The Race Home (Part 2)

Everyone has been waiting in anticipation for what brilliant high tech solution Vinnie, the Woodpile’s resident scientist, would come up for a way home. Vinnie had a slight problem. There are no computers, internet service, or fancy scientific laboratories on Paradise Island. Not to mention there are no machine shops, electronic stores, or other sources of the modern materials he normally usual uses in his equipment designs. All Vinnie had to work with were that natural plants and trees on the Island and anything that washed ashore. In many ways this was the most challenging engineering problem Vinnie had ever encountered.

Vinnie started by making a complete inventory of the Island’s resources. Three things stood out on his list, bamboo poles, an oak leaf and a ball of string that washed ashore. Doesn’t sound very promising. But for Vinnie this was the start of an idea. Vinnie had always questioned his parents wisdom when they insisted he join the Campfire 'munk Scouts. Now all those lessons on tying knots, rope lashing and wilderness survival skills were going to prove invaluable.

What did Vinnie have in mind? A raft with a sail! This was not going to be an ordinary raft. Vinnie planned on engineering it so it could withstand hurricane force winds, twenty-five foot high ocean swells, and set a new speed record. His raft underwent vigorous testing before it ever hit the ocean.

Vinnie in deep thought as he worked out the design details of his raft idea.

A fellow race competitor scoffs at Vinnie's “low tech” solution

Now for the moment of truth, time to test the raft design.

 

 

Vinnie constructed an ocean wave simulator to test the sturdiness of his raft.

 

To prove how well constructed it was, Vinnie decided to ride it while on the simulator.

Vinnie adjusts the angle of the sail

Vinnie yells down to his assistant “Crank up the simulator to the maximum setting”

 

 

The oak leaf sail couldn't handle the stress and came crashing down.

Oh well, back to the drawing board for Vinnie.

The other competitors had a good laugh at Vinnie’s expense

 

These seals had the surprise of their life when they witnessed a bamboo raft with a Chipmunk speeding by them. It turns out, Vinnie managed to gain several days on his competitors. The failure of the sail had been staged! The raft was ready to go!! He left without fanfare at the crack dawn while his competitors were blissfully snoring away in their hammocks.

 

The Race Home (Part 1)

 Chipmunks can’t resist a good old fashion race. Chippy got things started by screening the PBS Masterpiece special “Around the World in Eighty Days” based upon the Jules Verne book. Chippy promised a solid gold sunflower seed for the most innovative idea. The only requirement was the idea must actually get the ‘munk back to the Woodpile. That immediately eliminated some of the crazier ideas like giant catapults and futuristic Star Trek like transporters. I thought I would highlight one of the more promising ideas.

Spring migration is in full swing. Millions of birds, ducks, and hawks are migration from the southern hemisphere to North America. One ‘munk thinks she can hitch a ride home on a duck. In fact, she found a Mallard duck who spends the summers at the pond behind the Woodpile and vacations on Paradise Island for the winter. Mrs. Mallard drove a hard bargain, she wanted “airfare” paid in 25 pounds of cracked corn and insisted upon flying lessons in advance of the trip home. The little ‘munk knows where the humans hide the crack corn for the bird feeders, and she was confident s could liberate some for the payment. Flying lessons proved to a bit more interesting and unexpected. I will let the photos tell the story.

“You got be a kidding? A duck flying simulator!”

“Seriously, you want me to get on that thing?”

First lesson, how to properly climb on to the back of a duck.

 

To encourage reluctant students, the simulator came equipped with in flight snacks. That did the trick.

After twenty hours of training on the duck simulator, Mrs. Mallard and the chipmunk were ready for the flight home

Hibernation Alarm Clocks

Most of us at one time or another have forgotten to set the alarm clock or have had the batteries quit five minutes before it was suppose to go off. (At least that is the excuse we give our bosses). Poor Jerry the chipmunk forgot to put a fresh fully charged battery in his hibernation alarm clock. It was suppose to wake him up on March 1, 2022 but he over hibernated to April 9^th! Oooops. Imagine trying to explain to your boss why your over a MONTH late to the job.

Jerry panicked when he saw the hibernation clock was not working and rushed out of his luxury hollow log condo only to find not a soul around the Woodpile. The coffee shop had a thick coating of dust on the counters, the school house was still shuttered for winter break, and his boss was nowhere to be found. No boss, that is good thing, right?

At first he thought he was stuck in some sort of nightmare dream. Then he found a newspaper from December with the headline “Woodpilers mysteriously disappear.” He devoured the news article which theorized that an old red hat was at the heart of their disappearance. Jerry shuttered when he read that final line.

Jerry works for a top secret critter government research facility. He was part of a team trying to develop teleportation devices. To hide their research from possible spies, they had built the experimental unit into a red hat. They had abandoned the research when they realized it only worked in one direction. You couldn’t return. It got mothballed and hidden in an old seed vault. Jerry couldn’t remember if the team had locked the vault door or not.

After a few seconds, Jerry realized some critter must have stumbled upon the device and accidentally transported most of the Woodpilers someplace and they couldn’t return from using the red hat. How was he going to explain this to his boss?

Jerry rushes out his hollow log condo after oversleeping by a month.

He senses something seems odd but can’t quite place it.

It finally dawns on him something is missing. He strains his ears but is met with an eerie silence. There aren’t any of the usual noises from the daily hustle and bustle of the Woodpile, as critters go about their business.

Jerry dives back into his burrow thinking maybe he woke a month earlier instead a month late.

He climbs back out of his condo to confirm his worst fears:
someone activated the red hat teleportation device.

How are the Woodpilers going to get back? Jerry had an idea. He telegraphed Paradise Island and suggested they hold a race to see who could get back to the Woodpile first.

 TO BE CONTINUED

 

Breakfast at Tiffany's

It has been a long standing tradition at the Woodpile to host the “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” extravaganza for returning birds on their way north. The event was in danger of being cancelled due to most of the Woodpile gang being stuck on Paradise Island. This breakfast part got its name many years from the lady ‘munk who used to run it. She was huge fan of the romantic comedy film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.

At the last moment, Mrs. Blue Jay offered to organize the event and the Woodpile’s lone chipmunk, Freddy was volunteered to be the host. Freddy washed ashore a few weeks after his rental sailboat was blown off course in a monsoon. With no one to raise any objections, they raided the gourmet seeds stored in the Woodpile’s vaults. This was going to be a party to be remembered for generations to come!

Mrs. Jay was very particular about how the food should be laid out.

This first guest who arrived was rather skeptical. He was a multiple millionaire seed business executive who had made his fortunate selling overpriced bird seed to gullible humans. The idea of a “free” breakfast sent him into a tailspin.

 The wide variety of seeds was a big hit.

Freddy had never hosted an event in his life. He had no idea what he was suppose to do. Mrs. Jay suggested he make “small talk” with the guests. Freddy started talking about his favor topic, sunflower seeds. That may have been a poor choice. 

 
Gary the Cowbird got into a heated debate with Freddy over which was tastier sunflower seeds or white millet. The debate went back and forth as each made his case and it seems like it would never end. Someone wisely suggested, they take a straw poll amongst the guests to decide who was right.

According to the poll, the tastiest food was cracked corn! Gary and Freddy discovered they could agree upon one thing: the straw poll was obviously rigged. What critter in their right mind would think corn was tasty.