Gotta Start Killing Squirrels -- Hate To Do It

 Personally planted 1,000 trees during the 60s-70s, and had 300 of them
cut down with stumps ground 2005-6.  The trees that were cut were
chipped and the shavings shoveled via bulldozers but kept on the
property to serve as a reservoir of mulch.

The ground stumps eventually rot and sink below ground level even if
you heap them.  You have to regularly add filler (from mulch
reservoir) until the ground shavings and roots rot completely.
Otherwise, you have craters that are hard on garden tractors -- and
ankles.

Squirrels see these stump sites and assume that their walnuts and
acorns are buried there.  So they dig, removing the filler.  You
cannot replace the total amt. of filler they dig up by mere raking, so
it's necessary to haul out the cart and bring up more filler from the
mulch reservoir.

It's bad enough having to fight woodchucks -- killed six so far this
year -- who burrow along the row of wild mulberry and cherry trees
that define the east side property line, now it's war with the gray
squirrel.

 Jack wrote:

Evidently you don't have man's best friend a dog.
If you gonna shoot them put them into the freezer. Barbecued squirrel is
great.

 

There's so little meat on a gray squirrel; never understood why people
make such a fuss over them as food.

Then you gotta worry about the bird shot while chewing.  Several
acquaintances have fractured their teeth on pheasants that were killed
by shotgun.

 WhereYoBabyMomma@home.org (Jack) wrote:


-snip-

We used to figure 4 squirrels 'meated up' a spaghetti sauce just right
for 6 people.        Maybe our greys are bigger than yours? [I've only
hunted them in NY]     The labor/meat ratio is better than for
partridge or woodcock.  

It has been a long time since I dressed one, but I'd guess a good one
went about 1-1 1/2 pounds.


Bad teeth or steel shot?  Lead is pretty soft.   But that's also why I
always used a .22 & head shot 'em.  

Jim

 Jim Elbrecht wrote:

That sounds like a mighty meaty gray's - around here they are way too
scrawy to eat, figure two per person. As a kid back on the farm I'd hunt
fox squirrels - plenty of tasty meat.