The Turkey Test

 I'm now getting up at 3:30 since the time has changed BACK one hour.  Really, it's my usual 4:30, meaning there's not a soul in sight and it's quiet as a mouse ... or a skunk as the case was for so long.  

 I expect them back any day now, but every time I check the game camera, there is nothing.  This time only six videos of not a flicker of movement.  I'm getting tired of this game ... are they there ... are they not.  Oh well, c'est la vie!

Today's adventure involved the turkey test.  Remember those two I picked up for $20?  I have to admit I wanted the Butterball turkey ... they are always amazing ... but I opted for the lesser expensive Valchris Farms.  That Butterball was priced at $70.00 ... for a TURKEY!!  I've never heard of Valchris before and now I wish I hadn't. 

Making a turkey dinner when you don't have anything but the turkey is a challenge, but I just kept telling myself this was Cooper's dinner, not mine.  My plan was to cook it beautifully (as practice for Thanksgiving), keep a few slices for myself and chop up the rest to freeze for the finicky critter I call my Best Bud.

In my defense, I haven't even turned that big oven on since last Thanksgiving.  I always use my little Breville for cooking everything.  It took a couple of tries to figure out HOW to turn it on.

I prepared the turkey with just a little butter and stuck it in the oven.  While it was cooking, I set about baking the snowballs cookies (or Russian Tea Cakes or Mexican Wedding Cakes) I whipped up the day before.  These are probably one of my all time favorite cookies.  Eating just ONE for desert is SO much better than eating a huge piece of spoon pie with whipped cream.

By the way, I'm down to one can of whipped cream, having used up one entire can in about a week.  Yes I tried it on the cookies but it just fell off on the floor.  Jessie (my mini mop) LOVED it!!

At long last it was time for the turkey to come out of the oven.  WOW!!  I even impressed myself!  This is the best looking turkey I think I have ever cooked!  Now to scrounge up something to make it LOOK like an early Thanksgiving dinner for me.

Gravy was the easy part.  Stuffing, a little harder to cut up bread, toast it and stir into a chopped up onion I stole from my OTHER dinner packages, along with a cube of butter.  No potatoes, but I did have some old broccoli I resurrected along with a can of cranberry sauce about to expire. 

Unfortunately as I sat down to eat, I discovered the turkey test was a failure.  Never EVER buy one of those turkeys.  Although it was well cooked and didn't taste TOO bad, every so often I would get a little piece of fat that tasted as rancid as could be.  

How could that happen?  It was frozen when I bought it and I thawed it in the fridge, washing it completely before putting it in the roaster.  It was still a little icy when I prepared it for the oven.

No matter I guess, because the puppies thought it was the best I've ever cooked.  They begged for pieces for an hour.  Maybe Cooper will end up with TWO turkeys for Thanksgiving this year and I'll have chicken. 

 

 

Since there no longer seems to be any critters in my back yard (thank goodness, but I'm not counting my chickens just yet), I wandered off to the local Game Refuge in search of the elusive blue herons.  Every year 200,000 flock to our area where dinner is served free of charge.  It's an amazing sight to see.

Unfortunately I was almost too late.  Pictures tomorrow.  In the meantime, meet Sneaky Pete.  These guys are fat as little piggies since they eat the same thing as the birds.  If you stop and actually look, you will see dozens of them in their frozen stance because if they don't move, you can't see them.  Sort of.

About those meals I've been getting from Every Plate.  The entire box of vegetables and meat is fresher than I can get in my local store and of much better quality.  They deliver on whatever date you want.  

Yes I would certainly order more, but many include pasta which isn't on my list of stomach approved items.  You can skip any week you want and change the delivery address too.  Although a tad cheaper than Hello Fresh, I do like Hello Fresh's recipes better, and so will probably return to that program.

It's VERY Weird

Apparently (at least so far) there were only TWO skunks inhabiting my back yard.  I'm sure Big Mama was the one doing all the damage ... or maybe it was Big Pappa.  There was not only nothing in the trap, but nothing on the video camera. 

This time there were 25 videos of zero.  Not even a bug flying in front of the camera.  So why, since it has a motion sensor, did it even turn on?  Three videos, all at different times, looked like this image.  Completely blurry with no movement whatsoever.  It's VERY weird.  I checked all of the videos this time and saw not a single movement of any kind.  It's a ghosty, I'm sure.  Maybe a Skunk Spirit.

 To go along with that, I think the kitty cats and the civy cats must have been BFF's.  I have not caught one single kitty on video since the last stinker was removed.  I even put out their favorite stinky tuna.  Nothing.  All the food is still there, not having even been touched.  It's VERY weird.

