Close Encounters of the Racoon Kind

I think this weather is starting to get to me. We were supposed to have a trail ride on Sunday but due to the weather it was cancelled. I guess it’s probably better that way. By the time we would have been getting home it was pouring down rain. But I’m still bummed in not getting a chance to ride somewhere.

On Sunday our neighbor stopped over and said that they were moving. So it looks like Borderlands may be getting a new neighbor at some point in the future. The neighbor offered us some of his straw bales for cheap and some other items. We decided to run over there before it started raining to pick up the bales.

The straw bales were tucked into an old single car garage. At one point in time I’m sure it was a nice building but through time it deteriorated. Some of the bales were no good because of the roof leaking. But all in all, we were able to pull out 90 straw bales. I’m disappointed that we’ll be losing a neighbor but I’m always excited to find a good deal.

We did have a hair raising experience while getting the last 10 bales of straw. While we were pulling the bales out, we’d known that something had been living in there. We just presumed it was a cat. Instead, when I pulled a bale out, up pops a raccoon head! Scared the holy bageebers out of me. I dropped the bale and took off running. I could have sworn that I’d seen a baby raccoon but out comes big momma raccoon. She did her “Spiderman” routine and climbed up the wall to the window (which I’d been at not very long before). She then proceeded to climb out the hole and get away.

While I stood there and watched big momma leave, Mike ran over to the neighbor to get a gun. I’m all for leaving things as they are but we can’t have lots of varmit running around. It’s not safe, especially with the number of horses on Borderlands. I was a bit spooked about going back in. I took one step back in the garage and out pops another head! So I wasn’t dreaming! I DID see a baby head. Mike discovered four or five baby raccoons. While Mike was “rehoming” the raccoons, big momma came back. We both heard her jump onto the roof, walk around, and then jump down into the grass.

After the raccoon escapade I decided that we had enough straw and could go. I didn’t really want any of the other straw anyway. All in all, it was a rather exciting day. The hard part now is trying to figure out where to put all 90 bales of straw. We don’t have a bale elevator to get them up into the barn. I have about 20 bales in the hay barn. I’m guessing that I’ll be putting some of the straw in the hay barn. I don’t have any alfalfa bales yet so I’m guessing half the bales will be on one side of the hay barn and the rest of the bales will go on the east side. That should still give me enough room for a few alfalfa bales this next winter.

Mike and I also ran up to Madison to drop off grain for the girls. I’m not sure WHEN we’ll get to fencing. We seem to be avoiding the inevitable. Until the fencing is done, I can’t bring the girls home. I’m not sure how long mom and dad’s pasture will hold out if the girls are on the grass every day. But it does the girls good to be out on grass so I guess when the time comes, maybe then we’ll hustle around and get something figured out.

I did go to Kramers on Saturday but got there too early to see what the horses were going for. I saw few scraggly yearlings and a thinner gelding who was pretty mean but the rest looked pretty decent. I decided that I would be mean too if I was that thin and put in the first pen that everyone sees, with horses, kids, and adults coming and going. After sitting there for an hour watching tack, I decided that we should just go home and get something done. It rained on Saturday so the place was packed. Of course, it was packed full of lookie loos. Even the tack was selling for even cheaper than normal. I’m guessing the recession and economy are starting to finally seep down to this area. It does make me very nervous to know that the recession is finally hitting so close to home. Guess I better start planning now to bring more oldsters into the rescue.

That was pretty much the extent of our adventures this weekend. I’m hoping this week will be calm and I can get some stuff done around the place. It’s supposed to be raining until Thursday but more rain for the weekend. I know we need the rain but I’d be much happier with a thunderstorm at night and bright skies during the day. I need the constant sun.