Bribery!

The photo above show some of the damage done to my trumpet vine by squirrels in winters past. This year I decided to bribe them as shown in the photo below.

Wine Club

Touring California's wine country 3 years ago, we stopped in at Clos du Bois Winery . We liked their wines and so joined their wine club. We get a shipment of 12 bottles each May and November. We usually skip the May shipment but keep the November one because of the holidays. Today our shipment arrived. I knew they required an adult to sign for the package but I was surprised by the other condition I marked with a red arrow in this photo.

A New Garden

The back of our property slopes upward quite abruptly. Honey has been bothered by this for years because all we can grow there is grass. So, this year we contracted with Soulliere Decorative Stone, Inc. to terrace part of the slope. We chose the sunny half of the yard.


Being autumn, the time to plant bulbs, Honey ordered a couple hundred crocus, tulip, hyacinth, and daffodil bulbs. Having been warned by Honey's brother that the squirrels will really enjoy digging these up and adding them to their larder, I set out on a triple-threat defense.


Firstly, I sprayed all the bulbs with Squirrel Stopper. This contains rosemary oil, mint oil, cinnamon oil, and putrescent whole egg solids. Despite the presence of the last ingredient, this makes the bulbs smell really nice to humans and not so good to squirrels.

Secondly, after planting the bulbs, I sprinkled a medicated foot powder on top of the soil. It is important to use medicated foot powder because it contains menthol, eucalyptus oil, and peppermint oil. That made the whole area smell like a Halls Mentholyptus cough drop.

Thirdly, I applied some coyote urine left over from a battle with racoons in my attic a number of years ago.

How does it work? So far so good. I finished the bulb protection project about 24 hours ago and, while there are squirrels in the back yard, they are not spending any time in the new terraced garden.