(no subject)

[which_chick]

I picked more raspberries this morning. I have about three quarts of them now, been throwing them in the freezer until I decide what I want to do with 'em. They made an assload of raspberries this year -- some years they do better than others and this year, despite being on the dry side, was apparently good for raspberries. Now, I don't want to get into the my raspberries make more than yours do competition because I'm pretty sure I'll lose. Joe's raspberries are prolific as hell, at least that's the impression I got when he called me up the other week to find out how many raspberries one would need to make a pie out of them. (A normal-sized pie takes five cups of fruit.) This was after he'd thrown some at the neighbors and so forth. Apparently he's drowning in red raspberries over there in Mt. Wolf. This happened a couple of weeks ago at his house with strawberries.

Judging from observed results, I'm moved to note that anyone wanting to grow red raspberries should give the cultivar Heritage a whirl. It grows like a weed under mild neglect -- his patch is continually threatening to eat the shed at the back of his yard. The fruits are large, the canes vigorous... right, damn it, I'm jealous of his raspberries. *sigh* I have raspberry envy. I'm not saying that my raspberries are lame. They're not. I like 'em a lot, honest... but his are very alluring.

I think he should learn to make jam. It's not like that's difficult. Recent experiments with strawberries have led me to believe that one can make a quite tolerable fruit spread item by cooking down fruit a third (by volume -- if you start with three cups of fresh fruit, cook until you have two cups of cooked fruit) and then adding an equal amount (by volume) of sugar. In our example, you'd start with three cups of fruit, cook-and-mash until you have two cups of stuff, add two cups of sugar, and then cook the lot until it's suitably thick. The commercial pectin stuff (it makes jelly and jam set up, the most common brand in these parts is Sure-Jell) is designed to give you a maximal volume of jelly or jam from a minimal volume of fruit. Sometimes, yield isn't what you want. Sometimes, getting the hell rid of the damn fruit before it rots is what you want... and yield isn't as important as using up a volume of fruit in a hurry. Interestingly, when you go into making-preserves with the intent to use up fruit instead of the intent to generate huge yields, you come up with substantially better-tasting stuff.

Also, there is a skunk living under my house. This is somewhat annoying because the reek of skunk rises up from underneath the floorboards on occasion. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to get rid of it that don't involve going into the (dark, probably contains snakes, has at least one skunk) crawl space with a firearm?

Comments

[sara-merry99.livejournal.com]

If you have any left over jams of any sort, we'll take those off your hands. :)

As for the skunk--maybe one of those live trap things. Though I'm not sure what you'd use to bait a skunk--maybe peanut butter, it seems to work on most things.

[ornery-chick.livejournal.com]

Cat food, the wet kind, is like a skunk magnet.

[ornery-chick.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to let you know the flower starts arrived today and that I am quite grateful. I'm planning to plant them around the base of the carport now that it is cleaned out and nice.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm glad they didn't get lost in the mail. I hope they do okay for you. Remind me when fall (October) gets here and I'll dig you some yellow daffodils and pheasant eye narcissus.

[ornery-chick.livejournal.com]

Hey, would you like some LUSH sample soaps? When I sent off for my order of hair henna, they threw in a double handful of soap samples, and I have doubles on Rock Star, Bohemian, and Sea Vegetable. I know you've mentioned liking girly soaps, and I've yet to discover anything girlier than Rock Star.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

Hook me up with the girly soaps! If you've got extras, I would love some. I'll email you my mailing address if you need it but I'm pretty sure I stuck it on the package. My given name is Jessica.

Can we see pictures of the hair henna results when you get there? I'm not very brave regarding the color of my own bountiful mane o' glory, but I like looking at the results of other peoples' bravery.

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

Be careful with live trapping skunks. They're the main rabies vector in this country, and I'm doubting you've had your immunization.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

We've had a furious run of rabies in this county and the next one over so far this year. I have a positively negative amount of interest in getting close enough to a skunk to be bitten, scratched, or sprayed by the damned thing. Beyond the rabies issue, trapping a skunk in a nonlethal way, where I'd have to get near it and/or handle it... that struck me as a recipe for misery. It's not on the list of possible solutions I'm willing to attempt.

