Skunks!

Brook reports from New Hampshire: I suppose that with living on a farm comes with some inevitable problems, such as having to deal with the skunk that  made a haven for itself under my 200 year old barn. My third attempt at trapping him worked. (The first attempt the bait probably wasn't placed correctly and he/she got a free lunch. The second time, a heavy snow fall probably sprung the trap.) I used peanut butter and marshmallow as bait, which worked well. This morning the medium-sized skunk was huddled up inside. Per the instructions, I threw a dropcloth over the trap so as to not get sprayed. Then I started gagging from the smell, so I retrieved my respirator mask. I put on the big rubber boots that mom/Jerry gave me for Christmas and carried the trap to the far end of my six acres and crossed the brook and the bottom of my land (I'm told that the skunks won't cross water.) I tipped the trap upright to open the door, then laid it flat, and about 30 second latter, Pepe sauntered out and started following the brook away from my house. Hopefully, I carried it far enough into the woods that he won't find his way back.

     Sue adds:  Shortly after he moved to New Hampshire, Brook reported seeing a skunk with a whole line of cubs (kits? Skunklings?) crossing the road in front of him, while a fox watched warily from the side of the road.  I told him that dealing with skunks was getting to be a family tradition. When his grandparents Vake and Milly built their little house into the hillside at Coos Bay, OR, it had a daylight basement with an exterior entry.  The skunks moved in, but they were only a problem when they tangled with the tomcat. Milly learned to knock on the basement door and to wait a minute before entering, to give the skunks notice and time to scurry out of sight. That usually worked, but it was still a problem when the skunks chose to hide on the shelves where Milly kept the canned fruits and vegetables that she needed to retrieve. Twenty years later, when Vake and Milly built a much fancier house in Dunes City, OR, in one of the first weeks they had moved in, a skunk got into the basement and tangled with the tomcat. There was no remedy for the stink except to turn off the heat pump that would distribute odor throughout the house, open the windows and doors, and let the wind blow through. 

The logo illustrating this post is from the Lockheed “Skunkworks,” the research and development facility where Jerry worked for so many years.