My Journey in 2011 – September

9/5/11

As I was preparing to go outside to take care of my farm animals my husband said,”Quick, look out the window!” There standing in the center of my yard was a huge raccoon! Now it was daylight and about 7:30 am. What was this furry creature doing awake in my yard when I have to let out my birds, his favorite meal! As we watched the raccoon pace back and forth in my yard, I came to realize that he couldn’t get out through to the front, which was where he seemed to want to go. All exits are gated to the front of the house to keep the farm animals in the back. While the raccoon was at one end of the house I went outside to open one of the gates at the opposite side of the house.  When he found it open, he went through it to the front of the house. Now I went out and closed the gate to keep him out front. He just paced back and forth from one side of the house to the other. He kept going in the garden to try to get in the back of the house again. All this time, I would not let the farm animals out of the barn. We decided to keep an eye on him and have our breakfast. While having breakfast, we looked out the kitchen window into the yard and there he was in the back yard again, at the back end of the property about to enter the field behind us. He sat and watched our yard for a while and stood by a tree, before entering the field. Needless to say, the farm animals were finally fed and they remained in the barn in case our furry friend returned.

I am assuming that he may have been stunned by a passing car. He did not seem rabid. In the spring you may find mother raccoons in the daylight when they are searching for food for their young. However this creature moved very slowly and seemed confused.

9/7/11

Well our little furry friend returned last night or early this morning! I left a bag of kitchen garbage on my front deck, since it was raining last night. I intended to put it in the pail this morning, but our raccoon  friend had other intentions for our garbage. He tore open the bag and distributed it’s contents all over the deck! My fault. Knowing there was a raccoon hanging around I should have never left the bag outside!

9/18/11

Well it certainly feels like fall, even though it isn’t yet. Two nights ago I covered the tomato plants with a clear plastic tarp in hopes of saving the plants from the frost we have been having at night. There are still so many green tomatoes on the plants that I am trying to ripen. Yesterday was the annual Ladies picnic that many of the women in  the area love to attend. Since the picnic begins at 5pm, it got cold fast. I began the event with a sweat shirt and being comfortable. As the sun went down and the campfire was lit, I needed to put over my sweat shirt, an oversize fleece jacket. Still my legs were cold. Isn’t September 17th still considered summer? There was talk there, that all the fruit trees in the area, mainly apple trees, were heavily bearing fruit this year which meant a very cold winter. Not looking forward to that!