Now I'm bored.  With no excitement going on, I decided to whip up a pecan pie.  Easy peasy these pies, especially when you have a Marie Callendar frozen pie shell.  Doesn't it look beautiful?  And yummy?

Well it did until I cut into it and discovered the entire filling didn't set up.  I've been making these pies for 50 years and I've NEVER had one do that.  It was like pie crust in syrup.  I put it in the freezer to firm up.  Even that didn't help ... the center is now sticky, gooey and runny!  It's VERY weird.  Ladies and Gents, what did I do wrong?

The next Every Plate dinner I whipped up was the exact same recipe as the one before.  That's very weird too.  Although I do like fried food, this one had everything being fried.  That's a little too much grease for me.  It was okay, but I probably won't make this one again.
 

Time for a little walk to work off that spoon pie I ate.  Wasn't I surprised to find this!  Apparently they set up a kind of photo stop for Halloween, then changed it up for Thanksgiving.  I'm betting I'll see Christmas the next time I go for a walk ... yeah, I don't walk that often.

Last night I made the second dinner for this week.  That's weird, it's the EXACT SAME RECIPE for the meat I've used in 5 out of six meals.  I guess I better pay more attention to what I'm ordering.  They even had biscuits in the cutest little Pillsbury container that popped open like a pro.

At least this time I changed up the chicken for pork.  I even split it up into three meals instead of two, since that's how much food they give you ... LOTS!!  The carrots were horse sized and they gave me THREE!!  At least I'm not starving!  By the way, it's $38.99 for three meals, each for two people.
 

Today will probably be a good time to bring in all the chain link fencing panels, garden furniture and lounge chairs I have along the back fence.  If the skunks come back, I'll know EXACTLY what to do.  Now to check my game camera one more time.

 

 

All Quiet On The Western Front

 With great expectation, I walked the long trail to the skunk trap once again.  The door was still open, meaning no stinky stinker to relocate.  That's weird, even the extra kitty food I put out for the REAL kitties was still sitting there.

Maybe it was ghosts, I don't know, but there was 84 videos on that camera from that night.  I had completely formatted the card previously, so I knew it was legit.  How could that be?

I went through ten of them, only seeing a bug here or there flying by.  Having set the camera to medium sensitivity, I was surprised at that.  Then I found the culprit.  It began to rain big drops.  The camera took a 20 second video every time it saw a big drop.  

I checked a few more, just to be sure, but there were no critters visible.  I was a little disappointed, but relieved to know it seemed to be all quiet on the western front.

A couple hours later, I spotted this big guy sitting on the fence.  I wonder if that's why the kitty cats have disappeared. 

He flew down to the empty field behind a couple of times before finally coming up with dinner as he flew off to the tallest tree.  I had a thought here ... do you see where the Indians got their idea for their war bonnets?

 

 

I just happen to have one ... one of my favorite pieces ever.

 With no skunks to be looking for ... although I never trust that, I go out with my flashlight anyway just to be extra sure ... I zoned in on all the little birds eating their Denny's special in my back yard.  They seem to live in my rose bushes at night.  SO much better than skunks!!

 With no trips to Skunkville, I had to find something to do.  This is the last dinner from Every Plate.  That brown stuff on the left is Israeli couscous.  It's a pasta of sorts, round little white pearls of something that roll like marbles when you drop them on the floor ... like breaking your Grandmother's string of pearls.  

I tried to save as much as possible but those under the fridge were unrecoverable.  That little foray is what caused the veggies to be a little too toasty, rather on the black side.  The sour-cream-panko covered chicken was iffy at best.  This one gets an F ... FAIL ... head for the cemetery!!

 In the meantime, I've read up on skunk behavior.  It seems they are very particular about their territory and will probably find their way back.  RATS!!  I'm keeping the trap at the ready.  

 I'm also getting the State Trappers personal phone number.  They tell me he will come and get them for release, then return your trap.  That works for me.  It has been rather exciting, although somewhat dangerous since skunks carry lots of diseases, therefore the tarp, gloves and old clothes.  It was very satisfying to be the harbinger of a relocation and not get skunked ... at least THIS time!!

Curing The Hangover

 Has the skunk saga come to an end?  I don't know.  I sure hope so!!  At 5:30 am I was on the road to Skunkville to pick up my cage.  I tiptoed around the big tree so I could see inside from a distance.  Sure enough, Big Momma was gone.  

