PERSONAL:

HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

Can you imagine ? It's mid-July and I'm still planting flowers. Rain, rain and rain. They aren't likely to do well, but I make the effort anyways. It's been a very busy spring and summer, and, of course, my productivity at this blog has fallen off. Hopefully this will change in the next few weeks.

On a rather happier note I can say that the project of listing the SAC contacts is finally coming near to the end of the tunnel. I've even managed to learn a tiny, itsy bitsy bit of Swedish during this. Or at least how to type their accents. Not enough for sure to get me more beer and complain about the price in Stockholm, but it is interesting nonetheless.

On an even happier note the hacking into my personal email seems to have ended. The last "check" as to what I was writing about Siemans came in through the usual front door rather than through my email. I went all the way up to have the most secure password possible as the first password change was also 'decoded". It is also possible, however, that they simply lost interest in me. I hope to rectify this situation. As an even greater chuckle Siemens itself, according to Business Week, has been attacked in its operating system by something called the 'Stuxnet Worm'. Somehow I have extreme difficulty working up sympathy for them. Or suppressing my giggles for that matter.

That's it for now. The squirrels continue their antics in the backyard. Put the nuts out last night. The grey squirrel came early, and, as they say, "the early squirrel gets the nut". At the same time, however, as I was loading the car for the day one of the lazy red squirrels showed up. Big squirrel fight with the red chasing a grey at least three times its size. Over the garage and far away. I still am in amazement at people who report that grey squirrels "replace" red squirrels in various localities (anecdotal here in Winnipeg, documented and fretted about in England ). Maybe all that it is is that they are less than double plus thick to the 3rd power as to where they bury the nuts. That may be hard to believe if you have ever seen a grey squirrel close up (I have). They tend to project stupidity.

MOLLY GOES ON VACATION:
Over the last few days Molly has been preparing to go on vacation. One week ! I'm sure the world will carry on without me. The care of the cats and the feeding of the rabbits and squirrels has been arranged. Not necessarily the care of the cats by feeding them rabbits and squirrels. Molly managed to lure one of the squirrels into close enough contact that she could have almost reached out and touched it. Molly counts 3 red squirrels and two grey squirrels visting her buffet in the back yard. Only two rabbits by the latest count. I think one of the youngsters got killed.
Anyways, the number of posts here will diminish as I can only post from internet cafes when I am away. Also, no cutsy graphics. I hope to send a few in, but time will tell.
In terms of "bits and pieces" I am disappointed that 'Ann Coulter Naked' gets so many more hits than 'Kropotkin's Concept of Justice' (none !), but really what do you expect ? I've even got hits for searches labelled 'Molly Naked'. Woo woo. Eat your heart out Pamela Anderson. One quick bum wiggle and there's 150,000 wet pants out there in teenage nerdland. I'll try and get a wall poster out soon.
The other unfinished business is the continued comments between myself and a person from Kenora Ontario about the state of native claims in Canada today. A little more serious this one. I mention this here because the post is soon to disappear below the horizon into the archives (perhaps with this post). I urge both my correspondent and the readers to go searching for it if it does. I'm totally willing to continue the argument/conversation for as long as possible. It's actually quite an important subject.
For now, a few more posts may appear before, as the song says, "I'm leaving in a jet plane".
Molly while packing

TALES FROM MOLLY'S BACK YARD:

About 8 weeks ago Molly spied "Mr. and Mrs. Bunny" in her back yard munching on the pellets and carrots that Molly provides. Today I saw the issue of this "date" as Molly spotted the presumed mother and one of her progeny coming to the feeding station. Neat and double neat, though it doesn't beat the time that the rabbit made a nest in the middle of the back yard.

Also Molly saw an interesting example of what she presumes is agonistic behavior amongst the squirrels that frequent the two feeding stations that Molly has set up. Basically there was one squirrel in the tree that Molly could observe and another on the ground that she only caught a brief glimpse of. The squirrel in the tree showed little fear of Molly, actually responding to her pathetic attempts at squirrel imitation with interest. Both these individuals were red squirrels. There are also one or two grey squirrels who visit Molly's feeding stations. These spend much more time on the ground than the red squirrels do. Molly has yet to train any of the squirrels to come and take nuts out of her hand though she has had success it getting them to come when called over the years.

Anyways, the squirrel in the tree that I stopped to observe went through a ritual of first stamping his (or her) front feet while at the same time flashing his (or her) tail rapidly back and forth against the tree trunk like a cat may do when marking territory. The tree area is too far up for Molly to climb and see if it is wet. This was alternated with stamping of the front feet without the tail flashing. All this time there was a low level of vocalization. Eventually the squirrel on the ground "fled" to the next yard.

This behavior is quite different than that I have observed in mating times of the squirrels. Molly presumes that it is territorial display behavior, though she may be wrong on this supposition (Molly is best familiar with the behavior of gophers). This seems like something to look up. More on this later.

