The squirrels are out of control. If you look closely you may be able to see at least two squirrels in the pile of brush in the picture. There were more than two of them there when I was taking it. The yard has been overrun with ground squirrels and they are becoming more than a nuisance. They have dug lots and lots of holes which is a cause of concern should an animal or a person (me) end up tripping in one of those holes. They are taking complete advantage of all the animal's feed out there and are very brazen about making sure they get all they want. And to top it all off, they are stealing our eggs. I had thought the chickens were eating them and we had been doing what we could to discourage that behavior in the hens. Then I noticed that the golf balls that I had put in the nests were disappearing too. I found one of the balls outside the coop right next to a squirrel hole. The huge problem of no balance. The squirrels have abundant supply of easy food and no threat from predators so the population has exploded. And even though they seem like such cute little critters they are really very destructive rodents. Now we have to find ways to reduce their numbers.
The other big problem that we have been facing is the problem of when to cry "uncle". The picture here is of the tree that I tell the kids is our money tree. We have struggled many times in the past with our decision to keep animals. We raise them because we love it, we have never made a profit and it is usually a pretty steep loss. In the beginning we financed everything with our credit cards with the intention of paying them off when the animals were sold, but the money from the sale usually went toward paying for the next animals and didn't even cover that, so more credit card debt. That, of course, is not sustainable and we got to the point where that had to end. We have gone into a program to help us get the credit cards payed off and that is an excellent thing. We have cut up all of the cards and have become cash only consumers. We are learning to be frugal and not live beyond our means. The question becomes are the animals beyond our means? This month our feed expenses are over $900 and we are out of pig feed again and have to get more. Such a tough decision, we have tried to cut back in the past and then we find that we end up with more than ever. I love having all of the animals, they bring me so much joy. I don't know what I would do without them, but when the decision is buying food for the animals or the kids, well....
On a lighter note, Brianna was taking pictures the other day and took this one. I thought it was too cute. Our cat had three kittens in April. They are getting really funny and are starting to explore and play outside. Who doesn't love baby animals?
The squirrels are out of control. If you look closely you may be able to see at least two squirrels in the pile of brush in the picture. There were more than two of them there when I was taking it. The yard has been overrun with ground squirrels and they are becoming more than a nuisance. They have dug lots and lots of holes which is a cause of concern should an animal or a person (me) end up tripping in one of those holes. They are taking complete advantage of all the animal's feed out there and are very brazen about making sure they get all they want. And to top it all off, they are stealing our eggs. I had thought the chickens were eating them and we had been doing what we could to discourage that behavior in the hens. Then I noticed that the golf balls that I had put in the nests were disappearing too. I found one of the balls outside the coop right next to a squirrel hole. The huge problem of no balance. The squirrels have abundant supply of easy food and no threat from predators so the population has exploded. And even though they seem like such cute little critters they are really very destructive rodents. Now we have to find ways to reduce their numbers.
The other big problem that we have been facing is the problem of when to cry "uncle". The picture here is of the tree that I tell the kids is our money tree. We have struggled many times in the past with our decision to keep animals. We raise them because we love it, we have never made a profit and it is usually a pretty steep loss. In the beginning we financed everything with our credit cards with the intention of paying them off when the animals were sold, but the money from the sale usually went toward paying for the next animals and didn't even cover that, so more credit card debt. That, of course, is not sustainable and we got to the point where that had to end. We have gone into a program to help us get the credit cards payed off and that is an excellent thing. We have cut up all of the cards and have become cash only consumers. We are learning to be frugal and not live beyond our means. The question becomes are the animals beyond our means? This month our feed expenses are over $900 and we are out of pig feed again and have to get more. Such a tough decision, we have tried to cut back in the past and then we find that we end up with more than ever. I love having all of the animals, they bring me so much joy. I don't know what I would do without them, but when the decision is buying food for the animals or the kids, well....
On a lighter note, Brianna was taking pictures the other day and took this one. I thought it was too cute. Our cat had three kittens in April. They are getting really funny and are starting to explore and play outside. Who doesn't love baby animals?
No comments:
Post a Comment