While we were gone last week, chipmunks invaded the house. The cats tried to help catch them. Our sons were able to catch them and take them outside. Ben discovered that we had a couple more open places in the drain tile system; he covered them. There have been no more chipmunks in the house. Ben is holding the chipmunk in his heavy leather work gloves.

We think the iris is Minnesota Skies. There are a couple other iris that look similar and are not blooming this year. I am identifying it by scent. I still have more pictures of currently blooming iris and there are a couple more that have yet to open. Unfortunately, it looks like one will not open.

While we have seen way too much of the chipmunks, we are yet to see hummingbirds and orioles. The newer hummingbird feeder works better than the one we got earlier this spring.

Yesterday we discovered that the cats got into their bag of food that they especially like and we give to them as treats. They had not been eating the regular food that we put out for them and we were concerned that they did not seem to be eating. Well, they were eating at the helpy-selfy buffet. When we discovered this, Mooch had his head in the bag. We started calling out to everyone in the house to see what the guys had been doing. We made a general and loud commotion. Mooch does have a highly developed sense of right and wrong. In that respect, he acts more like a dog than a cat. He really knew he had been a naughty little cat. Later in the afternoon he was still acting like he knew he had been bad. We held him, patted him, and talked gently to him. Eventually he returned to his normal self.