The surest way to find a lost package of seeds is to order a new one.
The seeds of two of the three varieties of tomatoes I intend to grow this year are planted. I am still looking for package of seeds for the third variety. If I don't find them I will buy a couple of plants of a large, "slicing" variety at the local greenhouse.
Two of the four varieties of peppers are showing no sign of germinating. On the plus side, they are not getting moldy, either.
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| I drove by this 1.5 acre field about a week ago. I counted 35 deer feeding in it. |
I killed the first woodchuck of the season on Thursday.
We are over-run with rabbits. I could have shot five of them today but it is Easter so they got a pass.
I am making a trial-run of a new kind of bait for raccoons. One of the outdoor forums I visit had rave-reviews for spouted corn (soaked overnight and then left in the bucket until it is pushing roots), re-wetted and then sprinkled with dry, strawberry flavored gelatin desert. Supposedly it is like crack cocaine for hogs, bears, raccoons, large bucks, possum, wallabies, leprechauns and carp. I made some bait and put it in a five-gallon, rectangular bucket that used to hold kitty-litter.
Quicksilver will be showing up earlier starting tomorrow. The quality of the fiction will suffer since I have been using the 5:00-to-6:00 to crank it out. I have two installments roughed out. I enjoyed writing Monday's installment. Wednesday's installment was painful to write.
I WAS GOING TO ASK ABOUT COON BAIT. I missed #10 last night. They may be needing a change up in bait. I can't believe they ignore salmon cans.
ReplyDeleteThere is something to be said for feeding them a couple of nights before setting the body-grip trap.
DeleteThey love my compost pile, eggshells seem to be a particular favorite for the raccoons in my neck of the woods.
DeleteOh yeah, the 'missing' item will show up as soon as you buy a replacement.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were over run with snowshoe rabbits a couple time we dressed then and accumulated them in the freezer until there was enough to put to boil in the stock pot. Strip the meat off the bones and can in pints. Makes of good chili.
ReplyDeleteDog proof trap and mini marshmallows. Cheap and easy.
ReplyDeleteI concur with the mini marshmallows, but I used a live trap. Besides raccoons, it also works for Possum.
DeleteOne summer I set a live trap for racoons outside my chicken coop on Friday and Saturday nights (I had to work every other day of the week).
ReplyDeleteI caught 30 of them using dry dog food as bait. I let them loose 3 miles away across a main highway and across the river.
A guy I worked with told me I should put on a thick heavy glove and take them out and chop off their tail so I could tell if the same one was coming back. He wouldn't show me how, so I just tagged the tails with some spray paint. None of them came back.
sam
I use both "dog proof" traps and live traps. have used canned cat food in the box traps, and some bait pellets labeled "Raccoon Delight" in the dog proof. Got about 15 last year between traps set outside chicken coops, and 2 caught in the act in the chicken house. About the box traps-the old "Haveaheart" one worked well, but one I bought from a farm store, the trigger isn't designed well and they often just steal the bait from it.
ReplyDeleteYou can bend the trigger to make it more sensitive. I had to do this on the new ones.
DeleteIn my gardening endeavors, I strive to avoid wholesale slaughter of the local animal population.
ReplyDeleteI figure, 'hey, as a human, shouldn't you be able to easily outwit these things?', and sure enough, I always am.
Fences, barriers and repellents cost more than bullets, but for ME, it's worth it.