However ... she certainly was mad as all get-out and left her mark for me.  She had chewed a 10" hole in the bottom of the tarp, even though the cage wires are only one inch squares.  I had carefully laid my two open-the-gate strings along the top.  They were chewed off at the point of tie and tossed on the ground nearby.  No way she could have reached them without standing on her hind legs. 

Feeling rather smug about the whole affair, I went back home and retrieved my game camera.  There was nothing ... not even one video.  The batteries were dead as a doornail.  Better luck next time.

Just to be sure there were no skunk condos available in my back yard, I hired a tree service to come clear the hangover.  Not the boozy kind, but the tree limb kind from the neighbor's yard that hangs over clear to the ground.  You know, the one who NEVER trims them up or cleans up any of the tree trash. 

 I was nice enough to tell him I was having the work done, whereupon the first thing he said was the fence was ALL mine, ALL located on my property.  It was NOT a community fence.  Funny, that's not what the prior owner said.  

Anyway .... I was pretty shocked at the price I was going to pay ($1500) but there's more work than I could possibly do and their chain-saw-on-a-stick is much longer than mine.  I had it done ten years ago for half the price.

The crew showed up right on time and backed into the yard.  Ooooooh ... nice equipment I told them!!

 Especially that chain saw!!  This guy was the MAN!!  That thing extends to twenty feet, meaning they trimmed it to 30 instead of the 10 feet I was paying for.  The crew of five went straight to work not wasting a second.

 If you've got hangover, this is the cure.  They went from one side to the other, dragging all those huge limbs back to the shredder.  They even cleaned up all the dead branches and trash that had fallen between my steel panels and the wooden fence.  There were no breaks, no talking and no messing around.

 You can't quite see just how far up they went in this image, but I was happy as could be.  The shredder filled their entire huge truck to the brim.  Now there's absolutely NO place for a stinky skunk condo.

 This Old Gal was a happy camper.  They were done in 90 minutes and cleaned up every bit of tree trash.  Then they swept up the small pieces and used a blower to remove every bit of dust from my concrete parking pad for the rig.  These guys are getting a rave review from me in spite of the cost.  

Once they were gone, I reset the skunk trap.  I have to say it's pretty stinky at this point!!  I even left a nice chunk of kitty food for the REAL kitty.  This morning I'll pick up the game camera and see if there are any other interlopers near the corral.  

I have to admit I like the calm quiet morning with no fear of skunk-sprayed dogs.  Trouble is, it rained much of last night (boy did we need that) which probably kept everything at bay.  We shall see!!!

Well Well Well, Little Kitty!!

We all know this is my nemesis ... my Moby Dick ... the creator of chaos in my back yard ever since April and maybe longer.  Big?  Oh yes ... MAMMOTH I would say, something skin to the dinosaur age.

When I went outside and saw the trap was sprung, with no accompanying noise, I was sure I had missed the mark again.  Surely this is the big orange kitty cat.  I snagged the game camera for a look see.  

This time I had decided not to take any chances and completely wrapped the cage, even the back end viewing section.  The camera was my only witness.

Well well well little kitty kitty.  Take a look and see what I found.  It has taken me awhile to figure out why the camera isn't capturing everything.  It works off of movement.  The problem comes when black is against the black of night ... it doesn't see it.

OMG OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!   Look closely .... unfortunately the video is set for only 20 seconds with a 5 second delay before it tapes again.  I missed the MAGIC MOMENT when the trap slammed SHUT, but that's okay!  

 I did a crazy happy dance around the entire yard until I realized I had actually caught a mammoth skunk.  My heart began to race.  Now I have to do this all over again!!!  My shoulders slumped.  This must be the eighth deadly plague and it's landed in my back yard!!

 Of course my first move was to call my BEST FRIEND for a little help.  No answer.  He probably KNEW what had occurred.  The problem was he still had my safety blanket in his truck.  I scrounged around the garage and came up with a very old sleeping bag.  THIS will work just fine.

I ever so gently tried to pick up the cage to instantly hear tap dancing inside.  They stomp their feet before they spray.  Oh my goodness it's HEAVY!!!  I took a deep breath and slipped the black garbage bag over the door end in preparation for the odoriferous moment.   Nothing happened.  I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief as I walked the tight wire back to my truck.  

Good Heavens ... this thing weighs a TON!!  It took everything I had to lift it almost four feet onto the tailgate.  I held my breath and my nose, just in case.  Nothing ... whew!!  Quiet as a mouse, I wrapped her up in the sleeping bag.  Night night!!

