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Last month, a raccoon came to die in my yard. This weekend, it was a skunk. Even when mortally wounded, or on their last breath, skunks will spray. Reflexive nerves that cause them to twitch, will also keep the gland spraying after the animal dies.
I wonder what is killing these animals. It's not a predator in the wild. A coyote or bobcat would eat the kill. Not beat the life out of them, then leave them to die. Now of course, I am not conducting my own necropsy. I'm not shaving off the fur of a dead critter, to examine it's body for trauma. Nor am I cutting it open, to examine stomach contents for hamburger with poison. I'm wondering if it's my neighbor's dog, or one of my neighbors.
There's a woman in the neighborhood who is a little bit - well, she does weird things. I see her walking around with her own broom and plastic bag, picking up garbage. I've also seen her painting mailboxes, utility poles, traffic control signal boxes, and such. A few weeks ago, I saw her walking around with a cage trap. I don't care if she is trapping wild animals - even though it's technically illegal to do that. I don't care if she's killing them - that's also illegal. I just don't want them dying in my yard.
Dogs seem to be the only effective deterrent. When I had a dog, wild animals and feral cats never came in my yard. My only other idea is to start shooting them with a Red Ryder BB Gun. Just hit them hard enough to make them run off. I wouldn't want to kill anything, then have to deal with disposal. Otherwise, I would just shoot them with a small caliber rifle. The idea is not to kill them. Or even catch them. Just scare them off. But that's probably illegal also. With my luck, I would be the 1 guy the cops get every 50 years, for shooting a bb gun at wildlife in city limits.
Never shot any animal with the BB gun I owned as a kid. I did shoot at plastic models I was bored with. Even shot one with my dad's old 22 single shot rifle. But not animals. BTW I had missed the model with the rifle. Well, not actually missed. I had placed it sideways, and when I fired at it the bullet went through the open side windows, and left powder burns on the front seats as it passed through the other side. Model remained intact. It was a model of a 1972 Roadrunner. Back then you could buy a car model kit for five dollars. A year or two ago, I had the idea to start building models again...until I saw that the same models I built as a kid are now twenty-five dollars!
Happy Monday! It’s clear and warm-ish up here today and we are hoping to get some rain later in the week.
I am hoping for some reduced stress this week, since the bathroom remodel is complete, vehicles seem to be running fine, and I fixed some house issues that were driving us nuts.
It turns out that the Champion Performance radiator was the second one in two years in the Bronco, and they both failed the same way. We will see how the OEM one does.
Spent some time chasing a possible short in a ceiling fan and found that it was in the LED bulb that came with the unit. A simple reminder about starting with the easiest fix first (which I didn’t do).
A couple thoughts on keeping critters out. Sprinkle a blend of Black and Cayenne Pepper around your yard, which is supposed to deter them. Or I’ve been told that if you go to the zoo and see about getting fertilizer from the big cat enclosures, that will help keep dogs and other critters away too. It won’t work for me, because of the distance I would need to go to get that specialty fertilizer.
I don't know if the SF Zoo collects poop from lions and tigers for distribution to homeowners. On the 1 hand, it would be nuts to truck in a load of feces, dump it in my own yard, and then have to live in the filth. On the other hand, I could end up with the most fertile soil on the block. I just have to live in 5h!t. Why doesn't that sound appealing?
I already know that I won't be shooting inner city wildlife. I used to hunt. For food. Until I decided that even though I never taxidermied trophy mounts, I was still hunting for sport. I ate everything I shot. But it wasn't necessary. I live in The City. I spent more money on the trips, licenses, tags....not to mention having to buy all the gear. I don't have anything against hunting. I just became extremely frugal in a down economy. My only regret is not keeping any of the hides. I always let someone else have it. At the time, I wasn't interested in the work of tanning the hides. Now, I wish I had a jacket, or something, from one of those animals. But I am no longer spending thousands of dollars for a few hundred pounds of meat. Although, that really was better eating than supermarket meat.
Sorry for the delay in getting out the March all topic thread up. It has been a lazy day for me. after the 7am men's power breakfast at church, I came home and fell asleep, then woke up and watch the four-hour Kevin Costner movie "Wyatt Earp" Then set up my new government phone because the other new phone they sent me did not work correctly. So, I am sending that one back. Finally got to check my emails, and totally forgot today is the first day of March. Anyway, here is the link:
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalyptic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
