Back to Nature

We have a little chipmunk friend, Chippy, up at the cabin. We have been feeding him for years. He lives underneath the guest suite (anyone who has ever slept in that room can verify that) and he has us trained to give him nuts on a little stump by the deck. Whenever we arrive at the cabin there's Chippy sitting on the stump barking for nuts. This time I brought him walnuts and almonds. We fed him for a few days then he appeared with a friend. Then he appeared with 2 baby chipmunks. Then he appeared with 4 baby chipmunks. Next thing we knew, it was Chipmunkpalooza! There were chipmunks running around everywhere! They were chasing each other up & down trees and doing back flips on the deck. The babies were running up the screens on the screen porch and the cats were sniffing their bellies. They were trying to come in the porch! So - we had to put an end to the freeloading chipmunks. Chippy wasn't happy and spent a lot of time barking on his stump but we ignored him. We couldn't make eye contact with him. He kept bringing his babies out trying to make it look like they were starving but we didn't buy it. We have to find a way to evict the whole family. We're hoping that they'll give up and move on (over to my mother's house) while we're gone.

This is a very large, ugly bug I saw down by the dock. It looked almost prehistoric. I couldn't tell if those were wings on it's back or what. If anyone out there can identify this bug please let me know what it is. It was scary. It was so big I could see it from up at the cabin.