The drive to Skunkville was slow and some idiot honked at me.  That made me jump!!  We rested after I arrived, hoping to settle any nerves, mostly MINE!  At last I slid the trap to the edge and lifted with all my might.  She ran to the back end, her weight slamming the trap onto the tailgate, whereupon I almost dropped her.  YIKES!!!

Talk about frayed nerves!!  She moved back and forth, making the cage tip one way, then another.  I put her down as quickly as possible and RAN.  Seriously, I needed to catch my breath after all that!!

I let her sit quietly while I contemplated the "opening".  I hoped to do it much faster than last time.  There would be no opening of the rear panel because I knew she wasn't going anywhere.  They think they are safe in a culvert and won't go out until dark.  That's called honing my skills. 

Finally I screwed up my big girl pants, took a big deep breath and quietly tiptoed up to the side.  There was no movement.  I unlatched the door and reached down for the catch to snap on and hold the door open.  PLEASE DON'T SPRAY ME!!!  

When the latch made a loud snap, I ran like a crazy woman to my truck, jumped inside and slammed the door!!!  On this occasion, NOTHING was a GOOD thing.  There was no movement at all.  Whoa Nelly ... thank you for small favors.    I drove off and left her to contemplate her new surroundings.

This morning I'll go back and retrieve the cage.  Am I setting it up again?  YOU BETCHA!!!  I'm on a roll and not taking ANY chances.  I think I've found my new calling.  I bet I can get $100 for every skunk I remove.  

Since I never saw the route the skunk took to get to the trap, I walked the back fence line.  Just to show you how persistent they are, this girl dug underneath the fence, then underneath a chain link fence panel for over 12 inches.  When she didn't get out in the yard, she turned 90 degrees and dug another 15 inches and moved a huge piece of concrete to come out from under the panel.  Good thing I'm more stubborn than they are!!

I seriously hope this is the end of the saga, but I have that sinking feeling it is not.  I've seen not two but THREE skunks in the past, roaming the neighborhood together.  There may be one more!!

Drowning My Disappointment

Just the thought of dealing with another skunk gives me the heebie jeebies.  I was so excited about the first one, but so apprehensive about the second.  Yes it's a big one!!!  I'm pretty sure that's Mama.  The very first encounter that sprayed Jessie was probably one of two smaller babies.  

With my triumph not lasting long at all, I decided to whip up something to drown my sorrows.  There's nothing like pumpkin cheesecake to do just that.  Smother it in whipped cream and it's even better.  It took my mind off that skunk completely for all of five minutes until it disappeared.

The recipe is an easy one ... google Cheesecake Factory Copy Cat Recipe.  Fitting, don't you think?  Cat as in civvy cat?  

 

With my sweet tooth satisfied, I gathered up all my hutzpah and headed out to the trap to see what I might have captured THIS time.  Nothing .... nada.  The door had not been sprung.  I brought in the camera to take a look.

Kitty kitty came back, eight times.  I think maybe he's a little wiser.  He walked all around the traps and snatched little pieces of food here and there, but didn't get caught.  The skunk never appeared in any of the twelve videos captured. 
 

Another piece of cheesecake, much smaller this time (honest) made up for not even SEEING the skunk.  Not that I want to.  It would make me happy if she just moved right on past this neighborhood.

With nothing to do, twiddling my thumbs finally got boring and I set off to Save Mart for groceries.  I was interested in turkeys for Thanksgiving and one to cook for Cooper's dinners.  He loves turkey.

 Although word got out that toilet paper was again in short supply since Target had run out completely, Save Mart had rows and rows of it.  We have three options here ... Walmart, Target and Save Mart.  Worst, worser (yes that's a word) and ok for groceries.  I grabbed a twelve pack since I knew I was running low. 

Next up, turkey.  Although I would love to have the FRESH one at $5.99 a pound (that comes to $71 for a lousy turkey, which basically would become dog food in my house) I chose to pass.  The next choice was breast only, which I would love because I never eat any of the other stuff anyway.  $45.00 for that one.  I kid you not.  As you can see, the price of food has skyrocketed.

Alas, I'm cheap.  I picked up the 2 for 1 deal .... two 12 pound turkeys for $20 TOTAL.  Not bad, even if they are tough as an old bird.  I'll just add an hour to the cooking time.  I may have go back and get two more, although I doubt they will fit in my freezer.

I know you are on pins and needles about what I might have trapped last night.  I am too, since my foray out to the skunk hunting grounds found the trap door to be SHUT.  I hear no scratching and digging, so I rather imagine I caught kitty again.

