This is the story of Nolan, Gabby, and friends.

Our house has five bur oak trees. Two in the front yard and three in the back. Each are beautiful, providing plenty of shade, but are so messy with their huge acorns. Every fall season, these trees drop thousands of acorns, which provide an abundance of food for the local rodent population.

Scotty, our son, as one of his many chores, was required to assist in the cleanup of these acorns. As he worked raking and shoveling, the squirrels in the would also be working on their harvest. Zing, thud, chuckle seemed to repeat again and again. Every now and then, Scotty would shout at the squirrels when one or more would make a direct hit!

Fast forward a few years. Scotty is grown and moved away, and I am left to continue the process. Enter the Nolan. He is a medium-size squirrel who has ruled my front yard for a while. This squirrel has a throwing arm equivalent to that of the famous Texas Rangers pitcher Nolan Ryan. A fastball of 108 mph. I have been on the receiving end of Nolan’s (squirrel) acorn throws to know I need protective gear!

Just like Scotty, I would enter the house with stories of being pelted with acorns by the squirrels and sometimes have a knot on my noggin to prove it. Heather took interest in my misery and found amusement in my tales. AKA Squirrel Tales. I have security cameras around my home that has captured many of the moments of the pelting incidents. I started sharing and embellishing photos for family and friends. Our daughter Jennifer is a teacher and has shared the continuing saga of Nolan and Friends.

Awe the taunting continues. Heather would be in her office and could hear the commotion outside of Man vs Squirrel. On an average year I would remove 5 big trash cans full of acorns. Each year I would name a new squirrel. Introducing Gabby my noisy backyard squirrel.

There’s Chuck and Perl who prefer my neighbors’ pecans, but they like to hang out in my trees. All of the squirrels were pure entertainment and torment for our two dogs, Max and Bennie. (Both have passed on.) Bennie would defend his yard and run tough. Max, depending on the day, tried to seek friends or couldn’t care less and go about his yard business.

Consider this before you go: squirrels bury food for winter only to forget where they hid it, yet they routinely dig empty decoy holes just to trick watchful thieves. If every hole they dig is destined to either be forgotten or intentionally left empty, did they ever really leave anything behind at all? Just saying…