Encroaching Nature

The raccoon is at it again. He/she or they are indulging their taste for sugar-water by robbing the hummingbird feeders. One time before, when this happened, I borrowed a neighbor’s live trap, nailed the beast, and released the offender in the distant forest. After experiencing the same issue later, I simply brought the feeders indoors each evening for a while until the criminal ‘coon learned we were on to it and would not cooperate with its sugar addiction. I don’t know what I’ll do now. In an ideal world, I’d be able to attach the feeder affixed on one end to a distant tree and on the other to the deck, with a pulley that would enable me to bring the feeder to me for filling and send it back into the open air for feeding. This not being an ideal world, I will not do that (inasmuch as I have no way to affix said line to a distant tree).

Nature is encroaching on our contentedness in another way. Once again, something (we know not what) is shredding trim at the outside corner of what I call the “sky room,” the room off our master bedroom that serves us a view of the distant mountains and the valley below. I noticed the newly repaired trim had been attacked again a few weeks ago. Two days ago, I noticed that the attacker had moved from the side of the house around to the back, shredding the trim adjacent to the trim already shredded. This time, the beast launched an attack on the siding, as well as the trim, ripping its surface layer and revealing its plywood base. Short of replacing the trim and the siding with steel (which might protect us from intruding beasts but serve as an invitation for lightning strikes), I’m not sure what to do to solve the problem.  Compounding the problem is the fact that the affected areas are just shy of twenty feet from the ground, making the repairs impossible for someone like me, who does not own an extension ladder and has a deep, abiding fear of falling to his death or disability from such a height.

The solution may be to relocate to an apartment in New York City, an adobe home near Santa Fe, or a furnished cave fitted with a thick stainless steel door.

About John Swinburn

"Love not what you are but what you may become."― Miguel de Cervantes
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One Response to Encroaching Nature

  1. Teresa says:

    Sounds like your raccoon’s trying to get into the house too. Best to get rid of him/her before she makes a nest for her kidlets somewhere you’d rather she didn’t. (and I don’t mean one of those “humane” traps either.) 😉

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