Covert Deployment

Hello hello! Welcome new readers, long time fans, back yard naturalists, squeaky toy enthusiasts, and fellow squirrel chasers. This is The Daily Bone and I’m your ebullient doggie host 

Chester L. W. Spaniel.

It seems the helicopters have begun their descent. Unfortunately, my ghost writer had to work today and wasn’t able to take pictures of them falling. This evening there was no wind to incite a massive deployment. But don’t worry. The tree still has plenty of ammunition left. Maybe tomorrow we can get more photos.

I must report, however, that there have been plenty of squirrel sightings since yesterday when Dad climbed up the ladder to dislodge the squirrel nest from the tree. It seems the twitchy-tailed newlywed couple are totally confused by the wreckage of their would-be condominium. They jumped from branch to branch as I barked at them. (Please see my story “Squirrel Superhighway” from TDB on 9/13/13 to see why they were unable to simply run along the tree branches to the hawthorn tree and then exit the yard.)

And now my knowledgeable associate Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel, founder of the Yum Yum Coalition, has a report to make.

Hello everybody. I have done an inspection of the pear tree and have some sad news. There will probably be a small crop this year. During the week it was in full bloom, there were a lot of thunder storms and heavy downpours that damaged the blossoms.

That means Chester and I will have to redouble our patrols to make sure those squirrels don’t steal what few fruits are left on the tree. I will keep you posted on the situation throughout the growing season.

In the meantime, the squirrels are free to consume as many silver maple helicopters as they want.

"Bone" appetite squirrels! 

Squirrel Blasting Day

Hi friends and doggies! This is The Daily Bone and I’m your excited doggie reporter 

Chester L. W. Spaniel.

Today we got that pesky squirrel nest out of our big tree in the backyard! For some reason the squirrels love to use that particular spot, where several branches meet, to build a nest year after year. And every year we convince them of the misfortune of their real estate choice. The reason for that is that the nest eventually causes the branch to rot and it might fall down during the next heavy snow or ice storm.

My diligent assistant Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel and I did our required sniff around to be sure we pinpointed the exact tree. Not that it was very hard; the tree is the biggest one in the yard. They who do not have our excellent sense of smell were alerted to the squirrel building endeavor by a number of small severed branches lying in the grass. The squirrels cut these off the tree and then pile them into their intended construction site. They always drop a few.

Joey dog supervised from a safe distance as Dad put the ladder up next to the tree. Dad took the hose up the ladder with him and then blasted the nest. Apparently the squirrels had tamped it down pretty good so that the water didn’t dislodge much of it. But this is just the beginning. 

So Dad went up again, this time using his long branch cutter tool. He managed to push most of the nest out, clipped some branches, and pulled out some dead wood. 

Here's part of the wreckage:

I verified that it smelled like squirrels. Yup, this was definitely a squirrel nest. We’ll try to blast it again from another angle this evening. Chances are the squirrel might actually be home by then and get an unexpected shower! The squirrel will get several more dousings if he insists on rebuilding. Eventually he'll run out of nuts and no insurance company in the world will believe him if he tries to collect for flood damage!

Soggy squirrels! Bwahahahahahaha! 

Is it time for yum yums yet? 

6:45 PM. This just in.  Our good friend Molly commented on this post and it came up on my ghost writer's email under the social section. You know how advertisers try to pick ads to put on the side of your email by looking at a few choice words in the email? This is what came up on the side of Molly's email, and I checked it out. Wow I want one of those!!!!!! Click on the link and see for yourself! Joey dog and I are rolling on the floor laughing!!!

rodentblaster

Days With Dad

Hi. Chester L. W. Stephens here with The Daily Bone.

My ghost writer has been working a lot of long hours at the nursing home this week, so my esteemed colleague Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel and I spend a lot of time home with Dad. He likes to watch the news, and putter around in the garage, and sometimes is fond of using scary noisy machines, like the lawn mower, the power drill, the shop vac, and the power saw. There is a gigantic new machine he just put together that is supposed to make mulch out of all those sticks on top of the compost pile. We doggies are sure it will be very noisy. With a name like "The Beast," I didn't even what to go near it.

No way Jose!

But Joey dog, who will do almost anything for a yum yum Milkbone Marro Treat, agreed to pose for pictures with it.

What a good little sales doggie! I'm pretty sure he will be cowering under the bed along with me as soon as The Beast is turned on!

It's quiet around here this morning, thank goodness. So I thought I'd show some pictures of the nice flowers in our yard.

