A Visit From Conservation Officers

I failed to post about my interesting day back on October 2nd in which I sat on the phone for about 30-minutes with Daryl from the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) to discuss my predicament of having a raccoon in a trap in my backyard.

Let me begin by explaining why I had a raccoon in a trap in my backyard...

We had been having problems for awhile with something (?) getting into our small pond almost every night. Finallly I heard the little rascal one night, and knew right away that it was a raccoon. A few days later I talked about it with a customer of mine, and she had her father-in-law bring over a trap (cage) for me to use. I took it home, set it, placed an egg in it as he instructed and waited. And waited - and waited - and waited.

FINALLY - on the morning of October 2nd, we caught our little masked friend. But, then the fun began - not knowing what I should do with him, I called our local Animal Control. Wouldn`t you know, they weren`t available, so I had to call law enforcement. After I talked to them, they directed me to the DNR. When I talked with one person, they said they would take my information and have someone get in touch with me. Someone did, and said they were having someone else get in touch with me.

All the while, our little friend was getting angrier and angrier. Surprisingly I had much more patience than him.

Then Daryl from the DNR called - and to go thru our entire conversation would take a book. So, to discuss it in brief - trapping is illegal; I was considered a poacher for what I had done. CRAP!!!

Well, Daryl took mercy on me (well, I think God had a hand in it, too), and he issued me a "nuisance permit" giving me permission to trap. "THANK YOU JESUS!" No tickets or fines just a lecture. However, I had to agree to keep trapping and when 10-days had passed with not catching anything, or the 30-days expired (whichever came first) I was to return the permit.

Ok, no problem. But, what about this raccoon in my backyard? I couldn`t transport him to the woods and let him go (it was illegal to transport him in my truck and I wasn`t about to open that cage and have him unleash his built up anger against me!). Daryl informed me I had to dispose of him; i.e. Kill him. Of course not owning a gun I didn`t know what to do. Daryl suggested drowning him in a tub of some kind.

After we finished our conversation I found a large Rubbermade tub in the garage, which was just large enough to hold the cage. I began filling the tub and walked over to the cage with a hammer - NO, not to use on the raccoon, but to use the toothed end of the hammer to pick up the cage, keeping my hand a safe distance from his paws that were reaching thru the top of the cage.

I lowered him in, watched him for awhile, but then had to walk to the front of the house to dismiss myself from watching him struggle.

Proper burial per the DNR you might wonder? Double bagged and placed into your garbage can. Sounds easy, but have you ever tried to bag a dead wet raccoon? Not as easy as it sounds. But, mission accomplished.

Now I only had to keep trapping, not catch anything else for a few days, take the cage back to my customer, return the permit and it would all be in the past.

Nothing is ever that easy. No, I didn`t catch anything else, but...

Today, as I was cleaning the basement, Andrew came down and said someone was at the backdoor. I went up, thinking it was probably a neighbor of ours. To my surprise stood two women in uniform - conservation officers from the DNR. CRAP!!!

Apparently, my neighbors (unknown to us which ones) had turned us in for trapping squirrels, rabbits and cats. Ha! I actually started laughing, and started shaking my head. I explained what had happened. They asked to see the permit, which luckily I had very handy inside. They agreed that what I was doing was legal by the permit. I explained how I had disposed of the raccoon, to which they responded that that was part of the complaint - how I had disposed (killed) of the raccoon.

They told me I should have done it in my garage or with a tarp over it. I explained I was just following instructions and just wanted to get it over with. I had forgotten that a neighbor was home working on his roof when this all had occurred and I spoke with him about it while I was trying to figure out what to use to drown the raccoon. (Was this the neighbor who "turned me in?" We will probably never know.)

Anyway, they left pleased that my trapping was legal. I went back into our house wishing I would never have borrowed that trap!! It`s going back to my customer on Tuesday and the permit is getting mailed back on Monday!!

Hockey game 3

Andrew with our escort, Kayla, in the players box.

Hockey Game 2

Andrew talking with one of the players during warmups.

Hockey Game

Andrew with Chip, at the Prairie Thunder hockey game. He got to be in the player's box while they warmed up on the ice.

