Big City, Little Homestead

Living rural in the city is great – you can do it, too.

Page 6 of 17

Little Neuro-Squirrel – a squirrel with a disability

In late November, 2020, I took a video of a very busy squirrel perched on the ladder in the back yard. It was stripping a burlap bag of material to put into its nest (probably the squirrel cabin outside my bedroom window). The squirrel looked a little wobbly, but I thought little of it. They’re wild animals with wild lives. Until I saw it again in January, hanging upside down under the park bench, wobbling around while looking for bird seed.

A couple of days later, I saw the squirrel spinning around the base of the tree:

Oh boy. I had an injured or neurologically impaired squirrel to look out for. So I tossed it out an acorn, which it found in short order. OK, so not helpless, just having extra challenges in getting around.

Assistance measures for a disabled wild animal

Over the next few weeks, I keep an eye out for it, and made sure it always found a supplemental tidbit. I was glad to have already put “squirrel ramps” out there: old boards propped on the ladder against the fence and to the patio. They made it easy for squirrels to get up on the patio from a different part of the yard.

I continued to monitor the situation through February, where I found out that he/she had no trouble climbing the wall, and even hang upside-down using its back legs, no problem.

Considering that the squirrel had plenty of compromises, I also put out a “bus shelter” for it, so that it would have a secure space sheltered from the elements in which to eat its snacks and maybe catch some repose. It got in the habit of retiring here to eat its daily ration of chestnuts and peanuts:

I also found out Neuro-Squirrel had a friend, as I saw them both climbing the wall at the same time, and hanging out together, having their food (video):

Unfortunately, over the course of February and March, Neuro-Squirrel degenerated and needed even more help. I fixed up a heat lamp in the corner of the patio door. Infra-red heat transmits through glass, and it would help him or her feel more comfortable; I added extra straw to the Bus Shelter.

Here she/he is looking a little worse for wear. In fact, she (I had to handle her to get her out of a jam, and she really didn’t like that!) was having a really hard time getting around. I could see that, though she valiantly survived this long through the winter, it was end times for her.

The posture and condition of a very aged or decrepit squirrel: thin fur, hunched back, looking pinched…

On her last night and her last morning on earth I kept the heat lamp on her, and –though protesting my presence if I imposed upon her a little too much – added softer Polyfill bedding to her Bus Shelter. She had as good a sleep as I could imagine her having, without her friend to keep her company.

On this day, after her early morning runabout, she took this long nap in the box. When she next got up, she wandered off…and never came back.

RIP, Neuro-Squirrel. May you have enjoyed your short life to the fullest, and may your death have been an easy one.

Clothing minimalism, 2020 and beyond: The capsule wardrobe

This post is a bit of a departure from usual topics! The pandemic has brought a lot of people home and made them appreciate a few things. Some of them are obvious, like decluttering (my low-key favourite!) and home decoration (that too) and house plants (I’ve got lots of those). One of the many other home-bound themes, though, has to do with the clothes we wear…and aren’t wearing, as we’re not going out in public much these days. In fact, we’re wearing a lot of

Schlep-wear, schlepwear | house-schlep clothes. 
1. No-longer-stylish or imperfect yet comfortable clothes you only wear at home, to preserve socially-appropriate clothing for repeated use and greater longevity. I changed into my house-schlep tights as soon as I got home. I slung my work pants over the back of the chair for Friday morning.
2. Stained or worn out clothes worn over other clothes for the purpose of getting dirty while working on household or outdoor projects. I split the seam of this pair of pants, so now they're schlep-wear for the next time I paint.

I must say I was surprised and a bit annoyed to read about people feeling the “need” to buy house-schlep clothes, as in, the ultra-comfy casual wear that found a new market this pandemic. They can spend the money if they have it, but didn’t they just overburden all the charity shops by getting rid of too much (too fast: all at the same time), and now they’re buying more? This is ironic. Or just poor decision-making.

I hope that merchants are selling their overstock, the stuff previously going to waste in this incredibly wasteful industry. Otherwise, workers are in the factory at great risk to themselves right now, or at their sewing machines at home, merely to supply a frivolous need.

Because in my view, people were already wearing house-schlep clothes. And there’s a ready supply of second-hand clothes both online and in charity shops, even if in-person shopping is a limitation. Except for pyjamas, you don’t need new house-schlep clothes because…

Downgrading is the obvious option.

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Pandemic Project: The Drag Queen/Cowgirl porch-garage

Ecological landscaping, green driveway

Well before the pandemic, I realized I was becoming a neighbourhood fixture, the person who sits on their front porch every day*, watching the world go by. I first started doing it outside, in an Adirondack (Muskoka) chair at what I called “1 Elation Way.”

* not every day, just often enough

I then moved the chair just indoors at the corner of the garage door, because I needed a tad more privacy while reading my books and papers and supervising the bunnies. (Also I was getting a bit too much sun, it’s not always pleasant to sit without shade.)

Since forever and anon, my garage looked like this:

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New project: build a nest box for bluebirds and chickadees!

It’s been on my to-do list for a few weeks to build a couple of bird houses with the scrap wood I have leftover from other projects, and so finally I did the job just in time for spring migration.

In fact, by May, it’s almost too late — except that some species breed more than once. Those birds who arrived earlier already have young, but those just arriving are getting ready to make a nest. A ready-made niche is often accepted — and that’s what I’m going to provide!

And so can you. Do it this weekend!

Using Old Wood To Build A Birdhouse” is a into a new kind of post here called a Project or Portfolio post. I decided it this was a nice way to do it with a picture gallery, and I could centralize all the DIY projects that way.

Resource: NestWatch’s All About Birdhouses has everything you need to know about different birdhouses and nest boxes for different types of birds, and also how to set them up with a nest camera!

Cornell Lab of ornithology

Leave a comment if you do get this project under way / done. I’d love to see the results!

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