Squirrel Troubles

This past spring, we decided to grow corn.  Despite it being our first attempt, it seemed easy enough.  A bunch of kernels and a good size garden plot, and we were on our way to growing corn - succulent sweet corn.  By July, it was growing beautifully.  We could imagine the ears of corn cooked with just a bit of butter and salt.  Oh how good they would be!  The opportune time for harvesting, not too early, not too late, had arrived.  It was so close.  The day dawned.  I went outside to hang a load of wash on the clothes line.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement in the pepper patch.  I stopped, turned, entered the garden by the gate, and stood face to face with our constant nemesis - the squirrel!  There he sat shaded from the sun by the pepper plants, munching on my corn.  It was obvious the corn was fabulous by his blissful appearance.  I was dumbfounded.  After the shock wore off, I chased him right out of the garden, and inspected the damage.  To my dismay, and later my family's, only three ears of corn remained.  Not only did the squirrels take most of our corn, they decimated our corn patch!  See how it looks today, a brutal reminder of the squirrels' feast.