Squirrel Wars
8:56 a.m. - 2008-06-18


This week went by in a flurry of squirrel hunting. I am so angry at those squirrels, they have destroyed my fruit crop for this year by knocking tons of fruit to the ground, taking a bite or two out of them, or not, and just leaving them there. I wouldn't mind so much if they were eating everything, but they are so wasteful. The spouse wants to get some trappers out here to catch them and take them off to some wilderness far far away, and that would be great, but in the meantime I am scaring them away with the blaster attachment on the hose. One in particular just sits up there and mocks me, until I squirt the hose near him. I want to put the fear into him. I am successful with the others who run at the sight of me, but the big one, well, he mocks me. There are plenty of people who don't do anything with their fruit but let it fall and rot on the ground, so go eat their fruit, I need mine.

In other news, my sister is getting rid of all her rubber stamping equipment so my other sister and I are going to make a trip up there to take what we want. I am looking forward to the ride over to the peninsula in a nice air-conditioned car. My ex-rubber-stamping sister is changing her studio into an in-home office, so some of the equipment for her many hobbies has to go. Her loss is our gain.

Speaking of hobbies, this week I have been working on the hats for the rescue mission, and have been thinking that my taste in hats might not go over well with a more hip, urban bunch of people. Even people down on their luck don't want to look frumpy. Melissa told me about a book she saw called 'Get Your Crochet On!, Hip Hats & Cool Caps'. There was luckily one lonely copy left at the bookstore so I grabbed it. The book is full of very stylish hats and caps which will soon be finding their way to the mission. In the meantime, I was researching kufi caps, a name I confess I had never heard before, but I knew what I wanted - a straight-sided cap like the ones people wear in West Africa which are made of fabric and also of tapestry crochet. I remember how dignified and elegant the men at the Black Family Association dinner we attended several years ago looked in the caps, usually accessorized with a matching scarf. It was amazing how wonderful the two items looked with a suit or tuxedo. I love African fabrics, but I digress.

Anyhow, I found an old Simplicity pattern of mine that included a cap like that, so I measured it and crocheted one to fit the measurements. I tried out tapestry crochet on the sides, and I really like how it turned out. It fits snugly and was fun to make. I can use some of my many crossstitch patterns for the tapestry crochet.

So I spent the week crocheting and knitting and scaring squirrels. We are getting our first crops- cucumbers and summer squash, and the basil is ready for the first picking.