[TheForge] Re: test OT:

[Mike Spencer]

> The live trap is to assure you don't get your dog by accident.
> Raccoons make a marvelous garden soil amendment and a handy relocation 
> methodology.

Ah, well, we use that method with the porcupines that trespass in the
gardens or apple trees.  They don't go for traps but they do make the
broccoli grow.  Very occasionally, while gardening, one of us picks up
a quill from a previous year's interment. The only disadvantage I've
hit with the live trap is that I once got a skunk.  Dunno what I would
have done if I weren't a blacksmith.  I made a set of 4 or 5 tools
with 10' pipe handles to move the trap, release the catch, open and
hold the spring-loaded door.  The skunk eventually noticed the open
door and wandered lacsidaisically away without letting off a spritz.

In general, I like being where there's a lot of wildlife, although it
was hard to think that last year when the deer ate the potato plants
and the dug up (!) the seed potatoes and ate them, then followed up by
eating all the beans and half the tomato plants.  So far, the 4-strand,
8' electric fence I put around a couple of acres is keeping them out
this year.


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^