Midnight Snack

The evidence of a midnight snack is there. Well, maybe not exactly midnight, but the fact remains that there is definitely some nightly noshing going on in my yard. Littered under the large hickory tree are the telltale signs of flying squirrels' mealtimes. It is easy to tell that these are the remnants left behind by the Southern Flying Squirrel as no other squirrel can open a rock-hard hickory nut in quite the same way. These tiny rodents will gnaw a perfect oval hole in the end of the nut and leave what resembles a wooden "cup". The edges are left smooth and the shell empty. The other squirrels just simply rip the thing to pieces. It intrigues me that something so small can do this. Just as a matter of explanation..flying squirrels do not actually "fly". They have no wings just a flap of skin called patagium. This flap stretches from the ankle of the front leg to the ankle of the back leg. When the squirrel wants to "fly" from one tree to another it launches itself into the air, stretches its legs outward and glides with these flaps! Pretty efficient mobility!

Finally! Today, the old parlor stove received its final touches of restoration. This beautiful old cast iron stove had been severely damaged during Hurricane Katrina so I am elated that it is now ready to be reinstalled in the house. The before picture shows the intensity of the rust damage caused by salt water that was blown into our house by the storm. Now, after much laboring the stove has regained most of its beauty. I say most since there had to be some replacement of parts that are not original to the stove. The back legs were completely gone and try as I might, I could not find any that matched. As luck would have it though, the same storm that caused harm to this fine old stove gave me the replacement legs. A piece of some other iron

stove washed into our yard from "who knows where". We removed the broken legs, replaced them with found ones and then scraped and buffed away all the rust. With a new grating and a new cook plate, it is finished! The results..a beautiful, functional cast iron woodstove! Now with some new stove piping and a bit more elbow grease during installation, this beauty will be ready for the first cold spell of winter!