FROM SCARY SQUIRREL WORLD:

THE LATEST NEWS:

It's been a little while since Molly has cruised over to Scary Squirrel World, the ultimate source for the only conspiracy theory that makes any sense. To make up for this here is the latest on the Skwrerll conspiracy to take over the world:

FURY IN FLORIDA:

"SQUIRREL ATTACKS SHOPPERS:

Monday, may 14th, 2007, 11:20:08 PM

It was a crazy scene in Port Saint John, Brevard County, Florida after a squirrel went on the attack. Folks at a Port St. John pharmacy say the squirrel was on a woman's leg and would not let go. It stayed on her as she walked into the store and a man inside tried to swat it off her. That is when the squirrel attacked him. Then another woman tried to help but was attacked so severely by the animal that she had to go to the hospital.

Carroll Williams witnessed the attack, she said,"It was on her leg. Bit her leg. it was on her back, scratched her back. Scratched her on one of her arms. I was scared, glad it didn't jump on me. I've never seen one act like that before."

Store employees were able to corral the squirrel into a basket and built a barricade out of soda boxes until animal control officers were able to take it away. Animal control officers on the scene say they are not sure why the squirrel attacked."

Scary Squirrel World goes on to comment,

"Patriots, it's hardly a surprise that the animal control officers at the scene claimed they didn't know why the shwerl attacked. But could it be that their ignorance was feigned ? After all, aren't they supposed to be experts in animal control and behavior ? Might it not be that these "officials" are really minions of squirrel world domination who spirited the slavering nutzy bravo away before it could be interrogated ?

And what secret(s) are they keeping in the cage they hauled off to who knows where ? Well, we say it's no coincidence that the Kennedy Space Center is just a few short minutes away..."

NEW FROM SCARY SQUIRREL WORLD (ONE OF THE GREATEST SITES IN THE INTERNET WORLD):

Scary Squirrel World has made available a selection of e-postcards that you can send off this upcoming St. Patrick's Day (March 17th). Go on over to the site for a little Irish fun.

Molly

NEW FROM SCARY SQUIRREL WORLD:

A four year old girl was attacked by a "skquirrel" at the Mountain View Cuesta Park last Thursday (Feb 15th). The "Skqirrel" stole a bag of " Sun Chips" from the girl and "scratched her face"when the idiot yard ape resisted. Apparently while a ranger was droning on about animal behavior the evil squirrel made a bite on the child's face and afterwards went back to the chips. Ooops ! The yard ape was given a tetanus shot later. The above has been provided to you by Scary Squirrel World, the ultimate in conspiracy theories.

Molly

UNDERSTANDING THE SNOW SQUIRRELS:
See the little fellow pictured below. He's the key as to why the squirrels here in Winnipeg can be out gathering nuts when the windchill is 35 to 40 below. All this time I never knew, but somebody enlightened me on the matter last Tuesday. The little devil's name is 'Scrat', and he's a "saber-tooth squirrel" from the animated movie 'Ice Age'. He even has his own animated short called 'Gone Nutty'. In the movie Scrat goes through an incredible series of misadventures in his quest to bury his acorn. To think, I have a movie star in my backyard and never knew it. I gotta get his autograph. Or maybe it's just that a place like Winnipeg is likely to harbour remnants of primitive life. Molly

THE SNOW SQUIRRELS:
Last Sunday/Monday night the temperature reached -41.8 here in Winnipeg. With the windchill it was about -49. Hits you like a hammer when you begin the loading process in the morning. Yet...just as Molly was ready to hit the road a few hours later she looks up in the trees. There it was, the toughest squirrel in the universe. The temperature had "maybe" warmed up to -35 by then, but the little bugger was right there, gathering its nuts. No neighbourhood cat had better mess with that rodent. Totally amazing !
Molly

MORE ON THE SQUIRRELS:

Molly continually feeds both the rabbit and the squirrels who visit her back yard, but the continued disappearance of nuts in the squirrel feeder leads to a few questions in her tiny feline mind. Be aware that Molly did her Masters on the Richardson's Ground Squirrel- the gopher- so she is fully aware of the normal behavior of that species. So... I have observed my ordinary red squirrels out at temperatures below 30 degrees below zero. I have also observed the nuts that I provide for them disappearing at temperatures like today of a wind chill of 37 below. I have yet to get an answer as to whether squirrels "hiberate" or "estruate" in a clear fashion. Obviously they estruate. What Molly finds amazing is that they could be out at a wind chill of 35 below to gather nuts. Jesus H. Christ are these animals so stupid that they haven't stored up the nuts I've been providing for them all year ? Well... I must admit that I have TWO squirrel feeders in the back yard, and that I observed a "foreign squirrel" at the feeder today (from the west) while the "regular squirrels" are from the north or south. Perhaps that silly bugger went in on the nuts when my (possessive pronoun) squirrels were well asleep in their affluence.

Molly the squirrel feeder