Alexander and I are still planning to plant either Green Giant Arborvitae or Leyland Cypress (or possibly even both) on our property sometime in the near future.  I’m still working — mostly in fits and starts – at getting the brush, sapling trees, and vines cleared off the rear and one side of our back yard. 

While I was hacking away at it last week, I inadvertently uncovered some stuff that was partially buried in the back corner of our yard.  There was part of an old “Big Wheels” trike (those things were popular when I was a kid), a yellow plastic patio umbrella, some pipes and miscellaneous pieces of rusted metal, and last but not least, this ceramic squirrel with one front leg broken off.  It has a hole in the bottom, so I think it’s the kind that people out in the country used to hang on a tree in their yard, to look like a real live squirrel.

I dug up nearly all the junk and put it in black plastic bags for the trash collector to haul away.  I thought the squirrel was funny, so I carried it around to the front of our house and squirted off the mud with the garden hose.  Peter and his neighbor friend were riding their scooters up and down our street.  When they spotted the squirrel, they both came running over to take a look.  Peter exclaimed, “Wow!  Can we keep it?”  

Well, it isn’t in very good shape, but I agreed to keep it, anyway.  I put it on our deck, next to the plastic turtle and frog yard ornaments.  The squirrel is almost the same color as our cat, Ginger, who often likes to sit on our deck.  I’ve already mistaken it for her a couple of times.