Tag Archives: acorns

16

Timmy Squirrel and the Hunt for Daylight Savings Time

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Photographer captures the nutty lives of squirrels in snow | Mashable | Cute squirrel, Animals beautiful, Animals wild

Ms. Hooper had been looking for a new game for her class of younger squirrels. It was almost spring, and they were getting restless.

Ricki: Ms. Hooper. I’m bored. Can we go outside?

Ms. Hooper: I’m not sure that’s a good idea. There’s still snow on the ground.

Joey: But we’re squirrels. We like snow. Look at all this fur.

He did have a very plush coat. Suddenly, Ms. Hooper had an idea.

What Do Squirrels Eat? - AZ Animals

Ms. Hooper: All right. Let’s have a treasure hunt. Whoever can find the most acorns in fifteen minutes wins.

Sasha: What do we win?

Ms. Hooper thought for a minute.

Ms. Hooper: You get to choose our next project. I have two ideas, and you can choose which one we do first.

The young squirrels were excited. They loved running around outside. As soon as they heard the signal, they were off looking for acorns. They raced around the schoolyard, looking in the trees and around the bushes. They pawed eagerly at the snow, hoping to find some of the nuts that had fallen from the trees at the end of summer.

Ms. Hooper watched her class, surprised at the number of acorns they were finding. She hadn’t realized there would be so many. There were fifteen students in her class. She had planned on each of them finding one or two nuts. Finally, she called an end.

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Ms. Hooper: Okay, class. Great job! Let’s count what you’ve found.

She went from squirrel to squirrel, counting. Most of them had five to ten acorns. A few had found walnuts. The last student was Timmy, who had a sizable pile of acorns.

Ms. Hooper: Timmy, you did a great job! Where did you find so many nuts?

Timmy: I guess I got lucky. I was over in that corner by myself. And I was really fast running them back to my pile.

Ms. Hooper had everyone put their acorns in a pile in a corner of the classroom and sit down.

Ms. Hooper: I hope you all had fun. We’ve got a lot of acorns there. We can use them as school snacks.

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Roberta: So who won, Ms. Hooper? I bet it was me. I got eleven acorns.

Judy: Nope. I got twelve.

Edgar: You both lost. I got fourteen.

Ms. Hooper: Sorry, kids. Timmy’s the winner. He found twenty-one acorns in fifteen minutes. I didn’t think there were a total of twenty of them out there before you started.

Timmy was grinning.

Timmy: Guess I’m the king of the nuts.

Everyone laughed, and he hesitated.

Timmy: That sounded better in my head.

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Ms. Hooper: Anyway, you won. Now you get to choose what we study next.

Timmy: Oh, boy!. Let’s study running around outside. We can see who’s the fastest and figure out why.

The rest of the class cheered. They started to get up.

Ms. Hooper: Back in your seats. I said that I had two ideas, remember?

Timmy: Rats! I forgot. I bet they’re not as good as my idea.

Ms. Hooper: I think they’re pretty good. It’s almost spring. We can study the trees or we can study the sun.

Timmy: Those both sound pretty boring.

The other little squirrels nodded.

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Jesse: I know! I heard some humans talking about something called Daylight Savings Time.

Timmy: What’s that?

Jesse: The humans said that it makes it lighter longer in the day.

Timmy: Wow! So there’s more daylight? How do they do that?

Jesse: I don’t know. They must find it somewhere.

Timmy: I’m really good at finding things. I bet I could save more daylight than the humans. We should do that!

Ms. Hooper: I don’t think that’s what the humans meant.

Timmy: Then what did they mean?

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Ms. Hooper: I don’t really know. Squirrels don’t really tell time.

Timmy: But wouldn’t it be great if we could find more daylight? More time for running around and doing stuff. I bet I could find more daylight than anyone else in the class.

The other squirrels started chattering. They were excited about having another contest. Ms. Hooper let them talk for a bit.

Ms. Hooper: All right class. I can see that you are excited about this. Here’s what we’re going to do. Tomorrow, you can all present ideas on how you are going to save daylight. We’ll vote on who has the best idea. Then we’ll talk about the seasons.

