Other Unwanted Guests/Residents

We had other unwanted guests inside the cabin during the week. Every night we would have white-footed deer mice rummaging through the day’s garbage to see if we had thrown anything edible away. The answer was usually no, but he made a racket rustling all the crinkly paper he could find. Perhaps it was his way of saying we should leave him some peanut butter—it’s far quieter. Occasionally during the week we would see this little critter go scurrying across the floor. As it was apparent that this was more his home than ours, and he was really very harmless, we left this little critter alone.

The screen in the window behind the sink had two steel mesh scrubbing pads stuffed into holes, which was rather curious. Then one day we came back from fishing to find a third hole. And the remains of a hamburger bun that had been inside a plastic bag which was inside a cardboard box was draped over the window sill. The only “hole” in the box was the hand holds on each end. Another bun, still inside the plastic bag, was chewed up quite thoroughly.

I had seen the culprit before. While sitting on the front porch enjoying the cool breezes, if not the bugs, of evening, I had had a red squirrel come running up the posts and across the rails to look at my boots and ankles as if he were trying to decide whether or not to run up my legs. He always chose “not.”

photo by David Messinger

Taken back in 2004, we still had a a red squirrel enter the cabin this year. The difference is that the door was not the preferred method in 2007. Instead, he gnawed his way through the metal screen above the sink. (Why he didn't use the fiberglass/nylon screens in the other windows is a mystery.)

I found the Northern Canadian Air Force to be somewhat different from the Adirondack Air Force. There were fewer black flies for one. There were far more deer flies and, what I will call, moose flies. The latter were about the size of horse flies—about the size of a quarter. There didn’t seem to be as many mosquitoes as in the past and almost no no-see-ums. We had enough enough bug dope to protect us, but there were fewer bugs than we expected.