Spending the weekend at the lake was the perfect way to end a long week of business travel. The weather stayed perfect for the entire weekend, and as I have already mentioned below, Spring Fever is in the air in Hill County. The wild flowers are getting ready to bloom, the rabbits are out in force as well, and its mating season for the peacocks. Mother nature at her best.

Speaking of seasonal critters, on Thursday night, I kept hearing something stirring in the hall closet. I thought I was imagining it, and even blamed the strange noise on innocent Beacon. It is, in fact, not the first time I have heard a noise coming from that part of the RV that sounded like a critter of some type. But, so sure was I Thursday night that I heard something that I decided NOT to check it out so late at night. If somehow a rodent or something had made its way into that closet via the adjacent sub-floor storage area, I didn’t want to liberate into the RV so late at night.

By Friday morning, I had forgotten the whole incient. That is, until it was time to feed Beacon. Her counter top dry dog food jar was empty, so I went to the hall closet to withdraw a fresh bag of Science Diet that I had put in there just a few weekends ago. You guessed it. The 10 lb bag was chewed wide open, and there was but a handful of food left. In hindsight, to wasn’t a good idea to leave the food down there, but who knew?

Further inspection revealed that the bottom of the closet had been breached – something has scraped and clawed its way inside and the hole was clearly a fresh one. After two trips to the hardware store for steel plates and bait, I fixed that problem. After discussing the situation, we all decided that the perp had to be mutant squirrel, such that they tend to get into anything if they want in bad enough. In this case though, he consumed 10 lbs of dog food, and I have named him Rocky.

Therefore, if you see this squirrel running around Arrowhead on your next visit, please stay out of his way and notify the proper authorities immediately.

I wasn’t back in town for even an hour before I loaded up Beacon and headed straight for Arrowhead for a long weekend. 72 degree days and 50 degree nights – this is my time of year. Yesterday I went to Laurie’s Garden in downtown Whitney and picked up a bunch of soil, mulch, jasmine,pink sage, nandina and drought tolerant color. I got a little carried away, and I am the first to admit that I have a problem with portion control in all areas of my life. 20 bags of mulch later, I was up to my ears in dirt. The place looks a lot better now and I am just hoping we don’t have a late-in-the-season freeze.

Now, I hear my hammock calling.