Enough is Enough

    Years ago fiberglass insulation went on sale at our local hardware store, so I decided to isolate the walls and ceiling of my shop.  I did the walls and put isolation in the ceiling and sealed it off with a plastic vapor barrier.  I slapped on drywall on the walls, but never got around to putting it on the ceiling.  

    Over the years a squirrel discovered that it could chew through the vapor barrier in the ceiling and make tunnels through the insulation.  It pulled out a bits of the soft fluffy insulation and used it to make nests and storage areas for the sunflower seeds from the bird feeder and spruce cones amongst the items on the shelves of the shop  The squirrel was ruining my ceiling, and making a real mess of the things on the in the shop.  

    I love wildlife and enjoy seeing it, but while making an attempt to clean up my shop, I reached the end of my tolerance.  Determined to stop the squirrel from using my shop as it’s home, I used wire mesh to seal off all of the possible entry points that a squirrel might use to get into the shop.  That didn’t stop the squirrel, so next I used the terribly smelly spray, designed to keep deer from eating our flowers, and sprayed it into all of the insulation tunnel entrances  in the ceiling.  That also didn’t work.

    So last night I hauled out the heavy artillery and used a live trap to capture the squirrel.  That did work.

    This morning discovered that I had captured the squirrel, and I drove it down the road to an isolated wooded area to release it.  Hopefully the varmint will have enough time before winter to make himself a new home.  

    While it’s nice to try to live in harmony with nature, there are times when lines have to be drawn.

You can see my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca