Skunk!

We've had no shortage of wildlife around our house this winter. Nothing big or unmanageable. Opossums are near the top of my list of horrid animals, but they're harmless. Coyotes are always around the farm...Ben's been able to get rid of several of them this winter. They're a real nuisance for us with our chickens. Skunks, though, are a bit more complicated. The eat mice and rats which is fantastic, but their ability to spray is a problem. 

Skunks living under our deck didn't work for me. Ben trapped a skunk outside our back door, put a brown blanket over it, took it to the far edge of the farm and let it go. Then he followed that skunk all the way back to our house and watched it go under the deck!

Commence, operation Get Rid of the Skunk!

Soon after he trapped another skunk outside our back door. He shot that one when he let it go.

Then he trapped another one! And finally, when the trap wasn't even baited with food he caught a third! 

Again, he covered the trap with a blanket, and took the trap out to open area

 uncovered it,

 the boys and I watched from our warm and cozy house,

 then Ben had to wait for the skunk to decide to come out........

 finally it emerged and BOOM.

So far, that seems to have been the end of the skunks living underneath our deck. I hope it is, shooting animals is not ideal in my opinion, especially ones that eat mice and rats. But we'd already had a skunk in our garage (which Ben got out without incident) but that was enough to put me on pins and needles.