Baffled!

If you have ever dealt with squirrels constantly raiding your birdfeeders before, you will know how frustrating that can be!  We've had up to five squirrels in the yard at the same time, each vying for his/her turn on digging out the choicest seeds from the birdfeeder and hogging all the good ones, leaving only the dregs for the birds.  Lately even the birds have been taking revenge.  Although it is funny that the Bluebirds do not even visit the birdfeeder or eat from it, they do NOT like the squirrels invading their territory near the birdhouse, and so they have been dive-bombing the squirrels every time they are on the bird feeder.  It's been quite comical to watch.

However, comical or not, we've gotten tired of paying for expensive birdseed for the BIRDS, only to have the squirrels totally pig out on them and not giving the birds a chance.  Now don't get me wrong, I know that squirrels are God's creatures too and that they need to eat, but around here where we live they have PLENTY of natural food to eat. We have  oak trees with acorns out the wazoo, and holly berries in the trees, and young pine cones, which they also love to chew up and spit out the core. There is more than enough food for the squirrels and they really do NOT need to eat the birdseed from the feeder.

So, that being said, we finally splurged and bought a "baffle" to put on the bird feeder pole.

That's that black metal coolie hat looking thing above.  It sits on a little bracket that holds it up on the pole, but it also allows it to tilt and swivel so that the squirrel SHOULD not be able to get a footing on it to reach the bird feeder.

It was quite comical watching the squirrel above, calculating and considering just how he might get up that pole and around and over that new thing to get to his beloved birdseed.  Try as he might, he could NOT figure it out (yet).

If you look in the above picture, you can just barely see his tail sticking out from under the baffle, just before he had to slide back down the pole to the ground.  He was definitely baffled.

And so he went and sat on the birdbath and consulted with his "idol", Bobby the Squirrel, asking the wise cement squirrel what he should do.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bluebird sat up on his perching pole and watched the shenanigans, and I do believe I could hear him chuckling as we watched Mr. Squirrel try over and over again unsuccessfully to reach that birdfeeder.

Even Mrs. Bluebird stuck her head out of the house to see what the commotion was all about!

Well, all's well that ends well. 

I know you can't really see it, but there is another bird feeder in the "Secret Garden" that hasn't been "baffled". (yet).  So the squirrels do still have someplace to get their favorite sunflower seeds. I'm not totally inhumane.

So, what else is new?

This morning hubby and I went for our usual morning walk, and it was a little bit chillier than we thought. So we both bundled up in our hoodies, and then I realized that we were "twins", so of course a selfie was in order! LOL.    Aren't we just so funny?

And of course I needed to take some pictures of things that are developing since it is spring.

Do you know what these flowers are?

They are the flower of the "paw-paw" fruit!. Click HERE for a previous post that has a picture of them when they are ripe.  These bushes are showing up all through the woods right now, and by summer or early fall they will have fruit on them that the critters will enjoy.

And I had to check out the wild plum trees scattered throughout the woods. They are finally developing some wild plums!  The only problem is, by the time they are ripe enough to do something with, the birds have already gotten them or they have dropped to the ground. They are quite tart when ripe, so not really like a "real plum".

But I was very happy to see so many different trees are loaded with fruit this year. Last year there were hardly any.

After we finished our walk we headed to the local flea market. Sometimes there are good things and sometime there aren't. Today was my lucky day!  I scored this beautiful real wicker chair for a "song", including the cushion.

It joins my other wicker chairs on the back porch. Mine are the "plastic" kind of wicker, so are less maintenance, but as long as I keep it under shelter it should be fine.  

Now we are all set for a tea party on the porch. Won't you come and join me?  I'm sure I can find some other chairs around here if we need them. The more the merrier!

The same lady where I bought the chair had this lighthouse dishtowel for sale. She just threw it in with the chair! Deal!!  Who can't use another dish towel? Especially such a pretty one?

And for a dollar I bought these two pie stackers:

You may ask what a "pie-stacker" is.  Well, when I saw these they made me think of my mother, because she had these and used them often to carry her wonderful pies to family dinners or pot luck dinners, or wherever anyone was fortunate enough to receive my mother's pies.

See, you stack your pie pans on them (with pie in them of course)

And then you put them in your cake carrier, or in this case, pie carrier:

By the way, those two pyrex pie plates belonged to my mother. I keep them here in this cupboard, right under her pyrex mixing bowls:

Some things are too special to be hidden away...

My mother baked many a delicious pie in those two pie plates, let me tell you. And I know she used those mixing bowls for so many things, probably to mix up her pie crust, bake her macaroni and cheese casserole, put her delicious potato salad in, the list could go on and on.

Now I have to change my name to "Maurleen".  Apparently that's who owned these pie stackers before. 

LOL.

Is that enough stuff for a Saturday? 

We are studying The Proverbs in our Ladies' Bible Study at church right now. Going through the Proverbs is quite an education in how to live (or how not to live). Here's a good one for today:

"A merry heart does good, like medicine,

But a broken spirit dries the bones."

Proverbs 17:22

No matter what is going on, even when we are "baffled" by life's confusion and frustrations, if we try to keep a "merry heart", we will find that we can cope with life so much better.  No one wants to have dried up bones...

Have a blessed and "Merry" day!