Speaking of pumpkins (and evil rodents)

In case it wasn't readily apparent, Gretchen likes pumpkins (or "pumquins," as Mädchen calls them). She's been talking for the past few weeks about how fun it will to carve pumpkins...oh, but the smell of pumpkin innards makes her sick, so when she says "we" will carve pumpkins, what she means is that "I" will carve them.

So, being a good sport (and husband and father), on Sunday afternoon I devoted myself to carving our very own jack-o-lantern. (I have to say, it helped that neighbors lent us some of their new-fangled pumpkin carving tools...in retrospect, I can't believe as children that we were allowed near pumpkins with big, sharp knives.)


Yes, it was messy.


But, all things considered, I thought I did a pretty respectable job for someone who wasn't using a stencil and probably hadn't carved a pumpkin since shortly after college.


We proudly placed our jack-o-lantern on our front steps and went inside...only to look outside 10 minutes later and see that our local squirrels had already started to treat my creation as their personal snack bar.


We immediately went online to see if anyone could recommend an effective method of squirrel-proofing pumpkins, and the most common recommendation seemed to be to spray them with some sort of cayenne pepper/red chili pepper flake concoction (a few also suggested hairspray). We ignored warnings that this might burn the squirrels' faces and eyes and figured it was worth a shot. Gretchen mixed up a batch in a spray bottle, my Dad went out and sprayed the pumpkin, and that night we were able to get into the Halloween spirit.


So the chili pepper worked, right? Well, this is what I came home to this evening:


I don't care what anyone says (yes, I'm looking at you, Aunt Fran)...squirrels really are irritating little buggers.