mother nature at her finest

what i love most about our time in maine
is the safe haven my husband has created
for all the creatures
and that duke doesn't bother
from the chipmunks

to the birds

to the grey squirrels (not the red ones)

we've even had some visits from a woodchuck and some raccoons
but this one...
mother nature is not at her finest...

winter nature

sean cares a lot about nature

the four legged

or the winged type

and always makes sure they are well fed

which i'm sure they appreciate when we have our few days of "bad" weather

the last few weeks

I'm spending tonight recovering from all the company we've had the last several weeks.  I thought I would sum up our time together in a few pictures.
There was a lot, a lot, a lot of eating...

like packing on 10 pounds type of eating...

catching some rays...

a little drinking...

some mischievousness...

some holding on for dear life...

trying to keep these guys safe from Duke's visitor...

and celebrating our independence...

Hopefully tomorrow I'll post about our lobstering trip - what a BLAST!

breaking the new toy

You may remember my husband's kids and how they're so fat they can't even fit on the feeder.  Well, we got them a new feeder this year which they have nearly already broken.  I woke up the other morning and immediately looked out the window, as I have eagerly been awaiting them finding their surprise, to find a squirrel sitting smack dab inside the feeder as it leaned off the tree.

He must have seen the rustling in the Camp as I tried to get the camera because he ran off before I could get his photo - and I hadn't even let Duke out yet!  When I arrived at the new feeder to fix it I realized just what had been going on as I was having sweet dreams that morning - that spoiled rotten little guy was sitting in that feeder picking out all the peanuts while he threw the corn on the ground or left it behind.  Funny guys!

grown up pictures

All the pictures I take I just use a little point and shoot camera.  Sometimes I get some really nice shots, sometimes it's obvious it's a point and shoot.  Sean has a nice, "real", camera.  Our plan is to learn how to use it this winter.  We already have a DVD, we just need to watch it.

Before we left Maine, I was messing around with his camera.  He has a super zoom lens.   Here are some fun shots I took with it.  For those of you that have been to the Camp, I was standing inside by the TV when I took these.

I think this last one looks like he's laughing.  So CUTE!

learning to eat at the table

Remember those squirrels that were too fat to eat at their new feeder (if you don't remember you can read about them here)?  Well, they finally figured it out...

or maybe not...

By the way, these squirrels we like (the grey ones)!

case closed!

We've had some issues in the past with coming home to our party lights being chewed through.  Sean splices them back together and we move on.  This week was a little different though.  We found piles of party light wire on the ground and chewed up wires hanging from the trees.

After over a year, we finally caught the culprit in the act!

Come to find out he's been chewing out the light bulbs and running off with them.

We have no idea where he's storing them but I'm sure they'll provide him with some much needed nourishment over the cold winter months.  After a ton of time splicing the lights back together, the stupid squirrel actually chewed them again - while they were plugged in - TWICE.  We have now taken them all down.  He won this time, but there's always next year.

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If you have any ideas how to keep the red squirrels from chewing our party lights please leave me a comment.  We're up for trying anything at this point (those were brand new lights this year!).

too fat to eat at the table

We have a bit of a problem at the Camp.  Sean has fed the squirrels so much that they broke the feeder.  But that hasn't seemed to stop them from trying to finish off the goodies on it.

So, now we have a new problem.  We bought a new feeder but the squirrels are too fat to use it.  It's the cutest little feeder too - a little picnic table.  They try anyway.

My husband's kids

So they're not really kids, but that's what he calls them. They all have fur or feathers. I knew he had an obsession with them before we got married but it's getting out of control now. We buy more food for them then we do Duke (ok so Duke only weighs 6.5 lbs but still). He has to fill up all 12 feeders multiple times in a week. But it doesn't stop with the birds - he has to feed the squirrels and chipmunks too. In one of his recent trips to Blue Seal he found the ultimate block of food for his kids. It is about 12x12x12 (inches that is) and solid food.

Since I knew he was obsessed and he loves to take pictures I found the best birthday present for him - it's called a BirdCam!!! I quickly bought it for him for his birthday earlier this year (May). What I learned from this (and the iPod I bought him several years ago that it took him over a year before he used) is, yes he's completely a computer nerd, but he likes what he knows. So after asking him multiple times when he was actually going to try out his new BirdCam I decided to learn how to use it myself. I thought the pictures of the kids eating the new block of food would be cute. Come to find out the BirdCam is super easy to use! It has lots of options though - you can do pictures or video and you can choose to have it take them automatically or with a remote sensor. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures we captured over the weekend.

Day 1: All butt shots.

Day 2: We moved the block in hopes we'd get a picture of their front sides. You can leave the camera out all night - it's weather proof. However, we cannot leave the block of food out all night as it's not night creature proof. We have a family of racoons that ate a lot of suet before we figured out where it was going so fast. We now have to bring the suet and the block of food in each night. That's why the first few pictures have the block missing - we hadn't gotten up yet. They didn't seem to have a problem cleaning up the leftovers from the night before though.

The sun was on the wrong side but I thought he just looked guilty in this one.

Some feathered friends.

Posing....

Posing...

Mourning Dove showed up to the party.

Looking for a tasty spot.

Found it and enjoying it.