Prairie View

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Animal Tales and More Important Events

Life on our little property has trended toward the wild and crazy side, of late.  It involves pesky wildlife more than frisking senior citizens. 

Squirrels
Hiromi likes them.  "It,"in this case, since we've seen only one at a time.  We wonder where it came from, since the nearest trees are nearly a mile away.  Did this one really run all the way over here from a neighbor's yard?  No Barney to chase him off, so the squirrel has his way with the bird feeders.  When a gable-type roof rotted and blew off one of our feeders, Hiromi decided to replace it with a Walmart feeder with a copper-colored metal top over a clear cylinder-shaped feeder.  The squirrel has left that feeder alone. 

Sparrows
Everything has left that feeder alone.  When Hiromi set it on the ground in the middle of where the sparrows regularly congregate to flutter and feed, even the sparrows stopped coming to any of the feeders.  For now we're hoping that familiarity will breed comfort, not further contempt.  Silly birds.

Mice
Yes.  Inside the house.  Well almost.  Inside the utility room.  "Triple homicide," Hiromi announced happily after one foray to check and empty the traps.  Today it was "double homicide." They have indeed been unusually cooperative with our murderous intentions.  I've never ever heard of catching three in one snap of the trap.  We've lost track of how many we've caught in the last 48 hours or so.  There have been two or three traps set all the time, and we've emptied them all several times a day.  That is, Hiromi has emptied them.  I go only so far as to check the traps periodically.  I think the cat food and the bird seed in paper bags out there draws mice like a magnet.  They  must have been multiplying, since some of the mice we caught were definitely juveniles.  My best guess on number of mice caught is 12 or 15. 

Skunks
These encounters have been the most stress-inducing of all.  We'd been getting whiffs of skunk scent occasionally and seen fresh dirt where something was digging under concrete slabs, etc., but last Wednesday things escalated fast. 

The other morning when my sister Linda wanted to borrow a canning kettle, Hiromi obliged by retrieving it from the cave cellar where our canned goods are stored.  He brought it up and she went her merry way while Hiromi returned to the cellar to place some empty jars on the shelves.  While he was there he smelled a faint skunk smell, and then soon, a more powerful smell.  He was also hearing some rustling in the stairwell that opens into the main part of the cellar in one corner.  When he walked over to investigate, he saw a furry black and white body moving about in the dirt behind the open stairway--which was his only escape route out of the cellar.  He pondered the options for a moment and then decided his best bet was to go up the steps at a measured pace, trying to avoid alarming the skunk.  After he had made it out safely, from the top of the stairs, Hiromi saw the skunk walk right down the stairs into the main part of the cellar from its stairway hideout.

He had briefly considered hollering out to me to bring him a gun, but he heard me drive off to school, oblivious to his predicament.  I think I'm glad he didn't have a gun in his hand while he was down there, and glad that he didn't holler, for that matter. 

Hiromi next called Vincent, the community skunk  musk extractor, to ask for advice.  Vincent recommended that he just leave the door open and hope the skunk leaves on its own.  After I got home and heard what had happened, we decided to spread a layer of flour on the top landing in hopes that we could see footprints leading out, thus determining when it was safe  to close the cellar door.  That flour layer never did reveal anything, but yesterday Hiromi finally had the time and motivation to check the cellar.  No skunk.  Whew!  Or is that Phew!?

Hiromi threw all his clothes into the washer and did some emergency laundry.  Even his shoes needed washing.  I wasn't here to incorporate some of the odor absorbing methods I had used with washing clothes from Dwight's burned house, so he did the best he could with multiple washings using regular soap. 

Yesterday Hiromi discovered that the frame on which the cellar door rested while closed was missing its bottom piece, so there was a narrow opening there.  Also, the honeysuckle growing rampantly in the dirt on top of the cave cellar had overgrown the long edge of the door where it opened, so some of it got caught when the lid came down, keeping it from closing all the way.  That must have given just enough room for the skunk to squeeze through at the bottom of the frame.  He installed a two-by four to complete the frame, and trimmed back the honeysuckle vine.  Problem solved, we hope.

Great Horned Owl
I haven't seen this guy recently, but I've been hearing him.  I had hoped that he was cleaning up on the skunks around here, but if so, he had obviously missed at least one.

Bobcat
Wednesday evening when our small group gathered at LaVon and Twila's place for a fireside chili supper and taffy pull, It was a lovely, brisk, clear, and fun evening, in gathering dusk, in view of a gently glowing sunset and then a sparkling, starry sky.  Lowell's family saw a bobcat on their way to LaVon's house.

The most exciting thing I saw on my way to their house was the Oatney Farms crew and equipment busily bringing in the soybean harvest.  A tractor and grain cart on the road unloading into the grain trailer on a semi allowed no space for me to pass. I waited happily and watched the combine churning along in the field nearby.  Farm activity is close to my heart, and I know something of how much work and investment has gone into getting the crop to this stage.  I'd be a real chump if I complained about a small travel delay when the farmer's return on investment is finally almost within reach.

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Many far more momentous events than animal tales have taken place recently.  Last weekend I attended a wedding (Frieda and Christian's), a funeral (my aunt Fannie Miller--Mrs. Mahlon), and an ordination (Dwight Miller was chosen by lot to be our new bishop). 

In the past few weeks there have been three deaths in the Smith family--Hiromi's sister Chee's family--for her, a sister-in-law, and daughter-in-law, and a great-granddaughter.

Yesterday we had a Skype conversation with our son and his family in Asia.  Arwen read one of her books to us.  She will be five next month. Her other grandparents are planning an extended stay in Asia, leaving early in November and staying till around Christmas.

There's another grandbaby expected next April.  This one will either break the single-gender streak in our sons' families or be the fourth member of a future Iwashige Brothers quartet. Either way:  wonderful!

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Hiromi is busy pickling the fall harvest of Japanese vegetables--leaf mustard (takana pickles), Chinese cabbage (kim chee), and daikon (takuan).  He routinely shares them with family and a few others who will enjoy them.

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After feeling his toe grow more and more sore throughout the day Friday, Hiromi discovered when he got home that he had an infected ingrown toenail.  He's been soaking it regularly in Epsom Salts water since then and it feels much better.  He expects to see a doctor some time this week to find out if further treatment is needed. 

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Our youth group had their annual retreat this weekend.  With a number of the ministers gone, and several other families missing, it was an unusually small crowd.  LaVerne and Gary were in Oklahoma (Zion had communion), Arlyn was speaking at the Word of Life Church Camp weekend, and Julian was at our young people's retreat. 

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Yesterday was the second day since school started in the middle of August that I have been able to stay home for an entire day.  Often I had to return to work at school on Saturday.  I'm still working at whittling down my work week to more reasonable hours.  Others are helping, and I'm grateful. 

I guess "reasonable" is a matter of perspective.  A 31-year-old's death from overwork recently has focused attention on a common problem in Japan.  She had worked 160 hours of overtime in the previous month.   

The system and the individual both carry some responsibility in the workplace.  Figuring out my responsibility as an employee is the main thing I need to focus on.  Others have more responsibility for figuring out the system.



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