I'm not really a big squirrel fan. Apologies to Luana Byington and to Ben and Ryanne Roberts, but I find them noisy, messy and not afraid of humans at all. I think the lady who lived here before us fed them. Maybe it's because our house is surrounded by woods on three sides, but we have lots and lots of big squirrels. We have gray squirrels and black squirrels.

Ever since last fall, the squirrels have been on overdrive. And they don't hibernate. They are pretty good at going from tree to tree around our yard, but they also run across the top of the snow and dig little tunnels.

One day recently, I looked out the patio doors in the dining room and thought I saw a giant squirrel running back and forth on a path we've shoveled back into the woods. Then I took a closer look and realized it was one of our cats. Haha...well, some of the squirrels are almost as big as a cat.

One day in the fall, I looked out of Janet's bedroom window and there were SIX squirrels in the front yard. This is a poor picture, but I can see five of them. The black and gray squirrels hang around together.

Our family room windows are right at ground level. They always doing something right out there.

They also come right up on the deck and come up to the patio doors.

Here's a black one going headfirst down the tree.

And finally a little video of one on our deck.