Starving off the Land

I know what you were thinking.  You were thinking, “Gosh, I’ll go over to Starving off the Land and see if Tamar’s posted yet more pictures of varmints!” Well, it’s your lucky day.  

In the summer, setting up the Varmintcam’s a crapshoot. I know we’ve got varmints galore, but I have no idea where I’m likely to be able to catch them in the act. In winter, though, their tracks in the snow are a dead giveaway. I spotted little pawprints near the oyster shells we tossed behind [...]

We keep a pile of clam and oyster shells behind our compost set-up, and it’s a big attraction for local varmints.  About a week ago, we tossed out a particularly smelly pile of shells, many with adductor muscles or bits of body attached to them.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to catch [...]

The other day, we found a deep, narrow hole in the ground in the middle of our blackberry patch. Something had dug a burrow right at the root of one of our bushes. We filled it in, in the hopes of discouraging the critter. Next day, it was back. It was a small hole, clearly [...]

The Varmintcam is perfect for capturing pictures of crows, squirrels, chickens, and the most unflattering views of Kevin and me I have ever seen. It’s either me bending over, or Kevin straining to lift something, or me picking my nose, or Kevin scratching that one part of him that always seems to itch. No matter [...]

I keep hoping that animals will be curious about our Varmintcam. After all, it’s a strange black box that lights up when they go near it. I would think they’d get close, give it a sniff, walk around it – and I’d get some great pictures. Instead, they seem to walk by, or walk away, [...]

I grew up listening to Tom Lehrer. My father was at MIT in the late fifties, and anyone who poked fun at Harvard was very popular with his crowd. When I was a kid, the regular record-player rotation seemed to be equal parts Weavers, Clancy Brothers, and Tom Lehrer. Although I’ve always liked “National Brotherhood [...]