Saturday doings at the manor house

Today I did some cleaning and was hoping the weather would be as warm as predicted, but come to think of it, 40 really isn’t all that warm – especially when, more often than not, the clouds are hiding the sun.

I polished the furniture and made it gleam. And then I swept and swiffered the wood floors. I vacuumed the old rugs, pretending that I was using my dream machine rather than the poor excuse for a cleaning tool that I own. {{{I don’t want to say that too loud, though, in case it hears me and completely stops working}}}.

Someday I’m going to own a decent vacuum. As God is my witness, I will never be hungry again!

For a good vacuum.




That guy on the bike that you may or may not have noticed in one of the picture frames in the bookcase is my husband, taken about 20 years ago. When I look at it, I think I cannot believe that it was that long ago but it was. He was competing in mountain bike racing back then and actually scored quite high in the standings for the mid-atlantic area in his age group one year.




Meanwhile, out in the backyard, my husband was busy too. I had no idea what he was up to while I was inside cleaning until he showed me when we were both finished.

: : :

At first, I thought he’d gone off the deep end. But then I began to think that maybe he had something in his ongoing battle against the squirrels who continue to raid our bird feeders. It wouldn’t bother him so much, but he spends good money on bird seed only to have much of it eaten by the little varmints. And the property here is covered with nut bearing trees.

Don't feel sorry for the squirrels/ There were enough nuts to feed an entire army of squirrels this winter. And some are still on the ground.

















Unfortunately, the system he’s come up with is not pretty at all.



In fact, our yard now looks like a hillbilly haven. (No offense to hillbillies).

Rather than have each feeder suspended vertically from wire off the branches of the trees, my husband decided to string one long wire from the side of the house to the dogwood tree, hanging each feeder from the wire and securing it in place with tape.

Crazy?




Maybe a little.

But this is what they do when confronted with wire. They simply slide down, the little scamps.




He just finished the project this afternoon and I think this wire seems way too thin for the squirrels to inch across.

But only time will tell.




I’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, there’s still time to enter my latest Giveaway.

Thanks for stopping by today ~