Skunk saga

first of all thank you to everyone that played the baby game. No one decided to put labor day down so no one got the date right. Also everyone was thinking I would have another small baby, thanks for the wishful thoughts. The birthdate of Tyson Glenn McMinn is September 6, 2010. He was 8 lbs. 7 oz. We are so glad he is here and are so in love with this new little gift from heaven.

Okay so on to the skunk story. I will also be updating a few more things from summer and then it will be on to baby posts!

Jeff went outside early one morning to water the plants. He noticed that the trampoline pad was a little off. (see pic below.) So he walked down to sraighten it.

Thankfully he caught sight of a little critter hiding under the trampoline in the pit. If he hadn't seen it our kids and backyard might have gotten sprayed while they were jumping. Yikes. I was sitting at the table eating my breakfast and noticed Jeff walking outside with a smile on his face. I thought it was weird so I asked him when he got in what he was smiling about. He told me I was never going to believe what was under the tramp. You know he was right I never would have guessed, but I sure thought it was funny. Well funny until I realized that we had to actually get the skunk out and that surely it would involve someone getting sprayed. ( I knew that someone wasn't going to be me, but I still felt bad for whoever the poor sucker was that had to deal with the critter) You see I know how bad it can be when you get sprayed. I experienced it first hand the first year that we were married. (story for another day.)
So we called animal control to see if they could come and remove the skunk. The guy was very nice and brought us a trap. We had to remove a large section of springs to fit the trap under. I was scared that all the movement would cause some spraying, but so far so good. The kids were very fascinated, but I was fearful that they were sitting just a little too close. I however didn't get any closer.


The trap was laid and we just had to wait. The animal control guy predicted that he wouldn't even try for the food in the trap until night time when skunks are active. The next morning Jeff went out to check and see if we had success. The skunk had gone into the trap and ate all the food, but somehow didn't trigger the trap door. So we had to wait another night. We rebaited the trap and also placed a piece of wood down there so that he could crawl out on his own. More waiting. Jeff went out first thing in the morning and couldn't see the skunk down in the pit. Yeah we were so glad that he had crawled out on his own. Jeff lifted the trap out and went to put his hand into the back of the trap to remove the bait. He saw as he reached 2 little beady eyes staring at him. He quickly slammed the door shut and that is how we got rid of the skunk. After Jeff cleaned out his shorts, he realized how lucky he was that somehow we got a tame skunk that was apparently not interested in spraying people. He definitely had his chances. I guess I shouldn't have suggested that we just get a gun and shoot it!

You might also notice that we have some changes in our backyard. I think I have posts way back in one of the begining blogs about installing a playset. I know that there is a way to post a link to the old post, but I don't know how so if interested you can go searching. I will post pics of the completed project on the next post.