Squirrels 1 Rob 0

Why I hate Summer Reason #326

Summer is not my favorite season. It's hot, work is busier, and don't even get me started on humidity. One nice thing you can do in Summer, though, is grow things. And I don't just mean the mold on the dishes you leave in the sink for an extra day, I mean delicious fresh vegetables and the like. This year on Memorial Day weekend, my beautiful bride-to-be and I went to Home Depot and bought some plants. She got flowers, I got a green pepper plant, a jalapeño plant, and two tomato plants. By the beginning of July I had picked my first jalapeño and I had a green pepper nearly ready for harvest and some green tomatoes.

The Mystery Unfolds

One of my tomatoes disappeared, I wasn't overally concerned, it was just one out of many. The next day I found a green tomato half chewed up and lying on the ground. I had seen the squirrels eying up my plants and knew they were the culprits. I picked my green pepper and ate it.

A Vacation Ruined

One particular tomato was getting big and inching towards shades of pink on it's way to red. I decided that my upcoming 5 days off in a row, a mini-vacation if you will, would be the perfect time to harvest the tomato and make it a part of a delicious BLT. On the first day of vacation my beautiful betrothed called me and asked if I had eaten my BLT. I hadn't and decided to go out and harvest the tomato.

It was gone.

I had seen it earlier in the day, hanging there all red and presumably full of juicy goodness. But now it was gone. I noticed a green tomato with bite marks in it still on the vine. Upon closer examination I realized all the tiny buds had disappeared as well.

I could almost feel the mocking gaze of the well-fed squirrels.. mocking me.

"You win this round squirrels. Enjoy your victory for it will be your last." ANd with that I went inside and had a tuna salad sandwich.