{"id":314,"date":"2011-05-29T21:08:45","date_gmt":"2011-05-30T01:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kb1awv.com\/?p=314"},"modified":"2015-06-15T08:09:41","modified_gmt":"2015-06-15T12:09:41","slug":"it-was-a-quiet-week-in-hope-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idlenot.com\/?p=314","title":{"rendered":"It was a quiet week in Hope Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Raccoon from 1849 illustration by M. Charles D’Orbigny<\/p><\/div>\n

Saturday, 04:23 pm.\u00a0 My neighbor out back is home.\u00a0 I can tell by the surging roar of his power washer.\u00a0 It must be at least 100,000 psi.\u00a0 I expect to see one of his wall studs to come flying overhead any moment now.\u00a0 The neighbor to the right was home about two hours ago.\u00a0 His fairly even chug-chug signature combined with fleeting sightings through the trees of some green and yellow creature makes me suspect that he was harvesting the hay \u2026 sorry, mowing the lawn \u2026 with his John Deere DIA-9000 lawn tractor.\u00a0 Neighbor left, Ed, was creating an even gasoline-generated hum at around 10:00 am, immediately after I treated the entire neighborhood to an hour-long Honda-powered lawn mower serenade.\u00a0 Eventually Ed came up the driveway, fully engaged power blower in hand, for a visit.\u00a0 He kindly blew away from the driveway the evidence of my recent lawn manicure.\u00a0 This was occasion for a couple of beers on the deck while we enjoyed some relaxing conversation.\u00a0 That was Saturday.\u00a0 Now Thursday was a different matter.<\/p>\n

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This is relatively clean compared to before I washed it. The new accumulation took one day.<\/p><\/div>\n