Next week: How the squirrels are going to improve Daylight Savings Time.

Squirrel Talk | Never A Dull Bling

Note from Wikipedia: Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), or summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typically by one hour) during warmer months so that darkness falls at a later clock time. 

Pictures courtesy of Google Images

12

Is Sammy Squirrely? – Part 2

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Image result for squirrel on computer

Where we are: All during the fall, Sammy had been acting oddly. Rather than working with the other squirrels to get ready for winter, he spent all his time on the computer. His friends and neighbors think he might be losing his mind.

It was a hard winter. It started snowing in November and didn’t let up. Soon it was higher than the squirrels. The families relied on the nuts they had stored in their trees for a long time. Finally, it was time to go out and get the nuts they had buried in the ground. It wasn’t easy.

Image result for squirrel in snow

Sarah: Three squirrels in my class missed school today. They had to go hunt for food.

Peter: There were five gone from my class.

June: This is the worst winter I can remember. I’m glad we built our nest in such a huge tree and were able to fill it. Spring is almost here, so we should be OK. Especially since your cousin was nice enough to send us all that food for Christmas.

Image result for christmas nuts

Peter: My new favorite nut is the pecan.

Sarah: Those were pretty yummy. But I liked the dried fruit.

Sammy: We need to do something nice for Joey in the spring. Living in Georgia is good for food, but we can think of something.

June: I wish we could do something to help our friends.

Sammy knew it was time to see if his idea worked. He was extremely grateful to Princess ERin for telling him about the Global Peanut Positioning Satellite (GPPS). It was a little odd that a cat would be so helpful, but it sounded useful.

Between the GPPS and the data he had collected, he should be able to find the nuts the family had buried.

Image result for squirrel in school

Sammy: We can share the nuts we buried last fall.

Peter: If the other squirrels could find their nuts, they wouldn’t be hungry. How can we find ours?

Sammy: The project you were all laughing about last fall should tell us where the nuts are.

Sarah: Do your really think it will work? That would be wonderful.

 Sammy: There’s only one way to find out. I’ll go load my data into the positioning system.

Image result for squirrels eating

Sammy leaves the room to work on the computer. He finally comes out when June calls him for dinner.

Peter: How’s the system coming Dad?

Sammy: Pretty well. It looks like all of the data transferred. Now we have to wait for the next sunny day.

Sarah: Why does it have to be sunny?

Image result for squirrels in sun

Sammy: The way the GPPS works is to get the position of the nuts from a satellite in the sky. It has to be sunny for the information to get to us.

Peter: OK. Whatever. Let’s wait for the sun.

The next few days were overcast. Finally, there was a good day.

By that time, the neighborhood knew about the experiment. A crowd gathers to see if it would work.

Sammy: OK, here we go. No promises.

He calls up the first location. The GPPS gives him directions to the nuts. The other squirrels follow him as he tracks the nuts.

Sammy: The first nuts should be here. Peter, you and your friends dig down and see what you find.

Image result for squirrels digging for nuts

The young squirrels quickly burrow through the snow and the hard ground. Just under the surface, they find a large stash of acorns.

The squirrels watch in amazement and applaud.

Dan: I admit it, buddy. I thought you might have gone off the deep end. But this is incredible.

Kelly: June, you’re married to a genius!

Sammy blushes in embarrassment.

Image result for squirrels at desk

Sammy: It’s just a little technology, not genius.

Dan: Whatever. You’re set for the winter.

Sammy: We were already set. These are for you folks.

The other squirrels look at Sammy. They go back to thinking he had lost his mind.

Sammy: I’m serious. We have enough nuts. We have piles like these all over the place. We want to share them.

Image result for squirrel with acorn

Kelly: How did you get so many nuts?

Sammy: We probably don’t have any more than your family gathered, but ours are buried in piles instead of one by one. Besides, I have an excellent team of hunters. (He looks at Peter and Sarah.)

Kelly: Are you sure you don’t need them?

June: Absolutely. We’re set for the rest of winter.

