Longterm readers will understand how ironic it is that I finally got this ornament from my parents to hang on my tree. This ornament, from a birthday when I was a kid, was while I was still O.K. with raccoons.
Irony
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Category Archives: electric fence
Belated. . .
I’d make a horrible Dad. I know it. Know why? Got any clues? Well, in 2006 on 10-25 at 9:57 P.M. I posted my first article here on Brickblog. Why, I remember when this blog was still in diapers, I was excited to get 1 visit after posting oh so many articles. To date, I’m up to 4,694 visits since I installed Google Analytics (November 9, 2006) to track such things. Truly amazing. What’s even scarrier is when I analyze what kinds of articles bring people to my site, I see when you search for d40 vs d70 my site comes up #1 in google.
So lets think back to what brought this blog to life. . .
Oh thats right, those damn raccoons. They’re still around, in fact I had great fun, ehr, I mean I was left no other option, then to shoot one a couple weeks ago with my paintball gun while I had the electric fence repurposed on the garden for the summer.
But of course, I wouldn’t be here with such an audience if it wasn’t for my peeps. Those folks that both read my insane ramblings, and those that link to my blog. So since I can’t thank every single one of you by name, I’ll be certain to report out what WordPress tells me are the good folks linking to my site.
Thanks!
- Notes to Marquis
- Wii Sixty: File under – Suck it Sony
- Strong Kids, Safe Kids
- Moldy Snack
- mandymag.com
- Users Suck!
- spiralbound.net
Raccoons v.s. Fence Act II
Well it seems to me that we should have 4 acts to this saga, as we have 4 raccoons. However I’m only leaving the camera up tonight as the last night. Tonight will mark a full week and 3 nights of surveillance, and although it’s been fun, it will be nice to have a dark yard again, and my wife will rejoice at being able to look out the back window at the sink again.
I hope you enjoy Act II in my war on the enemy. It looks like it should keep them from getting to the feeder. As it turns out, this will most likely be the last Raccoon video. When I wrote a draft of this post last night, I promised my wife that I would turn off the lights and take down the camera today. Either as a result of the hard rain, or the fence, our little prowling terrorists didn’t have the guts to show their faces last night.
Raccoons v.s. Electric Fence
Well it’s not as exciting as we had hoped. Clearly the first night, they sent a scout, as they always do when things change. The second night they returned to see what they could get for food. It appears that either they are not well grounded, or have a higher tolerance for electrical shock then I thought.
When I got up this morning I had much more footage from the night. I’m in the process of downloading it now to review to see how much of it is our friends, and how much of it is the camera being oversensitive to light changes.
Persistence is rewarded. . .
It seems we have a creature, that does not fully understand what is happening to it, and why. I hope for it’s sake that it learns soon. I have taken an almost full power charge from this fence, and I never want to again. But for now, I continue to giggle at it’s hopping, and marvel in it’s persistence. I need to begin looking for royalty free music to use in these videos, no sound is rather boring if you ask me. So let me know if you know anyone knows good sources.
Yes, it is ok for a grown man to giggle. Just like it’s ok for a grown man to cry, that is if he just hit himself really hard where it really hurts, and no one is around, then maybe. Right O, carry on. Until I have the raccoons, this will do.
Mommy, my mouth tastes like burning rubber
Collateral damage is a U.S. Military term for unintended or incidental damage during a military operation. The term started as a euphemism during the Vietnam War, and can refer to friendly fire or the destruction of civilians and their property. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral_damage)
When I awoke sometime near 12:30 am this morning, I was startled awake by what seemed to be a burning rubber smell. A smell so strong that I could taste it, and in part, made me sick to my stomach. I immediately got up and began looking around the house out of concern for what might be going wrong.. As I wandered around the house, checking appliances, our primary heat source, and of course the garage I noted that the odor was not just that of burning rubber, but it had overtones of toasted sesame, and onion that had been left out all day. It’s at this time that I realized the only reason that this smell could be lingering in the air. We had sustained collateral damage in our war on the raccoons. I went over to the computer and sure enough, the video, that I share with you, explains it all.