Have They Made Me Lose It?

Story and Photo by Joseph Zahnle

Our Caldwell neighborhood is overloaded with squirrels, and once they found out we had birdfeeders, it was a frenzy in our backyard. I’ve never cared much for squirrels—the little pains not only raid the feeders, but run across the roof and break branches. We didn’t mind too much if there were one or two squirrels at the feeders but when there were three to ten, it became more than we could take.

My wife Barbara came up with an idea to put petroleum jelly on the shepherd hook poles so the squirrels couldn’t get to the feeders, and it worked great. Now the squirrels have to wait for the birds to drop seeds for them to eat.