Couch Time

We need a bigger couch! The kids love to lay on the couch and cuddle with mommy. :-)

Frozen Bananas

Hitting below 30 degrees 2 nights in a row did a number on my bananas. :-(

BRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

It`s COLD outside!! That`s all there is about it! Down to below 30 the last two nights (low 20`s windchill), only high 40`s yesterday afternoon and mi-50`s today. BRRRRR! I`m ready for 80-degrees again!

I got in all my "important" plants Wednesday night - larger bananas in the ground will be left for a couple more weeks probably. All potted bananas (6 varieties) are in the house now, except one larger one is in the garage. I love my banana plants and don`t want to lose any of the ones I have:) I`ll probably just cut back and "bag" the rootballs of the potted bananas soon when I do the same for the ones I planted in the ground. It`s just so difficult to winter them over inside as "houseplants." Our family/dining/living rooms look like a jungle right now with all of the plants in. And actually... I will be bringing in more in the next few days. I was glad hearing Laurie's comment the other night when she came home and saw all of the plants, "It's so nice to see plants back in here again." Shew!!!! :)

Savannah has been feeling much better here at the end of the week, and the swelling around her eye is gone. It was so cute Wednesday night - she was having problems falling asleep, so Laurie brought her downstairs with us. After taking turns sitting on both of our laps, I agreed to go on to bed, and asked Savannah if she wanted to go up with me. She didn`t fall asleep until probably 11 pm! She and Andrew love to cuddle with us in our bed. It`s so cute!

Laurie has been staying up REALLY late all week - GRADING! Up until 2 Wednesday night and 3 last night. I wish there was something I could do to help, but she won`t let me help grade. So, I just try to stay positive for her.

It was suppose to be pizza and movie night tonight, but after getting just about 5 minutes into Star Wars III, Andrew decided it was too scary for him. Which is odd, considering how much he LOVED I and II. Savannah wasn`t too happy that we stopped it, though. She went on upstairs to bed shortly after her own little "drama" since she couldn`t get her way. Andrew is still down here close to following asleep, and Savannah is up singing to herself in her bed.

So we`re watching the Cardinal game now against the Mets (NLCS). Since the White Sox aren`t in it, I guess I`m hoping it is between Detroit and St Louis. Not sure who between those two I want to win the WS. I'll probably still watch Star Wars III after the game, though.

Tomorrow is Laurie`s big cropping day - 9am-7pm. She`s hoping to get 15 pages done. She hasn`t done as much scrapping this year, so I know she feels she has a lot of catching up to do.

Little Reader

Andrew loves to read for all of us. It's amazing to hear him sound out correctly words such as "legendary". WOW! When I was in 1st grade I read Dick And Jane!

Fantasy Football Win (YEAH)

Another winning weekend for the Bloomington Bloomers in the Midwest Lazy Boy Fantasy Football League. I was somewhat torn, however, this weekend... My Bloomington Bloomers were playing Laurie's team (Sunday Nappers). Don't get me wrong, I wanted to win, but... just not very badly. And, even though it's far from what can be called a trouncing, I am going to end up winning by a pretty good margin.

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day outside!! I think it got up to 86, and was sunny most of the day. Tomorrow's high is to be 90!! SO much easier for me to work outside when the temps are up there than at 50!! BRRRR!! The tropicals still outside sure seemed to enjoy the heat today, too. I think they all had a good growth spurt during the day. All of my banana plants especially seemed to appreciate the heat and humidity... I watered them all fairly deep this morning. It's been great to see the hardy hibicus plants have a second set of buds/blooms this year. However, I can tell that the blooms are smaller... more of a dessert plate size rather than the usual dinner plate size :)

Andrew is Star Student this week at Bent... He gets to sit at a special desk all week and gets to be the line leader throughout the week, too. We sent a bunch of pictures today (Monday); Tuesday I'm going to go have lunch with him; Wednesday we're having a special delivery sent to him from Casey's Garden Shop; Thursday I'm taking Buttercup into his class for a visit and then I'm taking him out for a special lunch; Friday Laurie and Savannah are taking in treats for the class at the end of the school day. He's been so excited about the week, too.
Tonight he read two books that he brought home from school, and then read a majority of another book that we bought for him recently. I love to sit and hear him read a book to me! All you have to do is ask and he'll be more than happy to read to you.

More work to be done. My least favorite thing to do for my business... the books. It's pretty sad considering how much I love numbers. But, I guess it's because I always end up doing it so late (i.e it's 10:30 pm).