Racoon Tales

We looked out to see deer in the garden yet again, but the big surprise came when we looked down to see a racoon right under the window.  Conventional wisdom says that a racoon seen during the day is sick perhaps rabid, but where we live the critters feel right at home.  This racoon was not happy but definitely not sick.  We opened the window hoping to get a photo, but the racoon took off hopped up on the deck and then scooted along right next to the house.  I headed to the kitchen door  and got there in time to see the racoon walk the top of the curved stone wall.  Finally I got a chance to take a picture.  This racoon didn't like that so much.

Here I got the best side of the racoon both for him and for me.  Racoons are cute and furry with a lovely striped tail, but they also snarl and hiss and have impressive teeth and nails.  Wild racoons are best left in the wild.  I know that from long experience.

It was about 60 years ago that I  learned that lesson.  My parents  went to pick wild high bush blueberries.  I  really loved animals in those days.  As luck would have it my Dad came upon a baby racoon in a bush where he was picking.  He captured the beautiful little creature by throwing his jacket over it.  I don't remember exactly how we got it home, but I do remember putting it in a makeshift cage in the basement.  I gave it plenty of food, even a chocolate chip cookie, and some water.  I went to bed happy but I will never forget that night. That racoon whined loudly.  I went downstairs, turned on the light and sat with it and all was quiet.  It seemed like the baby was asleep  so I crept up the two flights of stairs to my bedroom  and collapsed into bed.  When the mournful cries of the racoon started again they were louder than ever.   I remember making many trips  to quiet  that baby racoon before it woke my Father.  It was still dark when he got up and returned the racoon to the blueberry patch.  We both learned an important lesson about racoons that night. I'm smarter now.  I'm smart enough to let this racoon find his own way home.

Two Degrees Of Frost

Posted frost warnings ended the night's sleep early this morning. Legend has it that if the frost is washed off the plants before the sunlight strikes them, frost damage may be avoided.  Whether that is fact or fiction is not the point.  Washing frost was the only thing that could be done since our overnight low hit 30 degrees F.

Footprints in the white grass will blacken in the sunlight.  Brittle blades of grass were broken by contact with my boot.  Many times valley fog prevents formation of frost but this morning the droplets of mist are themselves frozen.  Clear blue sky is peeking through directly overhead.

Strawberry freezer jam is a special treat that starts many a morning here.  Recent heavy rainfall changed our muddy flat river into a finger lake as the river filled low fields with brown water.  A phone check revealed that the flat where we pay to pick strawberries did not flood and it is low enough that frost may not have hit there last night.  Our two dozen plants were just mulched with straw and it lessened the hardness of the frost.  What frost did form was washed off.  Our strawberries should have avoided widespread damage.

Sod block walls and a tarp provide protection for the newly emerged Oriental lilies.  Sunlight is already hitting the higher ground and will soon find the tarp.  Warmth will build under the cover and the tender new growth under it should be fine.

Every plastic pail that we own was used to cover something tender last night.  Three Salmon Star lilies spent the frosty night under this garbage can.  Water splash can be seen on the stone wall where frost was washed of the Pinxter.  We will wait to see if those flowers escaped damage.

Our wild blueberry bushes grow in the shadow of the gravel bank hill. Frost pours down upon us as cold air slides down the nearby ridge. In this protected spot, these blossoms may have escaped damage. The blueberry opens its flowers a few at a time so the still closed ones should still have the potential to form fruit.  Slender green rods push outward from past blossoms that have already made fruit.

Sunlight is now streaming down on all of the gardens.  Time to get my feet wet while removing all of the protecting buckets and the tarp. Then the many pots of plants that spent the night inside will be returned to the stone wall.