Monday, August 17 - Paul purchased a new satellite tripod and a couple accessories. The old tripod was getting pretty wobbly, and he didn't think it would last through our fall/winter travels.
We both made time to help out with a home build our church is doing for the local Habitat for Humanity Organization. Marsha is the coordinator for all the snacks and meals for the days our church works on the house. This particular Saturday, she provided a delicious lunch, and Paul joined the men working on the framing of the house.
Marsha has been very busy working on all her crafts. She found some time to create a couple of pine needle baskets. She is working on a few more also.
The orange baskets is holding some of Paul’s precious Petoskey stones he brought back from Michigan. The other is a cracker basket.
As if she doesn’t have enough hobbies, Marsha found a new hobby this summer…mats for the homeless. There is a group at our church that calls themselves the Bag Ladies. They crochet plastic mats out of plastic shopping bags. It is a great way to recycle the bags and makes a great barrier between the person lying on the cold or wet ground. She has set a goal of making one a month. It takes about 700-900 bags to make one mat and about 70-90 hours. The size of the mats are about
3 1/2 feet wide by 5 1/2 feet long. Yes….just about every free minute she has goes to making the mats. She really enjoys it.
Marsha baked 92 loaves of various sizes of Zucchini bread. She freezes most of the loaves. We love it with coffee in the morning. She also gives away tons and tons of the loaves to family and friends.
Just a small sample of the loaves and muffins.
As mentioned in a previous blog, Paul has been Mr. Trapper this summer keeping busy re-locating about a dozen groundhogs and raccoons. Marsha still noticed something was digging around her bird feeders so Paul set the trap again expecting to catch another raccoon. Well, you might of guessed it......a SKUNK was in the trap the next morning! YIKES!!
Paul has trapped and relocated numerous animals over the years and this is the first time he trapped a skunk. With no experience moving a skunk he resorted to Google. He found that many areas have laws against relocation of skunks because of their tendency to be carriers of rabies. Also, there's that threat of getting sprayed.
He was successful in getting the trap covered with a tarp and not getting the proverbial skunk treatment. Actually, it was fairly easy to get that cover in place. That skunk was probably happy to get out of the hot sun. Now how to lift the trap into the back end of his truck? He didn't want to get the skunk upset again and have it let loose with that killer smell.
Since it was only digging around the bird feeders and eating wasted seed, Paul decided to just let it go here. It wasn't eating Marsha's flowers or digging in the yard. If it continued to be a nuisance, he could always re-trap it and attempt to relocate it.
So, Paul simple released the lock on the cage door before removing the tarp. He stepped back and yanked the tarp away letting the trap door fall open. Peppy La Pew ran across the yard, under the 5th wheel, along the fence and into the neighbor's driveway culvert. We'll see if he is brave enough to risk the rage of “trapper Paul” in the future.
We have had some of the most beautiful sunsets we have ever seen in Ohio. We were visiting with dear friends who live on the lake by our house and witness a gorgeous sunset.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
