Pissed opossum, havahart trap, eating the old and useless, Retail FAIL

The opossum hunt is back on. It took me a while to find  the small havahart trap.  Like so many other things I have tried to purchase these days .... it was unavailable to me in the brick & mortar world. ATTENTION: To all contemporary  retail  based corporations. Its not that  consumers are not buying.  Its that you are not selling.  Your business model is  WRONG!   Times are a changing! And you are not keeping up!

Ok ! Got that out of my system.

Now for Opossum.......... 

I put the  girls  to bed early and set up the havahart trap.  It didn't take long.  Jimmy and I watched a movie and went to check the trap and there was opossum #1, his cute little fingers desperately trying to reach the latch and free himself.    I couldn't leave the poor thing in there all night so we grabbed the keys and drove down to the local park and let him go.  We came home, reset the trap and went to bed.   This morning we woke up to opossum #2 .  This one spent the whole night in  there and he was pretty pissed by the time we let him go   in the same spot as his sibling.  Tonight we go for opossum #3.  Hopefully he did not learn from watching his  family  disappear  one at a time.    Jimmy has been singing  'Born Free' nonstop ever since we started this process.

It had to be done though.    Right now they are tiny and cute, but  a few months from now they will be full grown and  stealing eggs and keeping the chickens up at night.    Hashtag  keeps trying to  protect the other chickens from them and I am afraid one of them will kill her if they are allowed to stay.

Hashtag news: She no longer has her special  escape pen. She is big enough now to be in the pen with them.  One of the reds is seriously bullying her.  That same red is on death row and doesn't know it.  She is  at least 5 years old this year and possibly older.    She is also the loudest  and the one that calls for Jimmy and I for no reason. She thinks we should just sit outside and keep her company.  Her egg production is way down. So, the cranky  old hag who doesn't produce anything, bullies the youngster, and demands her own way in everything, despite her lack of contribution, will make the ultimate sacrifice  in about a month.  Moral of this story?:  When you are old and useless.... it might be a good idea to make   sure everyone  likes you so they don't decide you aren't worth the trouble.

Pissed opossum in a havahart trap

Pie making tips, sacrificing virgins, Pumpkin killer, Seattle gardening challenges.

I made a peach pie yesterday! It was BEAUTIFUL! But like so many pretty things  it was  less than perfect on the inside.    It was runny and not sweet enough.  Today I found a great site with pie making tips and  next time Jimmy asks for peach pie I will consult here first.  http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/bakingtips.piesandtarts/PiesandTarts.cfm

I'm not going to fill this blog with whining about my failed pie. I'm just gonna make another one and fix the problem. 

Gardening in Seattle has been a challenge this year.   But well worth it.  Our cooler weather vegetables like snow peas and broccoli  are rockin' it.  Tomatoes?  Well....  we may need to sacrifice a virgin to the tomato gods  because even with cold frames we don't have a single tomato yet.

Our cold framed cucumbers are doing well enough that I was able to put up 9 jars of pickles yesterday.  Extra hot and spicy.

I was going to brag about my pumpkins that I put in the front yard where the   'now  firewood' pine tree was growing.  But Jimmy hired the 16 year old neighbor kid to mow the front lawn and he mowed right over the trailing vines.  I know the kid resented actually having to earn the $10 for 1/2 an hours work but did he have to take it out my beautiful pumpkins?  Everyone else can keep praising the  honor roll student who is destined for great things, but I know who he really is! PUMPKIN KILLER!  What's next?  Daisies and then small animals?   I've got my eye on that boy.... He doesn't have me fooled!