Excitement with an Animal

Yesterday, Kevin and our electrician friend Mr. Pete spent most of the day working on wiring our barn for electricity. They have now worked 3 full days already on this project and both are ready to be done.

But of course, there was a problem. And there still is a problem. I don't know much about electrical work, but the gist of it is that there is a box buried somewhere between the house and the barn, and in the box are some wires, and one of the wires has a problem.  But we don't know where the box is.  To explain further, the barn is built on the foundation of an apartment that burned down years ago.  It of course had electricity and we knew where the endpoint was, so thought wiring the barn wouldn't be a big problem.

So late in the afternoon, Kevin started pulling up boards from our deck in search of the elusive box.  He didn't find it and maybe it had nothing to do with the next excitement, but I suspect it did.

Isaac went out front as the weather was warming rapidly, it was sunny, and the kids are aching to run around outside like calves released from their stalls.  I heard a call from him:

"Mom, there is a small animal on the front porch!"

Ok, small animal. Squirrel?  Mouse?  Chipmunk? Someone's run away gerbil? 

"Is it alive or dead?"  I asked.  I wondered if this was some present from the cats.

"It's alive!" 

Ok, maybe I'd better check this out.

"Mom, I think it's a skunk!"

Um, Ok, I had better CHECK THIS OUT!

I raced to the front door and looked out.  Sure enough, there was by this time a skunk waddling up our driveway, headed towards the barn. And there was quite the smell of skunk in the air.

Kevin and Mr. Pete were in the basement and I informed them of the latest turn of events.  Our house smelled like skunk.  Isaac really didn't, fortunately, but we had him change his clothes and take a shower.  For a very short time, he and the skunk were on the porch at the same time, which is an unnerving state of affairs.

That was mostly the end of the story, or at least we hope it was the end.  I talked to the neighbor on the phone, and from his house he could see the skunk heading into our back 3 acres. We hope it stays there and doesn't come back.

We've had skunks before, of course.  Kevin shot one, and 2 others have drowned in our pool.  I have no objection to skunks in an objective sense, but I don't want a skunk spraying us, our kids, or our catst, and I don't want a skunk going after our chickens -- which apparently they WILL do.

Tune in for further updates...