This is a “Sunday Story” that’s coming out on a Saturday. There won’t be time tomorrow – early track meet. So, no politics here today, just the “musings” of a retired coach on the coming of spring.
Chipmunk Interstate
I saw a fat chipmunk today. That’s kind of an odd thing to see on this, the end of the second week of February. Actually, it’s odd to see chipmunks at all this time of year. Usually, they’re doing whatever it is that chipmunks do to survive a long winter. And we’ve got a lot of chipmunks here at “Dahlman acres”. In fact, we’ve got a multi-house colony, living in, under, around our privacy fence between us and the next door neighbors.
The fence serves as safe transportation in the chipmunk world. You see, there’s a French bulldog on one side, and the four of our dogs on the other side. Each one would like to find out if chipmunks, like the chew toys inside the house, have “squeakers”. And when we built the privacy fence, we went the extra-mile for the neighbors. We put pickets on both sides of the framing boards, so that both sides were “finished” to look at. We thought it was a nice thing to do.
But what we didn’t realize is that we created a three-lane, multi-level transport system for the chipmunk community. They run on the top framing board, a 2×4, and still remain undercover. The pickets extend a full twelve inches above the top of the board, so that the chipmunks are never in view to the canines below.
And if that isn’t good enough, there’s a second, lower lane, running in the middle of the fence, and a third lane, about a foot above the ground, both completely contained inside the fence. Now I can’t say I’ve ever seen a chipmunk on that level (I couldn’t if I wanted to). But, by observing dog behavior, it’s clear that the little rodents are traversing the yard that way as well.
Nexus
Where do the chipmunks go? Well, we suspect they live in warrens near the northeast corner foundation of our house. We never see them on the ground, or in the house, or even hear them in the crawl space. But that corner, where the privacy fence connects to the house, seems to be a nexus of chipmunk activity. And we also think they’ve created some underground route to the neighbor’s house as well, since they see activity on their west side.
But the trees with chipmunk food, nut and berries, are located at the north end of the yard, near our storage sheds. So my guess is that there high-speed transit activities in the fence are more than just teasing the dogs. Like the interstate highways, they’re bringing supplies back to the “warren”, the quickest and safest means possible.
The neighbors are not so happy about chipmunks. There’s lots of rumors of traps, and flooding, and other “munk-i-cidal” activities going on there. But on our side, the chipmunks leave us pretty much alone, other than providing ongoing entertainment for the dogs. They don’t bug us, so we don’t bug them.
Spring Arrives
So it’s Friday, February 13th (and it’s Friday the 13th, just realized that). In the past few days, Central Ohio has started the “big meltdown”. We had a blizzard three weeks ago, dumping more than a foot of snow. And, the temperatures have been sub-Arctic ever since, with highs in the low teens and lows below zero. It wasn’t until Tuesday that temperatures got above freezing, and finally the snow is beginning to melt.
It was below freezing this morning, but highs will be in the forties today, and even higher in the next few days. It’s what us old track coaches called “fake spring”. We could get out on the track, (we could actually see that track), and kids could actually run fast workouts. In fact, it was days like the ones forecast for next week, with highs approaching sixty, that I’d call a “shirt-off” day. My boys would be anxious to get “shirts-off” during workouts, even though the temperature with windchill was still in the forties. All the scolding about staying warm didn’t make a difference. Come May, they’ll be wearing two sets of sweats in this weather, but in February, it’s “shirts-off”.
Lay of the Land
Meanwhile, I looked out the bedroom window this morning, and saw a really fat chipmunk sitting on the very top of the privacy fence. I’m not sure how a chipmunk stays fat in February, he must have been very passionate about storing nuts away for the winter. But there he was, right on top of the pickets, checking out the “lay of the land”. All the dogs were still inside, and he was clearly mapping out a strategy for new food routes.
I don’t think this chipmunk was looking for his shadow. He was flat-out declaring spring. And even though there’s likely to be one more return to winter before spring really gets here, I’m all-in with him. It’s time for winter to be over, and let’s get on with the races. The fence “race-track” is all ready to go!!!
The Sunday Story Series
2021
- Riding the Dog – 1/24/21
- Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
- A Track Story – 2/7/21
- Ritual – 2/14/21
- Voyageur – 2/19/21
- A Dog Story – 2/25/21
- A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
- Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
- Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
- More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
- Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
- A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21
- My Teachers – 5/9/21
- Old Friends – 5/23/21
- The Gift – 6/6/21
- Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
- Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
- Running Memories – 7/25/21
- Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
- Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21
- The New Guy – 9/5/21
- Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
- The Interview – 9/26/21
- Night Moves – 10/3/21
- Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
- National Security – 10/24/21
- Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
- Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
- Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
- Watching Brian 12/12/21
- Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
- Team Trips – 12/26/21
2022
- Uphill, Both Ways – 1/9/22
- Old Trophies – 1/30/22
- The Last Time – 2/7/22
- Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
- Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
- Track Weather – 4/3/22
- What’s Missing – 4/11/22
- A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
- Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
- Origin Stories – 5/22/22
- Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
- Back at State – 6/5/22
- Out in the Country – 6/19/22
- Pataskala Downs – 7/4/22
- Car Stories I – 7/24/22
- Car Stories II – 7/31/22
- Old Man Experience – 8/7/22
- Cross Country Camp – 8/14/22
- New to the Pack – 8/21/22
- Car Stories III – The Bus – 8/28/22
- A Day in the Life – 9/4/22
- Stupid Human Tricks – 9/18/22
2023
- Fair or Foul – 2/26/23
- Immigrant Story – 3/12/23
- Busy Season – 5/15/23
- Of Jeeps and Bucks – 5/28/23
- A Pole Vault Story -6/11/23
- End of an Era – 6/25/23
- Paybacks – 7/2/23
- Graying in Pataskala – 7/17/23
- Being a Goat – 7/23/23
- Toy Truck – 8/20/23
- Medical Terms – 8/27/23
- Missing Margaritaville – 9/3/23
- The McGowan – 9/10/23
- Who’s Watching – 10/22/23
- The Saturday Before – 10/29/23
- A Tale of Turkey, and Dogs – 11/26/23
- Bruno’s Story – 12/3/23
- Out in the Country – 12/10/23
- Christmas Eve – 12/24/23
2024
- Rube Goldberg – 1/12/24
- Our Pataskala Kroger’s – 2/5/24
- A Sad, Sad, Dog – 2/11/24
- Singing in the Tornado – 3/3/24
- Your Safe Spot – 3/17/24
- Easter Dawn – 3/31/24
- Swarms – 4/14/24
- Lowest Common Denominator – 4/28/24
- Seniors – 5/12/24
- Season’s Over – 6/22/24
- Camp Morning – 6/30/24
- Jeeping – 7/7/24
- How Mondo Won the Gold and Started a Dog Fight (almost) – 8/6/24
- Fifty Years of the McGowan – 9/8/24
- A Walk in the Woods – 10/22/24
- Smokin – 12/6/24
- Coal for Christmas 12/16/24
- Provenance – 12/22/24
2025
- Lost and Found – 2/22/25
- Catching Cars – 3/2/25
- PV Mentor – 3/31/25
- Dogs, Jeeps, Fireworks and Beer Coolers 7/6/25
- It’s About Time – 7/27-25
- Gas War – 11/30/25
2026
- The End of My Nose – 1/18/26
- The End of the Jeep – 1/25/26
- Fat Chipmunk – 2/15/26
The chipmunks travel to the birdfeeders at end of your street. After hours of gorging themselves on sunflower seeds, they waddle back to the top of your fence.