The weekend after Christmas we journeyed to visit Robert’s family for the holidays.  The day we left, the state had freezing fog – the trees were otherworldly and kind of spooky, but beautiful at the same time:

We loved it.

The squirrels are acting in tandem in the yard today. I watched these two red squirrels as they emerged from their nest, traveled around the tops of the trees and then landed under the bird feeder, all together. It was warmer today instead of frigid cold, perhaps that’s why they were out and about. It was surprising though, because neither climbed the bird feeder pole to pry the top off with their greedy little paws. Maybe the steel was too cold.

If you see a fast little tiny gray mouse running around outside of your house near the foundation, does that mean that they are running around on the inside of your house too?

It’s cold outside and maybe they are looking to come into our warm house, since the house was empty last winter except for the mice and their insect friends, and poorly chosen paint colors.

I mean, he was cute and all, but I don’t want him running around my kitchen, or hiding in my pajamas, or eating our apple pies, or leaving tiny mouse turds in my soup. Maybe we should get a cat. Now I’m alone in the house and convinced I’m hearing mice running around. Oh, overactive imagination!

Time to call the Terminix Man.

The squirrels are in high-gear around our yard.

They are running about, burying nuts and getting fat for winter. They have been seen hiding nuts in flowerpots, under bushes, and around our patio furniture. Like it’s some great Easter Egg hunt for nuts that will take place later this winter.

They seem to be leaving nuts everywhere – even on our detached garage window:

We don’t agree with this practice. I went to drive my car the other day, and there was a nut on the license plate ledge. I don’t drive my car that often, but goodness! It’s not a permanent fixture of the driveway, it’s a moving target! Get a clue, squirrels.

Robert’s been out-of-town for a couple of days, visiting his relatives on the east coast. So I’m here, for the first time, alone, in the new house. Alone. In the suburbs. All has been going fabulously well until this morning.

I woke up to the sound of chainsaws.

Chainsaws, at an ungodly hour. “WHO IS USING A CHAINSAW at this hour?” I said, (but I said it in a different way, with other not-so-nice words included)

I looked outside, and surprise!

We were the ones rude enough to be using chainsaws at that hour. (Hi Neighbors! We’re new here, don’t mind the noise.) The tree trimmers were in our back yard, trimming the silver maples. Not only in our backyard, but up in the trees:

Robert had arranged for them to come about 5 weeks ago, and of course, they were completely booked up with all the storm damage around here lately. He called them on Friday and told them not to come until he got back from his trip. He wanted to be here to give them the official tree-trimming instructions. Tree trimming falls under Robert’s house jurisdiction, along with garbage removal, recycling, and anything to do with the cars – except gas. I can get the gas. And festive tree-trimming at holiday time, that’s all me.

They were supposed to come on Wednesday. Today is Monday. They just started cutting branches off trees without even talking to me. Let a chainsaw be my alarm clock. And the wood chipper, which sounded like a jet engine taking off in our backyard.

You’ll recall that the reason we decided to hire tree trimmers in the first place was because of the New House Tree Limb Falling On The Roof and Scaring Pam Half To Death Episode, recounted here.

Here’s a picture of the ominous overhanging-ready-to-destroy-the-roof tree limb before:

And here’s what the branch looked like after – like someone had de-pantsed it and it’s now naked:

Poor Squirrels, who I’m sure are completely freaked out from the men climbing all over their branches and cutting them off.

Poor Naked Trees. It’s autumn, so as the leaves continue to fall, they will fit right in with the other naked trees in the neighborhood.

PS – GO RED SOX!

At a recent Target run, we purchased some delicious orange and black spooky halloween M&Ms for a dinner party we hosted at our new house.

The M&Ms were innocently on the coffee table in a glass bowl in the living room – festive, I thought – and easily accessible for our guests if they needed a bite of chocolate with their dessert.

The next day, while we were preparing to journey out of the house, Robert reached for a tasty morning M&M treat, and recoiled in HORROR!

There was a small black spider hiding on the black M&M, just lying in wait for some unsuspecting human to eat it.

Luckily, Robert saw it before he tossed the M&M and spider into his mouth.

We have a spider issue in our new house.

And a M&M issue, because of course, we had to throw all the M&Ms away.

We’ve proudly placed our little halloween decorations out in the front yard. We have two small styrofoam tombstones, a couple of skulls, and some hand bones (to make it look like there’s a dead someone crawling out of the ground). Nothing too fancy, nothing too scary, but a little indication of our halloween anticipation. We also have a little sign that says “BOO” and a skull on our front door with the words “Happy Haunting”.

We have two flower beds that flank our doorway, and this is where we placed our decorations. I have about five small skulls, all among the flowers, and two sets of skeleton hands.

Yesterday, as I was locking the front door on my way to work, there was a squirrel on our front step. He was literally two feet from my doorway, and trying to look around me, like “What’s going on in there? Are there nuts in there?” I thought that he might just come on in, and make himself at home. He made me a little nervous.

“Go on, shoo” I said to the squirrel. He looked at me, shook his head, and with a smirk, went to the flower bed to wait for me to leave.

When we came home that night, all the skulls and skeleton hands were strewn about, completely out of place, like the squirrel was saying “You won’t let me in the front door? Well, then, I’ll mess up your halloween decorations, looking for invisible nuts”

We thought we’d have to watch out for neighborhood kids screwing with our decorations. Turns out, it’s the squirrels we have to watch out for.

“What IS it with this bed?
A spider parade here every night?
Tiny floats?
Tossing flies instead of candy?”

Wish we knew, but whatever it is, there are a lot of spiders in the new house.

We’ve trained the woodland animals living in our yard. They lie in wait, watching the empty birdfeeder for the inevitable refill, and once we refill it – mayhem reigns in the yard.

Last week we spotted a woodpecker in the birdfeeder enjoying a snack. Here he is, adjourned to the adjacent tree:

The chipmunk was in the birdfeeder cage and the woodpecker would swoop in for a snack. He and the chipmunk were duking it out. Puddem Up!

I like to think of the glass as 95% full.

And to celebrate, here’s a picture of the 95% full moon over Chicago last week.