To be honest, I'm not all that anxious to go find out.  I'm not sure my nerves can take another skunk relocation.
 

Maybe I Celebrated A Wee Bit Too Early

 The Good News:

At 6:00 in the morning I drove over to the new skunk homeland to find the trap empty.  YAY!  It finally left and a big surprise to me, did NOT attempt to make the trap his home.  Probably because it smelled bad.  Something must have scared him because I could smell skunk more than before.  Not bad, but enough to know it was a skunk.

I wore old clothing and rubber gloves.  I wrapped the trap up and placed it on another tarp in the back of my truck.  No use taking any chances, even if the entire thing is already wrapped. 

Just for giggles, I had set up my game camera that night, knowing I wouldn't see him any more, a fact I intended to gloat over.  I laughed because, well,  HAHA I caught him.  Now all I will see is kitties, the house cat kind, right?

 The HORRIBLE News:

I had eight videos of that same orange kitty cat going back and forth.  He even stuck his entire head in the other smaller trap, but didn't get caught.

The next video SHOCKED me!!!   NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Okay, so I KNEW there would be more than one skunk.  OMG I HAVE TO DO THIS ALL OVER AGAIN!!!  I'm not sure my heart can stand the stress. 

 There's a loose board way down the fence line and apparently he or she came in that way.  Watch it smelling the ground ... probably looking for the baby I caught.  I'm only thinking baby because it appears to be much smaller than this one.  BIG SIGH.

I watched the next video with slumping shoulders and more big sighs.  Obviously I have my work cut out for me.  This is how it's been coming in and escaping all this time.  Big diggers these guys .. who knew?  

Although rather disappointed that my trial is not over, I'm still just as determined to rid my property of this menace.  I did some more investigation to find their territory is rather large ... two miles is about the max.  The second piece of good news is the new skunk homeland is two miles away with an irrigation canal between it and me.  

More Bad News:  The males will roam over THREE miles.  Anyone want to do a tail check and tell me whether I have a male or female??

 SO ... I reset the trap, repairing the tarp where it had pulled 6 inches of it through the one inch holes in the bottom wire.  That little bugger was STRONG to be able to do that.  In the meantime, I'm shopping for another piece of property further away.  The problem being I have to leave the trap 24 hours before I can pick it up.  

I shouldn't worry ... who the heck is going to steal a skunk trap that smells like skunk??   The saga continues.  I reset the trap and game camera last night.  We shall see what happens.

Sigh .........

 

 

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH!!!

 EEEHAWWWW

CAUGHT!!!!!

Well well well .... what do we have here???  The PREDATOR wins again, or at long last.  Yes, the entire time I was in Arizona, the interlopers were romping around my back yard having a field day.  That time has come to an end.  Although, I must say this is A skunk, but maybe not THE skunk.  

I couldn't stand it.  I snuck out in the dark and put my flashlight right on his head.  I chuckled and ran back in the house.  HAPPY DANCE!!   HAPPY DANCE!!

 Once it got light enough, I went back, very gingerly and quietly removed the board across the top and took this picture.  Yup ... that's a skunk alright!!

 I went back inside to await the 8:00 hour and a phone call to the County.  Exactly as I expected, they pawned me off on the State.  The State not only did not answer the phone, but they never called me back the entire day.  Guess I'm on my own.

I called everyone I knew, looking for recommendations on where to drop him off.  I tried bribery on several occasions, hoping to con someone ELSE into letting him go.  I guess I'm too softhearted.  He's so cute, I just couldn't kill him.  Lucky for me, the Pumpkin Patch answered the phone.  I was just wondering if I could dump the skunk in one of your orchards out of town.

A location was affixed, at which time I began to shake, rattle and roll.  OMG .. now I have to box him up, load him into the truck and haul him over there without scaring him into spraying.  You can't imagine my heart rate.

I gently flipped up the back panel (cut and set for the occasion) with nothing more than a few stomps of his feet.  Next I got a huge black trash bag to put over the door end.  I grabbed an old blanket to add extra protection to the truck bed.  Only your best friend would offer up his new Ford for the occasion, even if it was only to see the side show.

Even more gently, we opened the tailgate and I slid the cage to the edge.  The suspense was horrible.  I even donned old burnable clothes just in case.  So silently I picked up the cage and set it down here.
 

 My plan was to wait several minutes and let him calm down.  The cage was quiet.  I pulled the garbage bag off as my heart felt like it was coming out of my chest.  PLEASE don't spray me little dude.

 I heard laughter from the safety of the truck.  Now comes the moment of truth ... open the cage door and RUN LIKE CRAZY!!! 

