We are having an unseasonably warm winter here in southern Colorado. As you can see above, yesterday's outside temp at my house was 62 degrees at 4:29 p.m. However, on the evening news last night, they reported temps as high as 70 degrees in the area! We learned quickly upon moving here that the frequently heard statement, "If you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes" is oh-so appropriate. And, it's actually one of the things I love about this state.
And it looks like I'm not the only one who loves the weather here! Captain and George enjoy sunning in the yard as much as they enjoy romping in the snow. I actually think Captain is part cat, the way he loves to lounge outside on a sunny day!
I do believe that George, our big, silly lab is part termite. He loves to chew on tree limbs, twigs and Neal's bits and pieces of lumber that he leaves lying around. Thank goodness he has never shown an interest in chewing on our furniture! The other day, I watched George strip off a branch from a shrub in our yard and offer it to Captain, his best buddy in the world. I wish I had gotten a picture of that!
We have been hit with an invasion of squirrels lately (I think the word is out in Squirrelville). Because of this, and because I watched one bully squirrel hog the feeder and run everyone off, Neal decided to build a new feeder.
Using some left over lumber from other projects, he constructed what he proudly calls the squirrel buffet. It is mounted on the opposite side of the yard from the jar feeder and it has a trough in the middle and a ledge all the way around, which can accommodate quite a few squirrels.
The new buffet attracted our squirrely diners within hours and they frequent it daily, but I have yet to see more than one on the platform at a time. Keeping them stocked with peanuts on a daily basis is getting a little much for the budget, so we bought a 40-lb bag of corn for $10 at the feed store to supplement their nut obsession. They don't like it as well, but they do eat it and it takes them a little longer to go through, so it's a win-win for all of us. 
When our neighbor, Eileen, decorates for the holidays, she always makes sure to hang a lighted decoration in her dining room window on the back of the house for us to view. She has a Charlie Brown one for Christmas, a flag for Fourth of July, something Halloween-y that I can't remember, and the hearts above for Valentine's Day.
Since we have an abundance of decorative flags given to us by a neighbor in Baton Rouge, and since we don't have a flag holder or a flag pole, Neal thought of a perfect way to reciprocate for Herm and Eileen's viewing pleasure by stapling the flags to the pergola over our patio. As you can see, this time he chose to honor dual holidays...Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras! 
5 comments:
We have been having really cold weather - down to 0 last Friday night - but thankfully it will be up in the 60s tomorrow. We get both extremes here - very cold and very hot.
Love your dogs. Captain looks a lot like our Charlie. We lost both him and our black lab, BlackJack, a little over a year ago.
That is an ingenius squirrel feeder. Maybe I should have H build one for our squirrels. Currently, they feast at the bird feeders.
Sweet Virginia - it's supposed to snow tonight or tomorrow! Lots of weather extremes here, too.
If your husband is as handy as mine, I'm sure he can build you a squirrel trough in no time. Neal really liked your "ingenius" comment!
Sorry about the loss of your pups.
texas has the same kind of crazy weather - yesterday it was 80 degrees (all my windows were wide open) and today it is in the low 30's!!
windows up! windows down!
i usually like the ups and downs but sometimes i wish it was just stay steady long enough to want something different :)
love the squirrel trough, by the way... very thoughtful of neil!
Your pups sure look like they're enjoying the nice weather. Our weather sounds like yours. Saturday it almost reached 70, today we had 3 inches of snow and tonight we're getting sleet. Just never a dull minute.
Love the squirrel feeder! Squirrels are so darn cute. But I must say, they do make a fine meal ;-)
Daune - yes, I know what you mean about wanting it to stay the same for a while...at least long enough for us to decide whether to wear shorts and t-shirts or warm-ups and sweaters!
Penny - we actually got lots of snow yesterday and our temp this morning was 0 degrees! Yes, the pups like to experience the weather, but even they don't want to be out when it's that cold!
You know how you feel about your chickens and how you can't eat them? That's how we feel about the squirrels. It also doesn't hurt that I'm a vegetarian!
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