Well, once again my efforts to blog daily have been derailed by work here and a case of writer's block. There will be more than one post today if I can get my brain to tell my fingers what to type.
Carol and I came to Illinois to work on some projects around the property here. The biggest thing on the to do list was staining the house. We are pleased that as of Thursday the house and garage are both completely stained. Our biggest project is finished. I had at time considered doing a blog post on the process but the only thing more boring than staining a house is looking at pictures of someone staining a house. Where do we go from here?
We still have mulching and flower beds to work on and a huge wood pile to clean up and most likely burn. Then there are things that happen that you don't expect. Saturday night, well actually about 3 am on Sunday morning we heard some scratching outside our bedroom door on the deck. Lily was whining and upset so I got up to take her out for a bit of nighttime potty duty. When we got back in the house all was quiet so she went back in her kennel and I got back in bed. About 20 minutes later and nearly asleep again the scratching started again. I turned on the outside light and looked out the door. There were three raccoons looking in the door at me. Lily, being a coon dog, went crazy barking. Teddi thought it was a good idea and joined in. The raccoons ran away and I went back to bed. The dogs settled down and my thought was that the problem was solved. Raccoons are curious animals and they had discovered we had dogs and they wouldn't be back. Last night about 3 am again the scratching starts again at our bedroom door. I turn the light on and the dogs start barking. This time there are 4 raccoons on the deck. Apparently the party is at our house but so far they haven't figured out how to get in. I am a bit torn on how to address the problem. Normally we will live trap and I will relocate them on the far side on I-74. My thinking being to get back here they have to cross 2 busy highways and a set of railroad tracks. Maybe traffic will do what I normally don't want to do- kill them. Since we are dealing with a group I am wondering if a more violent approach is required and the shotgun needs to come out of the closet. It appeared from my observation last night that we are dealing with a mother and three young. The kids are almost as big as her and should be able to handle life on their own. For those who are curious the live trap bait of choice for raccoons is marshmallows. Why they find them irresistible is beyond my line of thinking. I tried cat food one time and managed to catch a feral cat. What was I thinking? Well, tonight it will be live trap or shotgun. Still haven't decided but leaning toward live trap. They are after all just doing what raccoons do. Wandering around looking for food and shelter. That shouldn't result in a death sentence should it?
I will keep you all appraised of the final decision and results of our efforts.
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