 I very quietly ... like a lioness sneaking up on her prey ... made my way to the cage.  In a flash, I was able to open the door and hit the latch.  YES!!!!  The door is OPEN!!!  I ran faster than I've ever run before!!

Nothing.  We waited.  Nothing.  I had my video rolling, but the skunk never came out.  I banged on the cage a little, rocked it back and forth and finally got close enough to uncover the back.  There he sat, smelling the edges of the cage.  You're FREE you little brat ... get the heck out of here!!  No movement.

 We finally left him alone to contemplate his new surroundings.  

I returned at 3:30 in the afternoon.  The dang skunk was napping.  He raised his head just enough to see me, then went back to sleep.  WHAT THE HECK??  I threw a big stick at the cage.  He didn't even lift his head.

He has totally accepted this as his new home and refused to leave.  Hey buddy, I need that cage to catch your friends.  I made it a point to catch up with the Sheriff because I knew he had connections.  He said since they are nocturnal creatures, he probably won't leave until after dark, but if I catch another one, just call.  No problem there ... you're now on speed dial!!

I made one more pass by after dark and I SWEAR, that skunk is still happy as a clam ensconced in his new digs.  Now my problem is ..... what if he decides this is his new home and goes BACK to the cage in the morning?

The good news is he's gone and I didn't get sprayed.  HALLELUJAH!!!  Hopefully today I'll get my cage back just in case there are more roaming my castle grounds. 

 

A Little Diversion

Even big game hunters need to take a break from constantly thinking about stalking their quarry.  Being the predator is hard work, even when it's skunks you are tracking.

When I found absolutely nothing in my trap yesterday morning, I decided to concentrate on my second favorite hobby ... food!!  Quilts of course are first.

I had a lovely Marie Callender pie crust in the freezer and a pound of bacon.  That equates to quiche in my book.  This one is bacon and onion with swiss cheese and a little cheddar thrown in for good luck.  The cheddar worked because THIS one did not end up in the cemetery out back.  Wouldn't the skunk have loved THAT!!

 There was one relatively BAD thing I discovered along with that .... my oh my I'm turning into my mother.  What a shock THAT was.  See this huge piece of foil?  You can easily tell .... this was the THIRD time I used that piece, flattening it out on the counter and plopping it on top of the quiche so it wouldn't burn.

What a shock to my system when I realized this.  My mother saved every piece of tin foil she ever used.  I suppose that would be thrifty, but really?  She WASHED big pieces and reused them.  I can't even begin to tell you how many kitchen drawers were full of used aluminum foil.  I quickly wadded it up and in the trash it went!!

For my next magic trick, since I was getting pretty tired of Lean Cuisine, I scrounged the internet until I found Every Plate.  This is one of the least expensive food service companies.  The ways to order are endless.  I pick the dishes I want (all at $3.99 a serving) and they ship right to my door.  

I can upgrade any meal to premium for a few bucks more ... things like steak and shrimp ... but I've become a chicken girl.  Here's the recipe cards, which I will of course keep and reuse when I cancel the program.

 All the veggies were of excellent quality.  No picking through the brussel sprouts for the good ones, they were ALL good.  I actually love the surrounding cushion that I can reuse for packing my treasures.

At the bottom was all the meat, sandwiched between two big blocks of frozen magic that I suspect is water.

 They include absolutely everything but a little butter and oil.  Time to forget my stinky backyard nemesis and get cooking.  It actually worked, forcing me to think more carefully about how not to burn dinner.

 TA-DA!!!  It was a success!  The sweet potatoes were supposed to be mashed, but I prefer them baked along with the sprouts which are covered in three huge pieces of bacon.  As it turned out, this is really dinner for three or four, there was that much food from this recipe. 

Okay, truthfully, it was almost a success.  It came with a huge clove of garlic, which I love.  I guess I used five cloves instead of the two it called for, making it garlic Heaven.  Maybe a little TOO much Heaven.  If the skunk had been around, I could have killed him with my breath!! 

 And so I reset the trap last night and completely forgot to set up the camera, which I left out of sight on my desk.  RATS RATS!!!

You see this morning when I opened the door, I could hear something in the cage scratching and digging like crazy.  Could be a kitty, could be the skunk.  It's still scratching as I type.  I'm almost afraid to go look so I'm waiting for daylight.   

The suspense is killing me!!!

 

 

OH THE SUSPENSE .........

I waited as long as I could.  I knew something was in the trap, I just didn't know what.  When I could no longer stand the suspense, I went out with my flashlight and peeked inside.  RATS!!!  I'll let you watch the video before I blow it for you!

