September NEWSLETTER 2007

What's inside:

Ivana the Terrible.................P1
The Bad Chipmunk
Summers Almost Over.........P1
Saying Goodbye
Recipes: Nature's Garden....P2 Pickled Cucumber Spears
Pickled Peaches or Apples
Pickled Green Tomatoes
Sweet Potato Pudding
Wild Grape Jelly
Poems & Quotations.............P1

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Poems & Quotations

The woods were made for the hunters of dreams,
The brooks for the fishers of song;
To the hunters who hunt for the gunless game
The streams and the woods belong.

~Sam Walter Foss

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If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.

~Eleonora Duse

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One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

~William Wordsworth,
"The Tables Turned," 1798

Ivana the Terrible
A New Chipmunk Takes Control

It was just last month that I reported on Lulu, the chipmunk, who came to us from somewhere beyond the stonewall. She took over the stoop as though it were her natural born right and chased all the regular visitors away. Her rule was short lived however, for Lulu has been replaced by yet another outsider who is even more fearless than she - Ivana the Terrible.

Ivana has a small nick in her right ear which tells me she was use to protecting her territory. Her tail is usually fluffed out indicating she is on guard and ready to protect her new found home.
	Here's Ivana helping herself to some sunflower seeds I left out for Lulu. Once she had stuffed her checks she headed for her den, an old chippy hole under the patio, to deliver her stash.

Lulu had been watching from under the hosta, and as soon as Ivana disappeared into her hole, Lulu returned to her spot on the stairs where I joined her with another handful of seeds. When Ivana came out, she saw me and must have had second thoughts about chasing Lulu away. Not to be out done, and being the clever, mischievous, and devious chipmunk that she is, she scurried across the yard and into Lulu's den. She was there quite a while, unbeknownst to Lulu, and when she emerged, her cheeks were bursting from all the seeds she had stolen. Where's the chipmunk police when your need them?

I watched as Lulu filled her checks with seeds and took them to her den. As she returned to the stoop, Ivana, who was watching, headed to Lulu's den for a refill.

I can't imagine what Lulu's thought each time she entered her den and found her seeds gone. She definitely knew something was wrong because a few days later she had a new den away from Ivana's view.

The Newest Member

Ivana the Terrible - our newest member

Ivana the Terrible

Criminal at large

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Chippy Chip Mug $14.99 + S&H
Visit our chippy store for more great chipmunk products!

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Featured site:

Animal Rescue Group:

Bens Place is a "No Kill" animal rescue shelter located in Bonifay Florida.

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Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

~~Albert Camus

Chippy Cherry Tiled Box
$23.99 + S&H

Earth Matters Journal
$13.99 + S&H

The Earth is our Garden of Eden, and we are the keepers of the garden. We can watch it wither and die or cultivate it and watch it grow.

Click her to go to our store where you will find more great gift ideas.

Summers Almost Over
Saying good-bye to dear friends and preparing for winters arrival

While autumn brings the last rush of color to the yard and we are blessed with a new litter of chippys, it is also a time to good-bye to some of our dear friends who are moving into the woods beyond the stonewall. This season it is Babyface and Sugar Plum that have set off to start a new life in the great woods. They will be very busy establishing a new den and then filling it with a variety of seeds and nuts to last over the coming winter months. We wish them good health and an abundance of babies in the coming seasons and hope that, at least once in awhile, they will stop in for a visit.

Autumn is a busy time for baby chipmunks too. There is so much to learn and much preparation needed before winter descends.

From inside the house, I can hear the sound of chippys in the woods calling out instructions to their young. Not only do they have to learn what to eat and what foods are good to store, but they also have to learn about the dangers that exist. There are many predators like hawks, owls, eagles, coyotes, snakes, and other animals who roam the woods looking for small critters to eat.

Although chipmunks are not considered social animals, they do look out for one another. When a chippy senses danger, the warning cry goes out and they scamper under and into logs, woodpiles, and stone walls until the danger passes.

From what I've observed, the young tend to move into recently vacated chippy holes in the vicinity of Mom's den. Even though they are on their own to gather and store food, they are still under the watchful eye of a very protective mother.

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