Barring that infamous "Easter Freeze" that was Mom's warning when Pop wanted to plant the fields too early, I am assuming spring has sprung. In the past couple of weeks everything has burst forth with lovely blooms. The pear trees are snow white with loveliness. This should, by every account, mean a bountiful harvest of pears. Should but never has. Plenty of pears are set on the trees but as soon as they get marble sized, the squirrels start gnawing their way through the entire crop. Nothing...NOTHING...stops those rascals. I was so in hopes that our resident hawks would take a liking to squirrel meat instead of dove meat but, so far, that has not happened. I am about to think that squirrel stew is going to be the "new" meat for the meat-eaters in this household.
Not only do the critters steal the fruit, now they are munching the blossoms. Yep, that is a thing nowadays. Never before have I heard of anything eating pear blossoms but I watched as several of the fluffy-tailed rats bounded into the trees and started stripping the branches. They cannot even wait until the fruit is formed! I would fully understand if it had been a harsh winter but that is not the case. We had one...ONE...hard freeze so there is still plenty for the critters to eat without attacking the fruit blossoms.
The overabundance of squirrels is due to the fact that just to the west of my brother's place, the new neighbors have stripped almost every tree from the once wooded acreage. It sadden me to see the many huge, several-hundred-year old live oak trees felled. Now, nothing is there. The place is barren. It is saddening, to say the least. Obviously, no one has any respect for nature. So, I inherit all the critters that have been misplaced by the "progress"...blossom munching squirrels included.
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