 Yup ... there was that huge yellowish gold kitty cat sitting there just waiting.  He really didn't even look at me.  My plan was to bang on the trap and scare him so he wouldn't come back.  I waited until daylight.  Trouble was, I felt sorry for the guy.  You may not know, but I'm a kitty lover too, as long as they aren't the black ones with white stripes.

I opened the door.  He went out so fast I almost didn't see him.  I banged on the cage as he disappeared over the fence.  I finally checked the game camera, hoping for some GAME instead of kitty cats.

I discovered I needed to change the settings, since it waited too long and didn't capture the actual capture!!

Next up ... ANOTHER friendly neighborhood cat.  I've never seen this one before.  Jessie has been exceptionally good at chasing kitties out of the corral.  Rarely do they enter, or so I thought.  This one was too big for that little trap.

 Sadly, that's it.  I did received a message from my neighbor, who has finally run into holes in HER back yard.  She found the tunnel dug under the fence and plugged it with rocks.  Trust me, I already know that won't work, as evidenced by the twelve holes in my other fence line.

I asked her to remove them so the skunk would continue to visit, in the hopes of slamming that gate on his flashy fluffy tail.  As of 3:00 this morning, he had not visited.  It's okay ... I'm VERY patient.  I'll be going out every single night and setting the trap and camera.

At some point I'll catch that bugger and have absolutely no idea what to do with it!!  I've thought about it over and over.  The challenge is to open the gate to release him and not get sprayed, thus the tarp cover.  I've been there before on the ranch.  I got sprayed by a skunk as he came out of a drainage pipe.  

It's bad ... just like you would imagine.  It smells like straight carbon monoxide from an exhaust pipe.  Made me sick as a dog in a matter of minutes.  I got washed down with the cattle sprayer.  I had to leave my clothes outside in the sun for five days before they could be washed.  No, there was no throwing them away ... we were poor.  I am NOT looking forward to another episode like that!!

Anyone notice tomorrow is Friday the 13th?  I'm not leaving the house, other than to check my trap.  It does seem the skunk comes around about every three days.  We shall see .........

 

The Trap Is Set!!!

HAPPY VETERANS DAY!!  BE SURE AND THANK A VETERAN FOR THEIR SERVICE, WHICH ALLOWS US OUR FREEDOM EVERY SINGLE DAY.

It was an interesting and fruitful day.  Wait until you hear THIS story.  First off, I finished off that garlic sourdough with a grilled cheese breakfast.  Mighty tasty.

Next was how to get to the repair shop and pick up my pickup.  I called everyone.  I really didn't want to add to my Pumpkin Patch mileage, but 3 miles would be nothing.  I finally called Prince Charming, but he was visiting one of his kingdoms out of town.  

You're not going to believe this.  Rather than have me walk, he called one of his employees to pick me up.  Now THAT'S Prince Charming.   At the repair shop, it was again .... the batteries.   $436 later, I was loving my drive home.  On the way, I may have discovered the problem.  

I have a trailer brake control hooked up (remnants of my beautiful horse trailer) that started to light up like a Christmas tree.  This may be the phantom I've been looking for.  I'll disconnect it and see what happens.  

 Now to check out the critter cam video and see who the trapeze artist is that ate all the cat food.  Here you go folks ..... my first "skunk".  I bet you already figured it out!!

Pay no attention to the time and date stamp.  I didn't set it up on the camera.  A darn kitty cat instead of the civvy cat I was looking for.  BUT WAIT ............  THERE HE IS!!!

 Of course I didn't have the camera tethered quit tight enough and it moved ... but THERE IT IS!  THAT DARN SKUNK!!

I made a beeline for the Tractor Supply store and picked up another trap.  In fact, I got two for the price of one.  I'm planning a huge celebration party when I catch it and you're all invited!!

While I waited for dark to arrive, since skunks only come out at night, I decided to whip up some soft peanut brittle.  I've never made it before, but I like a challenge.  First off I needed a double boiler to melt the peanut butter.

 

You're not going to believe my SHOCK when I reached in and picked up a very old bowl.  Something stuck to the bottom.  My brain went crazy.  What the heck?  Where did THAT come from??  Honestly, I have no idea, nor any memory of putting cash there.  I haven't used these bowls in probably five or six years.  

This made me feel SO much better about the truck, enough to pay for it and the new trap!  So everyone should go move all the bowls in their kitchen.  You never know!

