Welcome to my pond - Swim, wade, or sit on the bank

[LittleLakePhil]

We had another raccoon attack yesterday morning on our quarantine pen in the carport. This is a heavy-duty hardware cloth "tractor" with only the tiniest space between the top "hatch" and the walls (not even an inch). Somehow the creature was able to slide his paw in and grab the comb of one of our "replacement" 55's and give it a yank. The force of the yank fractured his beak as it slammed him into the hatch (not a clean break and he still seems to be able to eat) and the raccoon ate the nubs off his comb!
Thankfully, he was able to get away and seems to be doing okay.

Yeah... Gotta watch them raccoons...a few years ago my friend Jason had ducklings in a cage on his front porch. Raccoon came in and ripped his bill right off.

 

[LittleLakePhil]

That’s gotta be about as fun as the one we had in our attached garage. Yes, it did spray. Twice.

I've never had a skunk spray while he was in a trap....

Caught this guy a few months ago... Biggest skunk I've seen.
Heavy.
I took him a couple miles up the road and let him go....a long way away from any houses.
I don't have the heart to just kill them if I don't have too.

 

[LittleLakePhil]

Hi Ponders
Whew finally caught up. Cute piggies (do NOT like pork however, except bacon. Bacon has to be a completely different meat, right?)
Wow Phil, hope your wife is feeling better and the doc has some answers for you both.
We only got a few inches out of this last snowfall. Just enough to drag out the snowthrowers. Really heavy stuff. Now we have to make an extra trip to town to restock our supply of shear pins.

(actually have managed to lose 15 lbs. Just by cleaning up my eating habits. Even managed to not fall off the wagon during all the Thanksgiving cooking and company. Guess having your doc scare the heck out of you really does work )

We got pounded..... There's about a foot and a half on the ground. And it drifted.
But hey it's December.... It's the early stuff we got that's got me all behind. Heck I still have to put my Rider somewhere..... My out building are all getting full of engines transmissions and other various large car parts

 

[LittleLakePhil]

Must be hard to keep presents under the tree, mounted on the ceiling.

Velcro the gifts to the ceiling

 

[chickisoup]

a scarf.
for 15 pounds. Are you shooting for more?
.

The weight coming off (since Oct.) was a nice side benefit of no longer pretending to be a garbage can, (and I think the change in the dosage of my current meds helped with the decreased appetite making the first goal a bit easier) BUT since I am losing, another 10 (or so?) would be really nice.

 

[LittleLakePhil]

I'm seriously considering just skipping the whole tree thing this year. We have some beautiful decorations and may just go with those. In our little home even that requires quite a bit of shuffling & storing things. Since we won't have any little ones coming to visit, I don't think it will be missed too much. Besides, should we expect some last minute visitors we still have lots of outdoor lights we could toss on one of the trees in the yard. (we don't normally put up outside lights anymore either because the deer don't seem to appreciate them and the bear just sleep thru the whole thing).

We haven't put up a tree for a few years... But the whole house is full of decorations... Something we never did when the kids were home.
Next year when the back theater room is finished. I plan to put a tree there.

 

[LittleLakePhil]

We haven't put up a tree for a few years... But the whole house is full of decorations... Something we never did when the kids were home.
Next year when the back theater room is finished. I plan to put a tree there.

I would like to put a Christmas train back there too... Always wanted to do a Christmas village type thing

 

[chickisoup]

We got pounded..... There's about a foot and a half on the ground. And it drifted.
But hey it's December.... It's the early stuff we got that's got me all behind. Heck I still have to put my Rider somewhere..... My out building are all getting full of engines transmissions and other various large car parts

Yeah, our outbuildings are rapidly running out of room too. We only have about 6" right now.Actually hoping we get a bit more snow cover before we go into the inevitable deep freeze.

 

[LittleLakePhil]

That's an idea. We always cut fresh Balsam boughs anyway to lay in the fireplace when not in use to give that wonderful Christmas smell to the house and I always toss some of the twigs in the water steaming on the stove to keep humidity in the house when the temps drop below zero. I think I still have a wreath hoop or two stored in the garden shed. That's a big cottage industry up here in the fall and early winter. Women making wreaths for the tree lots to ship south and guys out in the woods cutting boughs which the wreath makers pay for by the pound. I don't have my wreath pliers anymore but I'm sure I can manage. Guess I better grab my snowshoes and snow skid in the morning and get out in the woods before that cold snap hits later in the week. It's supposed to drop the windchills below zero.
Thanks for the idea Deb and Alaskan!

Yeah I had to snow shoe back to my deer blind today..... Was shocked to see there was still a bunch of deer traffic.
Don't know how good this pic would turn out..... But it looks better if you expand it.
This fork horn can't in and laid right down and slept on camera for the hours... Got up and hung around for two more.... Left at 7:30 a.m.

He's curled up like a little dog

 

[bobbi-j]

I've never had a skunk spray while he was in a trap....View attachment 1607808Caught this guy a few months ago... Biggest skunk I've seen.
Heavy.
I took him a couple miles up the road and let him go....a long way away from any houses.
I don't have the heart to just kill them if I don't have too.

The one in the garage wasn’t in a trap.