![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Hat tip to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
madclarinet
Move the Deer Crossing
We have a lot of deer here, and this pic made me laugh especially hard because there's a deer crossing sign right across from our driveway. It's needed, too--last year I counted 17 deer going down the hill past my neighbor's house, up my hill and then across the street almost right next to the sign.
Deer and all the other critters are definitely one of the best parts about living out here in the country. We have hummingbirds, flying squirrels, all kinds of amazing bugs and a truly astonishing number of birds. There's a mated pair of ravens that fly by on occasion, they sound like crows with laryngitis, and there are always cardinals and jays around. We've even seen bluebirds, first time I'd ever seen them outside of pictures.
Granted, some of the wildlife can be annoying, such as the entrepreneurs that ate all my tomatoes. And about a month ago, we actually had a young possum get into the house.
A note about possums. Yes, they are ugly as all get-out. They really are. They look like giant rats. If you can get past the appearance, though, they are actually decent neighbors. For one thing, they are not prone to rabies--they can get it, but it's rare. They eat all kinds of things, from snakes to mice to grass (no kidding!) to insects to fruit to eggs to... you get the idea. As a general rule, they will hide if they see you, as they are quite shy.
So, according to Ben, the possum got in and hilarity almost immediately ensued--the cats were quite indignant that some ugly looking critter was chowing down on their cat food.
Even funnier, Ben shooed it out of the house with the trusty broom, and the little bastard immediately returned! The second time, he actually picked it up by the scruff and hindquarters and walked it out of the house, up the driveway and across the street so it would head into the woods where it actually belonged. Ben's description of the critter's attempt to look ferocious and then playing dead when it realized the ferocious thing wasn't going to fly was incredibly funny.
The funniest part? I slept through the whole encounter!
The next day we went to investigate how the little sucker had gotten in, and the answer was embarrassingly simple. Our outside hose connection is in the area with the hot water heater, which is accessed from outside. Since the shower has been removed, there is just a thin piece of paneling closing off the water heater area from the rest of the house.
Because we'd been using the hose to water the garden, the door was open. This in and of itself wasn't the problem, though. The problem was that we had a length of 2 x 6 bracing the skirt so that it didn't fall down, and coincidentally, it was placed in the perfect position to provide a curious young possum a ramp directly into the hot water alcove. From there it was no trick for it to push by that piece of paneling and go exploring.
We did three things as soon as we realized what had happened. The first was to move the 2 x 6. The second was to staple some heavy duty metal screening on the beams inside the alcove so the paneling couldn't be pushed aside, and the third was to use one of the long twist-ties that was used to wrap the hose to tie the door mostly closed.
We have had no possum visitors since, I am happy to report.
madclarinetMove the Deer Crossing
We have a lot of deer here, and this pic made me laugh especially hard because there's a deer crossing sign right across from our driveway. It's needed, too--last year I counted 17 deer going down the hill past my neighbor's house, up my hill and then across the street almost right next to the sign.
Deer and all the other critters are definitely one of the best parts about living out here in the country. We have hummingbirds, flying squirrels, all kinds of amazing bugs and a truly astonishing number of birds. There's a mated pair of ravens that fly by on occasion, they sound like crows with laryngitis, and there are always cardinals and jays around. We've even seen bluebirds, first time I'd ever seen them outside of pictures.
Granted, some of the wildlife can be annoying, such as the entrepreneurs that ate all my tomatoes. And about a month ago, we actually had a young possum get into the house.
A note about possums. Yes, they are ugly as all get-out. They really are. They look like giant rats. If you can get past the appearance, though, they are actually decent neighbors. For one thing, they are not prone to rabies--they can get it, but it's rare. They eat all kinds of things, from snakes to mice to grass (no kidding!) to insects to fruit to eggs to... you get the idea. As a general rule, they will hide if they see you, as they are quite shy.
So, according to Ben, the possum got in and hilarity almost immediately ensued--the cats were quite indignant that some ugly looking critter was chowing down on their cat food.
Even funnier, Ben shooed it out of the house with the trusty broom, and the little bastard immediately returned! The second time, he actually picked it up by the scruff and hindquarters and walked it out of the house, up the driveway and across the street so it would head into the woods where it actually belonged. Ben's description of the critter's attempt to look ferocious and then playing dead when it realized the ferocious thing wasn't going to fly was incredibly funny.
The funniest part? I slept through the whole encounter!
The next day we went to investigate how the little sucker had gotten in, and the answer was embarrassingly simple. Our outside hose connection is in the area with the hot water heater, which is accessed from outside. Since the shower has been removed, there is just a thin piece of paneling closing off the water heater area from the rest of the house.
Because we'd been using the hose to water the garden, the door was open. This in and of itself wasn't the problem, though. The problem was that we had a length of 2 x 6 bracing the skirt so that it didn't fall down, and coincidentally, it was placed in the perfect position to provide a curious young possum a ramp directly into the hot water alcove. From there it was no trick for it to push by that piece of paneling and go exploring.
We did three things as soon as we realized what had happened. The first was to move the 2 x 6. The second was to staple some heavy duty metal screening on the beams inside the alcove so the paneling couldn't be pushed aside, and the third was to use one of the long twist-ties that was used to wrap the hose to tie the door mostly closed.
We have had no possum visitors since, I am happy to report.
