Are You Smarter Than a Raccoon?

Currently, for us the answer is a definite: Maybe.

Just last night at dusk, I saw two raccoons walk across our backyard and climb the fence into the neighbors’ yard. This week we saw a family  of five raccoons on the next block. They scooted up a pine and peeked around at us, showing 5 masked faces at different levels and on both sides of the tree. It was adorable! Of course, I rarely walk carrying my camera so you will just have to picture that in your head. Today, as I sat on a low stool pulling wet weeds, some movement caught my attention. I turned and saw a large raccoon walking about seven feet from me.

It is kind of fun and interesting to see them on occasion.

The trouble is, they had gotten a taste for our garbage and they are not tidy  eaters. And bussing their table and surrounding area got a little tiresome.

Driveway evidence:

I will spare you a picture of the spilled garbage.

We carry our own to the landfill and so do not have the giant cans on wheels. We have plastic garbage cans with bag liners. The raccoons had figured out how to get in by grabbing and pulling the liner which once the can was on its side would pop the lid.

First, B tried putting a heavy pot on top. Pot, can, and all came down with the same messy result.

Then, he tried tying a sturdy rope around the can and hooking a bungee cord over the top.  Once it was tipped, they pushed the lid through the bungee.

Now, there are two crossed bungees hooked to the rope and so far….

 

Well, we are keeping our bungees crossed that B has outsmarted the masked bandits.

Stickin’ To It

 

 

The outside of this rain-wet rain barrel is so slick, it is hard to imagine how this walking stick could stick on and not just slide right off.

Friendly Frogs

Last year, we had a gray tree frog visit. This guy had hopped on B’s shoulder.

http://our-nature.blogspot.com/2008/02/friends-in-high-places.html

Well, it --or another like it-- was back recently. Isn’t the pattern neat? What you can not see in these pictures is that the underside of the legs is bright, solid yellow.

This one was checking out the lavender paint bucket and did not really want to go anywhere.

It seems to have gotten darker on B’s glove. It is actually looking rather toadish here, I think.

As I said, it was not really motivated to go anywhere.

B was finally able to move it to a plant.

Hopefully, it was not a meal for the moccasin that was at the base of the same plant last week.

Oops!

We recently noticed that this large oak was dying. Then it became obvious that the larger pine was dying too. (The green below and beside are parts of other trees.)

Here is the problem: see the spiral where the bark is missing off the pine?  Lightning struck the pine and then it arced to the oak, killing them both.

One morning when I walked, there were dozens of little birds in the dead oak. Maybe roasted acorns are tasty. A couple of other times, we have heard a distinct chewing sound in that same tree, without being able to find the source. We were thinking an animal smaller than a squirrel.

 

Their next door neighbor decided to take down two big trees for whatever reason. Unfortunately, the tree feller fellar made a slight miscalculation, taking out at least 30 feet of fence.

I think if I was having a run of luck like that, I’d be out there watching that fire, even though it was mostly smoke.

Poppin’ Pods

B recently showed me the Impatien seed pod trick.

Carefully remove a mature seed pod by holding only the stem. The mature ones look pregnant.

Touch it lightly with your finger and….faster than you can focus, it pops open, turning the green pod inside out, springing the tiny seeds free to disperse them.

I will admit I am easily amused but I think I could do this happily for quite some time. It is just that fascinating.

Mailbox Monday: You might be a redneck if…..

 

Now this is another of my favorite mailboxes.

And you gotta support your NASCAR favorite.

Sweet Briar Obstacle Course

B spotted this down the road:

 

Up the fence post,

inside the PVC vertical

and

out each horizontal.

Pretty adventurous. I hope there was a prize.