Eviction Notice

As I mentioned a few days ago, a skunk has taken up residence in our back yard, under our rear deck, and Luna and Gary take great umbrage to this. Someone had to go, and I decided it was the skunk. I already had plans that would cover over his little hidey-hole once and for all, but being the gentle hearted man that I am, I didn't want to cover it over with him inside. I had considered a trapping service, but the $500 fee was a bit of a put off, so I decided to slowly open the planks on the deck in an effort to scare the little bugger out, at which point I would seal every back up and send his forwarding address to the post office.

The weather cooperated by giving me a gentle drizzle to work with. One by one, I backed out the screws from the decking (in retrospect, I'm SO glad I used screws instead of nails). After opening up enough sections, I'd shine a light down inside and VERY carefully poke my head in.. ready to retreat at any sign of activity. Of course, there were what seemed to be hundreds of squirrels frolicking in the yard, and THEIR activity (little claws scampering on the fence), made me a little tense as the sound made me think that skunks were on the prowl. In the end, I didn't find any evidence of current critter occupation (it could have slipped out the back when I wasn't watching), so I put the planks back down, and moved some wood scraps and pieces of cement in the only area where the skunk could dig in.

That's done, now if I could just get some dry days, I could finish the planter box and move on to another project!