In all seriousness, I had squirrel "perloo" (a southern term for "pilau", I believe) at one of the Great Mohican Gatherings I attended a few years ago. It was prepared by a longhunter there for part of a reenactment. Only ate a bit, but it was fine in that. Of course, there was maybe 1 squirrel in a pot of rice, peas and onions the size of a VW Beetle. (The pot, not the onions!) So I barely got a taste of actual squirrel, and what I did was so highly seasoned and gravied that the flavor was really masked. However, eating a squirrel from the colder climes is less unappealing than eating one from down here. I've seen some scraggly, ratty squirrels around Florida, with mangy looking hides, and heaven only knows what else. I just don't think I can bring myself to try one from this climate. Now about those pig's trotters........... Marcia

1. 30ish female, married, journalist and farmer 2. Arkansas 3. It's really hard to pick one feature, but I guess the one thing I most consistently look forward to is this: A large area fenced with dog wire that will be accessed from the utility room via a regular door and also a doggie door and cat flap. The dogs can be shut out of the main part of the house but allowed access in and out of the utility room - 100 times a night if they want! I. cannot. wait. 4. Our problems have been really minor so far, but I would have to say a delay in getting our exterior doors in. I was told two weeks, and it's been a month already. Meanwhile, virtually nothing has been done on the house that entire time cause they are waiting on the doors. 5. Movies, TV, reading, Internet forums, shopping, cooking, and gardening (mostly theoretical). Here is a link that might be useful: Owl's progress blog (pictures)

You are from a long way from most posters here, Rishabh! My post was from just after I moved here to what used to be step-uncle's farm - fifteen years ago March 1st. I'm near London, Ontario, Canada, in southwestern Ontario - not far from 4 of the Great Lakes. Half way between Detroit MI and Toronto ON or Buffalo NY. I rent a farmhouse and can share use of a barn and shed with my landlord. ole joyful

Sammy, Could it have been a young groundhog? We don't have groundhogs down here, but you live in the part of OK where they are known to exist. The color doesn't sound right for a young beaver, but you never know. Sometimes you run into atypical types of animals that don't have the usual colorings or markings and it can be hard to figure out what they are until you've been able to watch them for a while and figure out they're an atypical types of something else that you're used to seeing with its normal coat/fur/markings. . We have had a whole lot of atypical bobcats around here the last 6 or 8 years. This year's atypical bobcats are blonder in appearance than usual, and I don't know why. I suppose it is a genetic thing. How about a possum, either typical or atypical in appearance? It sounds too wide to be a ferret, which I do see down here every now and then, but it might be some kind of weasel? Maybe a young armadillo? They are gray and don't have much of a face either and can look sort of ghostly at night in dim light. It also might be a river otter or swift fox. I think you're too far east for it to be a badger, but then, maybe badgers moved further east than usual this year and that's what it is. It also could be some sort of wildlife that has mange and has lost most or all of its hair, so that it wouldn't appear normal. There is a lot of that out in the wild, and hairless animals (like a young hairless raccoon, for example) can look very odd and not at all like we'd expect that type of animal to look. One of the oddest animals I've ever seen here is the spotted skunk, especially while they are fairly young and small. They don't look like a person would expect a skunk to look. The other animal that has surprised me here is the ring-tail cat. I knew they existed in Texas, and had seen them in zoos or wildlife parks when I was a kid. I didn't know they even were found here in southern OK, and when I first saw one in the twilight, I couldn't match up its face and its tail with any animal I was used to seeing. I got out my wildlife book and found a photo of a ringtail cat and that solved the mystery. When I saw a ringtail cat a couple of weeks later, I stood still and watched it carefully without scaring it off (for a few moments at least) and was able to positively identify it as a ringtail cat. Hopefully you'll get some ideas here from everyone here since I'm sure lots of us have seen odd animals out from time to time and then, with those suggestions in mind, maybe you'll see it again and will get a better look at it. Sometimes Tim and I talk about putting up a game camera to see what is roaming around at night while we're sleeping, but we're about half-way afraid to do it. If we saw a lot more of the "rare" creatures that aren't spotted very often here, it might scare me too much to go outside in the dark. : ) Dawn