Eviction Consequences

On Sunday, I returned to the scene of the Squirrel Eviction to permanently close off access to the newly created Squirrel Hole. As I removed the siding to tear into the project, the extent of the damage began to reveal itself.The worst part of the damage was when I shined a flashlight into the hole and found a dead baby squirrel. I should have checked for that before closing off the hole last week, but it didn't occur to me. So now, I am responsible for the death of an innocent squirrel and I have a Momma Squirrel out there who is really pissed.

With a heavy heart, I continued my repair work. I removed all the siding on one side of the wall and the first couple of layers around the corner.

My first task was to replace a couple of support struts. That's the really badly chewed up piece and another below it. As usual, I ran into an equipment problem. The blade on my chop saw was so dull that I wasn't so much cutting through the wood as burning through the wood.

At that point, it was late in the day so I decided to buy the saw blade the next day. However, I still had a large opening and I didn't want any squirrels in there. My solution was Owlbert. We bought him at the General Store for about 30 bucks. He has motion sensors. His head turns and he hoots when the motion sensors detect movement.I think it worked good enough to keep the varmints out for a day. I heard it go off early Monday morning.My next step is to fit a piece of sheet metal over the whole side. There will be no more chewing through the house...at least in this area.

Then, I have to finish up and replace the siding.

We also have a major problem with moss. I have been scraping some of it away while I have been up there working. Once I'm done with this project, I will concentrate on the moss. I'm looking forward to some wonderful salads.

I feel really bad about the baby squirrel. After all the care I took last year to capture and re-locate skunks in a humane manner, knowing I am responsible for the rather unpleasant demise of a cute little future house shredder is unsettling. As with everything pertaining to the house, I will take the lessons I have learned and try to remember to apply them in the future.

So, the lessons learned in the past week?

Don't kill Squirrels. Don't cut the Gas Line.