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Squirreling It Away, One Nut at a Time
Daily Meditation 728–2/24/2024
I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, an oft forgotten or completely unknown part of the world.
It is a very sparsely populated place, and even in town where I live, we have a ton of beautiful forest interspersed between homes. Possibly my favorite thing about the UP is the wildlife — we really have it all. Moose, wolves, coyotes, grouse, deer, turtles and very occasionally, pelicans will land in our Great Lakes on migration.
At our house, my wife and I feed the squirrels and birds and enjoy watching them. Over the last 4ish years, I’ve really gotten to know our squirrels’ behaviors very well. Most of them have names (if they have distinguishing features, which many do). And many come in a variety of small, nuanced genetic differences which is how we tell them apart — some have white “eyeliner” around their eyes. Some don’t. Some have grey bellies, some have white bellies, and a few have rufous brown bellies. Some tails are big and fluffy and long, some are short, some are “ratty” and scraggly…some tails have been ripped right off by who knows what.
One of our favorite things is to give them in-shell peanuts. I keep a small bowl of them hidden behind the TV by our front door. When the squirrels come to visit, I will knock on the door (from the inside), slowly pop it…
