East Side, West Side

I'm trying.  Oh, how I'm trying.  My latest plan to thwart Percy and his gang was to put down feed for the mice in just one place.  Protecting two sites wasn't working.  The squirrels were using the "divide and conquer" technique and my squirt-and-bop couldn't keep up with them.  One pile of grain meant that the mice on the west side would have to travel over to the east side for breakfast, and I wasn't sure how the east side colony would feel about having early morning company, but if any of the littles were going to get any food at all, something had to give.  It seemed to work and the mice were eating...for a while.

The east side is the squirt side, a little too far for the stick, and I'd have to reach under the goat of the day and that would cause another set of problems.  Squirrels coming up for a snack on the west side couldn't believe there was nothing there, and boy, did I ever get the stink-eye.  The first few raiders to the east were driven back by a well-placed stream of milk.  I'm pretty good (should be, I've had enough practice) and can hit a squirrel in the eye at one pace (mine, not theirs).  Persistent Percy has a cousin, Patience.  I looked behind me and there was Patience with her elbows on the stand between the goat's feet, waiting for grain to drop from the goat's mouth.  I tried so hard to get a photo, but it's almost impossible to milk with one hand and try to take a picture with the cellphone while looking the wrong way.  In the meanwhile, Percy decided that since he was already wet, he might as well go whole hog.  I swear I made at least twenty direct hits and he was dripping wet and he wouldn't leave.  I'd get him in the eye, he'd squint, shake his head, and go on filling his cheeks.  Following Percy's example, others came to join him until there were too many to fight.  Besides, I was running out of milk.  I haven't thought up a Plan C yet.

Pete and I were talking later and I was telling of my trials and tribulations.  He is insistent that I get one of those GoPro cameras for the barn.  He wants to see videos of the barn wars.  I'm thinking about it.