Spring cleaning, Rebounded, caught the kid

Yesterday at work I got inspired to clean some shit up.  Once every few years I get disgusted with the clutter that accumulates in my office and I do a massive purge, yesterday was one of those times.    I went around the office filling various trash cans with mountains of stuff that at one point I deemed valuable but no longer have a use for.  This included hundreds of old cd’s, disks, as well as a bunch of outdated training and reference material.  After I got rid of shit I followed up with a much needed detail cleaning where I wiped down the 25 feet of total desk space that was dusty and gross.  The cleaning lady came through this morning with the vacuum cleaner, completing the task.  This morning my workspace felt fresh and new.

Cindy and I were happy to see Nona acting normally last night after a full day in the coop with the other three birds.  Cindy was not happy when she got home and saw I had all 4 birds roaming freely around the back yard.  When I let them out you could tell the chickens were confused, like they didn’t know how to react to having no immediate barriers in front of them.  Cindy said they were too little to be out of the coop.  I told her we weren’t letting them roam unsupervised.  She was also concerned about getting them back into the coop, that was a more of a challenge.

It was getting dark so we wanted to get the birds back in. Doing so took some patience, cracked corn bribery and gentle herding.  We don’t want to scare the chickens back into their coop, we want them to know when they go in there rewards are waiting, something Betty, Wilma and Pebbles knew well.  Cindy picked up and carried Nona back to the coop.  The other three we slowly guided around the coop perimeter before they eventually stepped back inside.

So when I stepped out into the chilly morning air I was surprised to see that my live trap had a new resident, ANOTHER raccoon.  This guy was much smaller than the animal I caught Tuesday night, I quickly guessed this could have been one of the “kids”.  It looked scared but as soon as I rolled the cage upright it hissed and carried on just like it’s bigger relative.

Well I had to quickly grab my raccoon relocation gear as I had not anticipated catching another one so soon.  This time I used the Tacoma, putting the trap in the bed in front of my cargo bar so it wouldn’t slide around the back.  Despite the raccoons treacherous intentions towards my birds I just can’t find a shred of enjoyment or pleasure out of making it suffer.

I took him to the exact same spot as the first for release.  The smaller coon was more reluctant to leave the trap once I opened the door, I had to tap and shake cage quite a few times before he scurried out.  I pulled out wondering if he would somehow find his “mom” if that was actually who I caught Tuesday.  Obviously I will continue to arm the trap each and every night from this point forward.  It’s cheap chicken insurance.

We have a small 5K to time tomorrow morning.  The timing portion of the event should be pretty simple, the worst part of it will be dealing with the frigid for Florida temps that may dip into the upper 30’s over night.  I will be sure to overdress for the occasion. I have one of those awesome government 3 day weekends since the office is closed for President’s Day.  Not much framework for it has been established yet but it should be a good 72 hours.