From what we thought were bunnies, but turns out it's squirrels too (we can't completely rule out the bunnies because there was a live one in there the first time we took our car in--they chased it around at the repair shop).
On Sunday, Jay erected this little barrier around the car after Elli, our dog, alerted us to some activity under its hood.
The car was already having trouble starting, and has been scheduled for its third not covered by insurance because of rodent damage repair.
In the mean time, it looks like this.
These are the plywood panels that were waiting to be covered and put up as a make-shift headboard (as soon as I decided which fabric to use). Now I suppose they serve a nobler purpose.
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I've been sharing my tomatoes with the squirrels all summer. For a few weeks, I wondered why they weren't turning red, until I went out one early morning to take pictures of a quilt in the beautiful morning light, and I saw a squirrel running across the yard with a very ripe and red tomato in its clutches.
This is what my heirlooms look like when I go to pick them.
We have eight tomato plants, and live in Northern California (perfect tomato weather), and this is the first untouched big tomato I've picked all summer.
I celebrated it with salt, pepper, and a little rice vinegar.
It had a few smaller friends left unspoiled
... so combined with the partly chewed on heirlooms, I made this.
Don't worry. After simmering for four hours, I feel confident that all squirrel saliva was boiled off....
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In case some of you are as depressed about the squirrels as I am, I'll leave you with some cuter images.
Steiger discovered my color card.
Look at those little hands scooting across the colors.
This black swatch, and the row with mustard in it had to be rescued by Elmer's when he was done, but all is well.
P.S. The above barrier is a temporary solution... though, we're starting harvest next week, so perhaps Mr. Jay will want me to stick with this until they can find something more suitable... but I don't know. We've also got traps and repellent out. Please don't laugh at me. OK, you can laugh a little. I actually made Jay look at these pictures last night so he could see what I see... we both laughed.