My Environmental Side.... Kinda

I'm not really sure what you'd call me. I don't think I can be called an environmentalist considering the following:

1. I make my living building things out of trees.

2. I am not a vegetarian by any means.

3. I hate doing dishes and quite often use paper plates.

4. I drive an SUV.. a big one

However, I do have my soft side. I've been feeding and sheltering this little "cereal squirrel" for 2 years. At least I think it's the same one and this winter he's brought along a friend. He lives in a box of cultured stone I never put on a house. The box of stone is under my dryer vent, so he kind of has his very own, clean linen smelling, heat ventilation system. Every day he gets the leftover cereal my boys didn't eat. He does not like certain brands, so I take this into account when buying the kids' breakfast food. He prefers bland colored cereals, none of that obnoxious looking bright red or blue stuff. So far, he hasn't let me get close enough to actually feed him by hand (I've heard some do). I keep trying though and he keeps acting like I'm some giant crazy lady hell-bent on scaring his little squirrel heart into an early grave. Maybe someday he'll realize I may be crazy, but he's actually in no danger.

This year I was facing a winter of no work. In this climate construction comes to a grinding halt during the winter. Considering construction was already slow prior to winter, this year was going to be exceptionally boring for me. So this year I also decided to feed the deer. It's taken a month or so, but I've got their deer food pile moved up almost to my office door. Most of the time they don't mind if I open the door and stand there. They pitch a fit if I actually take a step outside, but they seem to tolerate me well enough if I stay on my side of the threshold. They've stopped running all the way back into the woods when I go out to dump more food. Now they just trot off to the edge of the lawn and watch me.

Here's the little one that just walked up as I was typing .....

Guess I better get out there and put the food out. The continuous succession of deer will continue now well into evening.