 The soft peanut brittle turned out wonderful.  It's like eating the center of a butterfinger candy bar.  It just crumbles in your mouth.  YUM YUM!!

I spent the rest of the day setting up the traps.  I wanted the big one covered, in case I actually DO catch the skunk.  I don't want to get sprayed.  Of course you and I both know exactly what I'm going to catch.  A kitty, but the wrong kind. 

 My plan is to bang on the cage and scare the heck out of it so it (hopefully) won't come back.  Maybe the NEXT one I catch will be the black one.

A little suspense here ... both traps were sprung this morning when I went outside.  When it gets light out, I'll see what I caught and check out the game camera.  I'm SO EXCITED!!!

SKUNKS 54 -- NANCY a Big Fat ZERO!!

 I've invented many new words for the English language dictionary in the last few days.  Too bad I can't repeat any of them here.  I'm sure I would be thrown off the network.  The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow ..... no, that's not right .... the frost on the breast of the newly mown lawn, made it look like it had snowed the night before.  It was a chilly 30 degrees.

 

I checked the skunk trap, only to find the gourmet tuna I placed there was still intact.  Time for a new strategy.  KILL KILL KILL!!!!

But first, I called AAA to get my truck towed to my local repair shop.  After fifteen minutes answering questions their computer system asked ...  can't I just have a live person ... I received four emails telling me they would be there in 18 minutes.  

Ten minutes later, two more text messages told me they would arrive in FOUR minutes.  Yahoo!!  That didn't last long however because the next one I received said 25 minutes.  What??

At long last he arrived ... nice guy ... with one of those slide-ramp trucks.  I of course had to have a quick lesson in how it worked, since I just seem to gravitate to machinery.  My truck was loaded up and I followed him to the repair shop.  The diagnosis was dead batteries -- dead like I wish those skunks were.

With that done, I headed off on my second quest, to find a bigger piece of fabric so I could start on that quilt.  It was like being in Candyland.  Rooms full of bright colors and gorgeous patterns.  I came home with two pieces of brown. 

 I don't know what happened, because after that second stop light, my Jeep turned in to Taco Bell.  Just like Cooper ... SQUIRREL!! ... the picture of a grilled cheese burrito called my name.  When I unwrapped my new prize, it was not at all what I expected.  They just threw some cheese on the grill and put the burrito on top while it melted.  

What a greasy mess that was ... but I have to say it tasted pretty darn good.  The best part was not feeling ANY after affects of Taco Bell.

Once home, I went to work on the skunk problem, yet again.  As you can see, I covered up the first hole, so he just dug around it.  I happened to run into my neighbor (whose property the skunk goes through to get to MINE) and she said her research showed you could just get a garbage can, dump some food in the bottom and set a board up the side.  The skunk falls in and VOILA ... skunk jail!!

 To be honest, I had my doubts, but lets just give it a try for shitz and giggles!!  I formulated my plan.

This picture, taken at 4:00 this morning, gives you some idea of what I did.  I was laughing the entire time because I just KNOW there are two little sections INSIDE the can that a skunk could grab on to and crawl out.

I carefully laid out a chunk of gourmet canned cat food on each cross piece of the "ladder".  I put some on a back ledge inside the can and some on the bottom.  Just behind this is the skunk trap on the ground which I also filled with cheap (but gourmet) greasy tuna.  How can people eat this crap??  I removed the catch piece to let him get used to it before actually setting the trap.

 I also set up my game camera right in front of this hole.  I truly can't wait to see what THAT shows.  This morning with my flashlight, I checked out the garbage can trap.  OH LOOK!!  Every little piece of cat food was eaten.  Maybe I caught him?  I gingerly looked over the edge.  

I knew it wouldn't be there and it was NOT.  It had eaten every single tiny morsel of food I put out in the bottom of the can and crawled out!!   My first thought was to use a bigger can ... maybe my recycle bin.  Apparently this skunk has superior climbing skills!!  I never thought it would climb the "ladder" in the first place.

Then, to add insult to injury, he dug an ever BIGGER hole with much force to get out.  I'm sure that's because he ate so dang much he couldn't FIT through the FIRST hole he dug.  THIS hole is HUGE!!!

 So Nancy still has a BIG FAT ZERO, but a hard-headed never-give-up attitude. I'm going to the feed store today to see if I can get a bigger trap and of course another can of cat food.  Stubborn?  You betcha!!  

In the meantime, I also called a tree service to completely clean up the back fence line, just to make sure there are no skunk dens amid the brush.  I AM GOING TO WIN THIS WAR!!!  That skunk is DEAD MEAT!!!!!