I could tell you about the hunting of the chicks to get them safely back in their coop. We lost a couple of chicks to a raccoon, and this is unacceptable. I am not at the shotgun stage yet, but I'm not in love with raccoons either. You know when you live in the city, you think of raccoons as evidence that wildlife is still cute and cuddly and willing to come on your back porch to eat cat food? Don't tell me those stories, because out here in the sticks, raccoons are the bandit-eyed velociraptors who leave the feathers of innocent pullets in your side yard.
I could tell you about the cruddy thieves who broke into our barn while we were gone and stole a saddle, a lunge line and two brand-new bridles. Madeleine's first reaction: "Why don't they get a job and buy their own tack?" My thoughts exactly.
I could tell you about my decidedly unfarmish visit to the IRS office.
But I'll leave you with the best thing that happened today: Coming home.
5 comments:
I want to squeeze his little cheeks. Delicious.
Back in Highland (sniffle sniffle) we lived near a ravine with a stream and the raccoons would come up at night and climb everyone's trampoline nets. We thought this was cute for approximately ten minutes. But when the gardens were all ravaged and the trees were all practically slashed to death because the raccoons used them as scratching posts and the tramp nets were all eviscerated, we were not quite as thrilled.
Nature is much cuter from a distance.
Listen, we trapped two raccoons when we were trying to find Edward and thos little suckers would have taken my arm off. My husband honestly thought they'd killed and eaten Ed. NOT far-fetched.
I hate thieves--what is with thieves??? Y'all aren't supposed to have thieves out there in the country. That's supposed to be what we have here in New Yawk.
But that baby? Exactly the right thing to have whichever kind of mouse you are.
We were initiated into true, honest-to-goodness red-neckedness (not to be confused with NAKEDNESS which is an entirely different topic) this past year when we started going coon huntin'. The kids think it's just the best - and our chickens (and other pets) are thankful! Found some BIG raccoon prints by the river today, so we know they're out and about again. Sorry to hear about your baby chicks, that's BAD news!
Raccoons are a real pain around here. We had one year of dealing with raccoons, one year of dealing with skunks (my daughter thought the babies were kittens and went to pet them!), and this year we've graduated to dealing with RATS. I don't know which of the three is worse. I could tell tales of how we dealt with these pests, but really it's just gross to think about.
Good luck, farmgirls!
Laura is just the cutest little bug!
You have had quite a time with the law lately. What is up with that?!
My rotten kids left the feed box (a huge red metal racoon/rat proof box) open one night and I found the biggest rat poop I have ever seen in my life. This made me fear for my children, because anything that leaves behind poo that big could probably eat a child.
We have not seen any raccoons around here YET, but our renters lost an entire flock of chickens to them last year. I still find bones out in the yard. Sick!
Vermin seriously freak me out!
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