jar)...

 ...put the lid on it so the water doesn't splash everywhere... I left a slight opening in the back to allow some of the steam to escape. 

After 10 minutes, remove the jar and place it on a cooling rack...it won't take long before you hear the popping sound of the lid sealing...I love that sound!

I didn't have any ramps left, but I did have some vinegar/honey/saffron liquid, so I poured it into a jar and will keep it in the fridge to use in making salad dressing, or anything else that sounds good. This juice doesn't have the thyme flavor in it, but I figure I can add whatever fresh herb will complement what I'm using it for.  

What a pretty jar of pickled ramps!  Thanks to Johny's helping hand so I could get a good picture:)  This  jar will store for up to one year; once opened, store in the refrigerator.

You might be wondering when I will stop writing about ramps, but hey, when it's ramp season, what else is a girl to do?  I am making meatloaf seasoned with ramps instead of onions tonight, but I won't take you through that whole recipe...

BTW, the fresh trout Johny brought home from camping was fantastic...light, slightly sweet, delicious!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,

Lise

Pickled Ramps, Chicago Style

I found this recipe for Chicago style pickled ramps by Chef Rick Gresh.  The pickling juice's sweet and tangy essence filled the cabin while it was cooking...it smelled so good!  I can't wait to try them, but we have to let the ramps pickle in the juice for at least 5 days.  Based on the smell, I'm sure our patience will be rewarded!

Pickled Ramps, Chicago Style

Ingredients:
1 pound ramps, including leaves
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup white wine vinegar or distilled vinegar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon whole mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon whole celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 whole bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon table salt

Directions:

Clean the ramps (click on the link to read more about cleaning them) and separate the bulbs from the greens.  Combine all the ingredients in a pot and (except the ramps)...

...and bring to a boil, then set the pan aside to allow the mixture to cool.

Blanch the ramps in a pot of boiling water for about 20 seconds, then immediately pour them into a colander  and run cold water over them to stop the cooking process.  Pat them dry and place them into a sterilized mason jar. 

Pour the cooled pickling liquid into the jar, covering all the ramps.  Seal the jar with the lid and place it into the refrigerator (these need to stay stored in the fridge).  

Refrigerate for at least 5 days before using.  They will last for months as long as you store them in the fridge.

By the way, Mountain Man has returned from his camping trip (he's a happy camper, LOL) with about 5 pounds of fresh trout...guess what we're having for supper!  He had a great time and has lots of stories to share, but he's happy to be home.  I'm glad he's home too, but I sure did enjoy my alone time!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

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