Squirrel Report

Last week, we had a juvenile squirrel come right up on the patio where my wife and sister in law were working on their furniture refinishing projects. The way he came up into the area of human activity was odd. I caught him in a cardboard box and took him out to a large tree in the front yard.

Later in the day I discovered he had a sibling. I watched him come down out of a tree and I was shocked when I was able to walk right up to him. I literally waved my hand in front of his face and he just sat there, munching on a morsel he had found. The poor little guy was blind. I knew if I could sneak up on him like that, so could a predator. But I wasn't prepared to catch him at the time and he eventually went back up the tree, out of reach.

A few hours later, the first squirrel returned to the carport. His vision was poor too - although he could see a bit when you got really close to him. I caught him again and we put him in a pet carrier with a bunch of rags in it. He ate abit and then cuddled up in those rags and slept like a rock all night. These two had been without momma for several days and had gotten so hungry that they began to venture out for food. The blindness, I've raed, is a correctable condition that is a result of dehydration and malnutrition. So I knew that if these guys got some TLC, they'd be OK.

The next morning I went out several times to check on the blindest one, who was still in the same tree. He had spent the chilly October night clinging onto the tree in the fork of two branches. Finally about 11 am he came down and into our driveway, where I caught him.

You should of seen it when those two were re-united in the carrier. It was so touching! They were SO happy to see each other - they kissed and cuddled and played. They both ate and drank lots of water, and then burrowed down together in their new nest. They seemed pretty content to be in there, even though they were captive.

I was getting attached to the little critters after only two days. I wanted to nurse them back to health myself... and maybe could have - but in the end decided they should be in the care of a professional rehabber, so I contacted Operation Wildlife. I drove them out to the Operation Wildlife facility in Linwood Kansas, where they're in good hands now.

I'll check back up on those squirrels a little later to see how things turn out for them.

Pepper Update

Here is my two year old cayenne pepper plant on October 1st 2010.

It's grown so vigorously all summer long and produced lots and lots of 3-5 inch peppers. I'm so proud of this thing! I planted it in the spring of 2009. As cold weather approached, I brought him inside with only the intention of finishing off the green peppers that were still on it. Lo and behold, it kept blooming indoors and produced fresh peppers throughout the winter. It slows down a lot and the peppers produced indoors are smaller, but they still grow.

Peppers are good for your health.
Very good... if you can eat them, you should. Here's a quote from a Applied Clinical Nutritionist, taken from a web discussion about the health benefits of pepper:

In the basis cardiovascular course, one whole day was devoted to cayenne pepper! It heals tearing and scarring in arterial walls. It recanalizes blocked arteries. It will create alternative arterial genesis. It removes plaque. It lowers blood pressure. So as side effects, it helps the immune system, assists in fat loss, improves mental function, is anti-aging, and is adaptogenic.
Plain red pepper from the local supermarket is sufficient. I use at least a tspn per day, and frequently a tblsp per day. One's alimentary tract will adapt to these dosages within a few weeks, if you use incrementally a little more each day. If I were to be limited to just one supplement for cardiovascular health, red pepper would be my choice.

Above photo shows a mature cayenne pepper (since eaten) next to a baby pepper, which will mature indoors.

Surprise Pepper

Besides my 2 year old cayenne, I also planted some other pepper plants around the house. But I had some surprises. In the photo at right is one that I thought was cayenne when I planted it, but soon became obvious it wasn't.

I eventually figured out that this guy is a Tabasco Pepper plant. The peppers on it are small but plentiful and beautiful.

On the scale of hotness, the Tabasco pepper is in the same category as Cayenne - they are supposed to be the same degree of hotness.

That is not the case with my peppers. I can eat the Cayenne, and do. I eat 2-4 fresh raw Cayennes with most of my meals. I cannot eat one by itself, but as long as I have food in my mouth, I can put handle them.

The Tabasco's, on the other hand are NUCLEAR! I have tried several times to eat these, with occasional painful results! I got some juice on my lips one day and thought they'd never quit burning!

I swear, you gotta be really careful with these things!

Hot Portugal

These peppers look just like giant Cayennes! Gorgeous!
They are called Hot Portugal.

I got these late in the planting season on a closeout at the hardware store. It had one big pepper on it then, even though the plant was only 8 inches tall. When that pepper ripened, I ate it and it was not very hot at all. So I expected the same for the rest of the season.

After that, one night a caterpillar or something ate nearly all the leaves off both of these Hot Portugal plants. With time, they slowly recovered and since have produced quite a few peppers. But these late season peppers are much hotter than the early one I ate. These are just about the same level of heat as the Cayenne. I really like these

FULL SCREEN PHOTOS

PEPPERS and Flowers -- photos below - click on any thumbnail to enlarge,
click the fullscreen button, lower right corner, to see them BIG!