Sammy: Dig in. We’ll get the rest of the nuts later and you can divide them up. Next year, we can track everybody’s nuts and won’t worry about starving.

The hungry squirrels devour the nuts in the first hole and take the rest home. Luckily spring arrives before the acorns are gone.

Image result for squirrels in sun

 

Pictures courtesy of Google Images

 

12

Is Sammy Squirrely?

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Image result for squirrel at computer

Sammy and his family live with a scurry (group) of squirrels in an oak grove. It’s fall – time to gather nuts for the winter.

The group has planned a “nut gathering party,” and everyone is invited. Sammy’s family is getting ready to go.

June (his wife): Sammy, are you ready to go?

Sammy (at the computer): You and the kids can go ahead. I need to finish what I’m working on.

Peter: Dad, you never gather nuts anymore.

Image result for squirrel with book

Sammy: I’m retired. That’s what I have you for.

Sarah: Daddy, be serious. It’s embarrassing. All the other fathers are there.

Peter: Besides, it’s a party.

June: Honey, you can take a break for one afternoon, can’t you?

Sammy: Sorry, I really can’t. I need to finish before winter. Remember to bring the nuts home instead of burying them.

Image result for squirrels acorns

Sarah: That’s just weird, Daddy. Why? My friends are all going to laugh at me.

Sammy: I’m working on an idea to make it easier to find our nuts this winter. Did you know that some squirrels never find more than a few of the nuts they’ve buried?

Peter: We always have enough to eat.

Sammy: I know. But I think we should know where ours are.

June (sighing): C’mon kids. Let’s get going before all the good ones are gone.

Image result for squirrel at computer

The three of them leave the nest. It’s a beautiful afternoon, and there are nuts everywhere. The kids run off to search with their friends. June finds her friend, Kelly.

Kelly: Hey, June! Great to see you. Where’s Sammy? I haven’t seen him around much.

June: He’s working on some top-secret project about the acorns.

Kelly: That’s strange. It seems like he’d want to be out here in the sun. But I guess if it’s that important, he should be doing it.

June: I suppose. But I think the rest of the scurry is beginning to believe he’s crazy.

Image result for squirrel at computer

Kelly doesn’t answer. She’s looking at the other squirrels gathering and burying acorns. She spots Peter and Sarah. They each have a pile of nuts near them.

Kelly: Are Peter and Sarah all right? It looks like they are just piling the nuts up instead of burying them. Aren’t they feeling well?

June: They’re fine. It’s part of Sammy’s plan. He wants to know where each one is buried.

Kelly: That’s a little strange. Why does he want to know?

June: I have no idea. He just said it’s vital to his project.

Image result for squirrel burying acorn

Kelly starts to feel sorry for June. She thinks the other squirrels may be right. Sammy’s mind was starting to go. He was becoming “squirrely.”

Before long, the sun starts going down and the squirrels return home.

Peter: Hi Dad. We’re home.

Sammy: Did you get lots of nuts?

June: It was a good afternoon. A lot of the squirrels said they were done for the season.

Image result for pile of acorns

Sammy: That’s great! So where did you put ours?

Sarah: They’re still where we found them. In piles.

Sammy: I thought you were bringing them home.

Sarah: It was way too embarrassing. Everyone else buried theirs. The other squirrels thought we were just being lazy. Mom said we could bury them from where they are.

Sammy: I suppose she’s right. Let’s go.

Image result for tired squirrel

Peter: I’m tired. I’ve been hunting nuts all afternoon.

Sarah: Besides, it’s getting dark.

June: I’m sure they’ll be fine until morning.

Sammy finally agrees, disappointed.

Image result for squirrel with camera

The next morning, the family starts burying the nuts. It’s a slow process because Sammy wants to write down exactly where each nut is. Several hours later, they finish.

Sammy: Great job, everyone! Thanks for your help.

They return to the nest, where Sammy immediately goes onto his computer. He works intently for the next few weeks. Running between the computer and where the nuts are buried. He finally has to stop when the snow starts to fall.

 Image result for squirrels acorns

Next week: Is Sammy crazy or is he a squirrel with a plan?

Pictures are courtesy of Google Images