Tag: squirrels

The squirrels in our yard are weird and hilarious. Most people think of them as nuisances because yes, they eat the birdseed, and yes, they tease the dog. I’ve heard they can damage trees and probably a lot of other things that I don’t know about. But you know what else? They are freaking entertaining! I mean, just look at this guy. All those acrobatics are totally unnecessary. It’s almost as if he’s having…fun.

I’m trying to cultivate a tolerance for everything in my garden. I’m convinced there is a way to live with all creatures, even insects–cue the heebie jeebies. Because once you start trying to eradicate one critter, especially in the case of bugs, you often end up with more problems than you started with. One thing might be gone, but a new one will come in to fill the void. Nature is an intricate web, and I am trying to learn how to preserve those delicate strands–emphasis on the word trying. We humans don’t have to control everything, don’t have to beat nature into submission all the time.

Forgive me. I have a tendency to be a little idealistic at times. It’s not just about letting it all go, maybe it’s about tolerating more wildness, more of nature’s perfect imperfection. Perfect because nature knows what she’s doing. Imperfect because that’s how humans often see it.

It reminds me of Joni Mitchell’s song “Big Yellow Taxi”:

Hey, farmer, farmer 
Put away the DDT now 
Give me spots on my apples 
But leave me the birds and the bees... 

I think we need to learn to live with a few spots, especially if the pay-off is the birds and the bees. In a healthy garden and habitat, things don’t get out of control as often. It’s a balance. You know how homegrown tomatoes rarely look as perfect as those store-bought ones? They don’t always look as good, but they taste a heck of a lot better. I like that side of the scale much better.

Still, letting nature totally have her way doesn’t always work. When I started putting out bird feeders, we had a terrible problem with rats. At first, I thought it was kind of cute to see the little guys (I’m hopeless, I know, but I had a pet rat as a kid, so cut me some slack). But then they started getting into my husband’s work truck and chewing hoses and wires. So some of the rats had to go bye-bye. But what really made the difference was when I switched to waste-less birdseed and started bringing the feeders in at night. We haven’t had any issues since (fingers crossed).

I guess the point in all this rambling is that I think we all need a little more wildness in our lives. Maybe then we can stop defaulting to black and white thinking. This or that. Yes or no. Perhaps we can ease into shades of gray. Or shades of green, as it were.

So, yeah, the squirrels can stay. Besides, if I kept all of them out of my yard, I’d miss out on their circus acts every day. And they definitely make me smile.

I’ll leave you with this guy, who built an obstacle course for squirrels in his backyard. He totally gets it.