[TheForge] test OT:

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

Gee Mike:
That deer was earnestly volunteering to be meat for those very potatoes. 
It even stuffed itself for you.
The mountain lion that got our dog a while back, also apparently ate the 
deer that the dog used to chase away. A sort of wildlife consolation 
prize, i guess.

Mike Spencer wrote:
>> 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
>