Iris and allium

Chives

Another iris

Woodfuff and mint

Columbine

Now check out this amazing video of a cocker spaniel police dog at work. Wow! We are simply gob smacked! (Yes we know a few British phrases!) What an astonishing and talented doggie!

We're thrilled to meet you Diesel!

The Helicopters are Coming

Hi everybody! This is The Daily Bone and I'm your diligent doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel.

Spring is a great time of year in our area. Things are growing like crazy. The grass has to be mowed practically every other day, the trees are now covered with leaves, and flowers are blooming. A definite sign of summer is the coming of helicopters. Before you envision a scene from an action thriller movie with a noisy flying machine with scary propellers that can chop you to bits, the kind of helicopters I'm referring to are the seeds of our silver maple tree in our back yard. For the last two months it's been growing these things.

These seeds are designed to whirl around in the wind as they fall and they look like miniature helicopters. Our tree has a huge abundance of helicopters this year as you can see below, and they're all just about ready to drop. When that happens the air becomes filled with these whirling, spinning seeds.

I'm predicting a mass dropping by early next week. I'll be sure to report when it happens. It'll be like a blizzard!

My human got mad at me today because I wouldn't come back in the house when she called. I'm sorry, but I caught an interesting scent in the grass, and simply had to investigate.

Sniff sniff …

Sniff sniff sniff …

Aha!

There's a squirrel's nest way up in that tree! See that blob of dead leaves?

I'm sure my humans will be out there soon and blast that nest with the hose. Woooooooo-hooooo! What fun that will be!

Now I'd like to introduce a new friend! His name is Charlie and he lives in Australia! Wow! Here's the link to his blog. I'm hoping he'll let me know what a crikey is. Sounds like it could be a wonderful type of squeaky toy! You know how I love to learn new words.  Anyway, he has lots of fun and posts some beautiful pictures.

charliedownunderinoz

I also found a great cocker spaniel video. The link is below. Dear Daddy: Please don't mow the lawn so that we can run and jump like this cute doggie! Hooray! 

Oh, and Charlie, to answer your question, these are grackles (video below.) Pretty annoying, huh? Fortunately once they're finished nesting they usually aren't as noisy.

(This is what they do to your car if you park near their nest. )

Serene Redux

We're going to give this serene stuff another try.

Mid-morning nap. 

Noon nap. 

So far, so good.

Serene Sunday

Hello. This is The Daily Bone and I’m your humble doggie host Chester L. W. Spaniel, along with my esteemed colleague Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel.

We had a very busy Saturday! It was so busy that our friend Molly wished us a serene Sunday. So we tried our best to do exactly that. We sat in the sun on the nice soft grass, and breathed in the air that smelled like lily-of-the-valley, and sweet woodruff, and a moldy tomato in the compost bucket. None of the neighbors had any chores to do, so there were no noisy lawnmowers, or vacuum cleaners, or kids hollering. No motor cycles and loud music. Even the grackles were still.

Blissful peace. 

Wonderful quiet. 

But then, all our people showed up! 

We ran after Ryan.

And ran around Ryan.

And fetched the tennis ball. 

Throw it again!

Run run run! 

We had grilled steak, and strawberries, and rice, and vegetables, and ice cream for dinner. Yum. And then they all went  home. 

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

TDB Doggie News Flash

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you this important Doggie News Flash. This is your nosy news doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel along with my astute and observant assistant Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel for The Daily Bone.

Ducks have just been sighted in our neighborhood. In fact, they were on the lawn right next door to our yard! Wow! There is always a lone duck that arrives this time of year to inspect the greenbelt for possible nesting real estate sites. This time, there were five! One flew away before we could get our cameras ready, so here are four: three male mallards and one female.

Amazing!

Oops. Wait a minute. Here's a photo with all five of them, although the quality is not as good.

Astounding! 

We will  increase our surveillance activity of the surrounding area for the next few days. You can be sure that if more ducks are sighted we will be the first to know. You can trust The Daily Bone for up-to-the-minute coverage and professional in-depth analysis! For the best local, national and world wide news, as it happens, tune into The Daily Bone.

The Daily Bone, where we always have  …

… should we say it?  …

…I'm not going to say it. You say it …

OK, OK. Where we always have our ducks in a row! 

QUAAAAAAAAAAACK!

Wow wow wow!! As we were typing this story into the computer, the big giant crow flew into the tree right outside our window! Here's snapshot. What unprecedented luck! 

The Daily Bone. We rock!