Animals are an integral part of our farm plan. We're planning on having cows, goats, dogs, maybe a llama. The fun and unexpected part are the wild animals. Deer and groundhogs are pretty common in Virginia. What I didn't plan on are some animals that can be a bit of a nuisance.
Take mice, for example. When we moved to the farm. we decided to live in the single-wide trailer that came with the land while our house was being built. Evidently the mice had been taking shelter there before we moved in, so much cleaning had to be done to make the trailer people-safe. What I overlooked was the oven. Our first night in the trailer, I decided to bake cookies, so that when my husband came home and the kids were getting ready for dinner, the house would really smell like home. What they got instead, was "baked mouse", one of the worst smells that you can imagine. It was so bad that we had to take the oven outside and put it on the front deck. At that point I had to ask myself, how did I arrive at the point in my life where I was living in a trailer with an appliance on the front porch?
The wild turkeys are nice. Driving my children to school one day, down the driveway, I saw 2 adult turkeys crossings the road. When we stopped, something fluttered on one side of the driveway...it was 5 little turkeys. The entire family still hangs around the farm.
And finally the opossum. He/she has been eating my cat food, and I should add, is much larger than my cats. The opossum comes up on the porch at night, and when I flick the light on, we look directly into each other's eyes. He could definately win a staring contest. When I shoo him away or slam the door, he give's me the "give me a break" look and continues eating. Needless to say, I am now in search of a slighshot. 4/29/07 update - Forgot about the cat food, so he's back.
5/3/07 Ok, so now I'm open to suggestions on getting rid of the opossum before I invest in a large water-balloon slingshot that I saw advertised yesterday. I have received one recommendation for a product called "Shake Away" that consists of dried fox urine. That's right. (Of course now I'm a little pre-occupied with how in the world it's collected.) |