I started Thursday morning well enough. I used the computer to apply for a job (the third such application for the week) even before I went downstairs for morning coffee and breakfast.\u00a0 Next followed the daily walk up the drive to the mailbox where I deposited the latest Netflix movie that we had watched the night before.\u00a0 The driveway was a powdery green hue mixed with raggedy orange clumps, the result of pine tree pollen and oak tree flowers.\u00a0 Out came the big broom for a swift and vigorous sweep that eventually revealed that the driveway indeed still retained its original black color.\u00a0 Just when I thought all outside was well I spotted my truck.\u00a0 It was cloaked in a mass of oak florets that adhered to my burgundy paint finish by way of numerous pine sap droplets.\u00a0 There was only one thing to do but wash the truck.\u00a0 This included standing in the bed and brushing the roof, pulling out the 60- pound rubber bed liner, and brushing and flushing every inch of the vehicle.\u00a0 A clean truck must be driven to be appreciated so I took a quick jaunt into town and purchased some 100 grit and 150 grit sandpaper.\u00a0 The sandpaper was for the next project, finishing the old 1920\u2019s speaker cabinet that is on my workbench in the basement.\u00a0 That job, which went well, naturally flowed into working on my ham radio antenna mount.\u00a0 Two pressure treated 2 x 4\u2019s, one 2 x 6, and a 10 foot 1-1\/4\u201d galvanized pipe were spread out on the basement floor where I had left them the previous week.\u00a0 I consulted my drawings and marked off all the cut and bore points on the material.\u00a0 It took a while to get it right but I did succeed.\u00a0 The actual cutting and assembly was left for Friday (yes, I did complete most of it on Friday).\u00a0 Right around this time my stomach told me that it was past 11:30 am and thus time for lunch.\u00a0 Lunch was followed by rest time, otherwise known as reading a library book on the iPad. You can imagine my surprise when the doorbell rang at around 2:30.\u00a0 Picture this: We live in the middle of nowhere!\u00a0 Almost nobody comes to our house unless they are wearing a brown uniform and carrying an electronic invoice pad.\u00a0 We were not expecting any mail order merchandise (not this week, anyways). I told my wife that I would answer the door (I get to do all the neat stuff).\u00a0 It was a young man of about 12 years old.\u00a0 He had left his mom sitting in the SUV that was now parked in the middle of our driveway (glad I swept today!).\u00a0 I was all prepared to donate to the local Pop Warner Baseball League or purchase some school band giant candy bars (I love those things!).\u00a0 The last time a kid came to the door it was getting dark outside and he was lost and in tears \u2026 we had to go get his mom that time.\u00a0 This was going to be different.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a sick raccoon walking through your yard\u201d he blurted out.\u00a0 Introductions were not necessary, it was an emergency.\u00a0 My wife and I went out to meet the young man\u2019s mom and she affirmed that a sickly raccoon was making a random and slow traverse of the neighborhood.\u00a0 She was afraid that it might be rabid (a very valid concern in this area) and wanted to alert us.\u00a0 My wife and I went out and joined the crowd at the street.\u00a0 There were now two moms, one grandmother, and at least 6 assorted children (mostly inside SUV\u2019s) clustered around our curbside mailbox.\u00a0 If you add in my wife and me, it was a regular convention.\u00a0 We had no idea there were so many people in our neighborhood!\u00a0 Names and greetings were exchanged while we all watched the wandering raccoon.\u00a0 He was at least a 25 pounder.\u00a0 His movement was that of a drunk, swaying first to the left for a few feet and then making a course correction off to the right for another random 25 feet or so.\u00a0 First he was in the street and then in the yard of my neighbor across the street.\u00a0 Then he was back on our side again.\u00a0 911 had already been called and we were awaiting the arrival of the police (DEM does not\u00a0respond to such an event\u00a0and apparently the local animal officer was not available\u2026 small town).\u00a0 As the clock moved along so did the raccoon.\u00a0 We were now afraid that we might lose sight of him.\u00a0 That would not be good.\u00a0 I got a milk crate to bag him with.\u00a0 I then decided that it was severely undersized.\u00a0 My next choice was a large green paper recycling bin (all paper and cardboard are suitable, pizza boxes excepted).\u00a0 As the animal was moving into the woods I approached him quickly with the bin.\u00a0 He suddenly turned towards me when I neared his back.\u00a0 It was either pounce or be bitten.\u00a0 I rammed the bin home on top of him and sat on it.\u00a0 The bin shook enough to tell me that there was no way I could let go and walk away.\u00a0 Two of the kids retrieved large rocks from my yard (the 30-pound variety; strong kids!) and I placed these on top of the bin.\u00a0 The police officer arrived a few minutes later.\u00a0 He said that he was it.\u00a0 No animal officer\u00a0or DEM person to be expected.\u00a0 As I removed the bin the officer took aim with his 22 Marlin rifle.\u00a0 The raccoon seemed to revive a bit and took off faster than expected.\u00a0 It took two shots to bring him down.\u00a0 Our crowd dispersed, all of us now a little more like a neighborhood because we had helped each other.\u00a0 I had to promise to do the burial right away and to avoid touching any blood.\u00a0 This I did.\u00a0 It just so happened that this was the first day it was over 75 degrees in months and so I enjoyed some more exercise for the day.<\/p>\n

Before everyone went home one of the young men volunteered that this incident was not all that uncommon on our street.\u00a0 Two years earlier, almost to the week, one of the boys that was in the SUV had been attacked on the way to the bus stop by a fisher cat<\/a>.\u00a0 He was only six years old at the time.\u00a0 The quick intervention of his mother, a fellow student, and another neighbor resulted in his getting away with scratches, bites, and eventually several stitches on his leg.\u00a0 That was not a quiet day either.\u00a0 Before we all broke up my neighbor from across the street volunteered that one of the two or so bear sightings in Rhode Island happened in her yard when her now adult son was approached by a mother bear guarding her cub.\u00a0 My wife did not believe me when I later told her of that incident.\u00a0 Now we listen more carefully to the sounds coming from the woods at night.\u00a0 And yes, we are getting to know and like our new neighbors.\u00a0 It is going to be an interesting summer.<\/p>\n