Any one want to buy a big house in the woods?

Well I don’t know who’s winning – us or the raccoons. Caught another one and released him into the woods far far away but he really made a mess while in the cage. He managed to tip it over onto the rug during the night and tore a big hole in the carpet. So now not only do we have to replace the torn screen we have to replace half the carpet out on the porch. So far we’ve caught and relocated three raccoons, caught and released one dog, had two escapes and one who tripped the door on the trap while he was outside it reaching though the cage to get at the food. They aren’t stupid.  Last night someone ate the food but didn't trip the door - Bill said the trip plate had wads of carpet under it and that kept it from working. Maybe we should just let them have the back porch for themselves. We're going to replace the lower screens with Plexiglas when this is all over. 

The worst of this so far was yesterday. Well it had been coming for a few days. Every time we went out front we’d get a whiff of something really nasty. With the heat it got worse and worse. Something was under the front porch and it was no longer alive. CRAP Finally found a company in the phone book who would come out and crawl under there and remove it. ICK. Turns out – drum roll – it was a big raccoon. Maybe the one that managed to escape the cage twice. Cause he crawled under there and paid us back to the tune of $125! The guy that got it out said it was one of the biggest raccoons he’d seen. So now we’re waiting for all the stink to go away. He sprayed deodorizer all over the place to help some. So much fun living in the woods.

And another thing. Had a huge storm the other day. Lots of lightening, thunder, wind and rain. A big tree came down in the street just past our driveway and in the neighbors yard. We just had leaves and limbs all over but one of the bigger limbs blew into the bedroom window and managed to break it. Luckily it is double pane and only the outside pane broke. One more thing to fix. A one bedroom apartment with a plastic flower is starting to sound better and better to both of us.  Or maybe moving into the Alfa full time and keep on the move. Speaking of the Alfa – The refrigerator still isn’t working (while at the RV doc they fixed??? a recall issue) and the batteries that the RV doc just replaced are not charging. So we’re putting everything back in it and cleaning it up ready to travel then we’re making a list of what has to be fixed and taking it back to the RV doc. Then when we get it back we hope to go somewhere for a few days.

I finally just today finished painting the bathroom upstairs – well the walls. Still have to do the trim but will wait until the walls are really dry. Which may take months it been so humid here. 

Saw this guy out front going in and out of the birdhouse. Pretty.

Been working on my afghan have several of the squares sewn together then discovered I need to make one more square. Will do that today while watching race qualifying.