I should have been more clear at the outset, but better late than never: Any interaction between me and the skunk is going to be the kind of thing where I put out bait and sit quietly in my house with a firearm aimed out a cracked window and when the skunk is engrossed in the bait, I'm going to shoot it dead. Once I've shot it dead, I will probably sneak up on its corpse and poke it from a distance with a shovel to be sure it's dead. Then, barring further movement, I will shovel up its corpse and bury it across the road so that I don't have to smell it as it rots.

There will be absolutely no skin-to-skunk contact. None. I'm quite good with a shovel. I'm also remarkably uninterested in the ongoing life of any skunk that is trying to live underneath my house and pretty sure that skunks are small enough to kill with a .22, which is what I've got at my disposal.

[ornery-chick.livejournal.com]

They are definitely small enough to bump off with a .22. That's what my dad always uses.

I'm still thinking a bowl of wet catfood (assuming you don't have barn cats who will rise to this bait as well) would probably be a big draw. I know it will pull in raccoons like crazy.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

We have feral cats but they're pretty shy. I don't have a barn or barn cats at my house -- the ponies live elsewhere partly for my convenience and partly because of liability issues (Children of stupid summer people. My propensity for flighty, nervous, less-than-sane horse critters.) better avoided.

I do have the two housecats, Tumnah-the-favored and Tine-the-less-favored. However, they come when called and will be locked in the house for the duration of the skunk project, should it come to that. Right now, since I've been home for two days straight, it's been all quiet on the skunk front. Perhaps the skunk didn't like ten hours of Hikaru no Go and has moved on? One can only hope.

How to terminate the skunk (w/ extreme prejudice)

[ardvaark99999.livejournal.com]

1. Set out a bowl of cat food in a location to the rear of your house. Try about 20 feet away.
2. Place the food bowl so that the firing line from your kitchen window is away from the neighbors. As much as you hate doing the last, do it anyway.
3. Refill the food bowl for several days.
4. Leave trails of food from the bottom of the skirting where the skunk might be likely to be hanging out over to the food bowl. Not too much, just enough to give the skunk the right idea.
5. Get a pair of hearing protectors. This is vital, since you will be shooting from indoors. This will be LOUD. Safety glasses might not be a bad idea, either.
6. A shotgun would be best, preferably a pump. I have both 16 and 12 gauge flavors. The 16 would be a little less heavy on your shoulder. A rifle is not the gun for this job, esp., since you will be shooting something about 20-40 feet away on rocky ground.
7. Leave your window ever so slightly open.
8. Wait.
9. Make sure you kill it, or it will run under the house to die. Obviously, this would be rather unpleasant. You will have three shots with the shotgun before it needs to be reloaded. If you hit it once and it does not move (other than probably rolling from the impact), I think you should wait in the house for about ten minutes. Maybe plug it again and wait another ten minutes. Reasons: (1) rabies (2) rabies (3) a not-quite-dead skunk should be allowed to empty its bladder before you approach it. Hitting it twice with a shotgun will help this process along.
10. Have a bucket and a shovel ready for moving the carcass.
11. You may wish to dig a hole for the skunk in advance so that it can be buried immediately. It will smell rather unpleasant, obviously.
12. I suspect that Redneck Claus may put a 16 gauge shotgun in your closet this weekend, along with a box of shells. No need to hang up a stocking. Cookies and milk might be nice.
13. The evening of termination should probably fall during the week to prevent excitable summer people from wondering why you are shooting off a shotgun (twice) in the middle of the night. They might want to "help" thinking there's trouble and come investigating. You don't want that.

OTOH, maybe you do want the summer people to think you shoot off shotguns in the middle of the night for no reason. Unfortunately, next to the smoking gun, there will be a very dead skunk (i.e. "the reason), and there's just no hiding a skunk that's been shot with a shotgun. And it's the Crown's skunk, after all, even if it is living under your house.

If some asshole calls the game warden, tell him the skunk was acting funny, and you were scared of rabies, and you were fearful for your cats' safety. Call tumnuh "Fluffy" -- it'll help. Demand that they test the skunk for rabies, and offer the warden the bucket to take the skunk in. Do not offer a lid. The story is all the truth, of course...skunks do act funny. Ever see Bambi? Flower was fucking hilarious. Scared of skunks with rabies? Not a hard sell this year. Try to move the food bowl before he gets there, of course.

Of course, this is only offered as humorous advice.