Raccoons and Other Delights

The painted stripes of my TV room might shock a potential buyer. I've toned down the room by removing the red furniture and wild rug, and replacing with dark gray couch with simple gray blue and white rug and more appropriately sized art. Still, I may paint anyway.

UPDATE SATURDAY May 1: Yeah, that wasn't the end of the story after all. The raccoon wrangler came back for the third time yesterday, and discovered not only the mother still in the chimney, but a couple more babies. He tried again to force her out, but she would not budge. So, he came back again today for the fourth time. She and the babies are still there. So he placed a chimney trap and set it. She will be caught when she tries to leave. Meanwhile, the landscapers are still here for the third day, and we are getting to the brutal stage of the cleanup where they use noisy leaf blowers for seemingly hours and I notice the bare beds where some of my perennials have been "weeded" out. No matter how a landscaper assures you his guys know perennials, don't believe it. They know a few, but not all the ones I've planted. My yard is too naked now for my liking. Most things will grow back. I won't replant any perennials as that's a long-term investment. I'll plant deer-resistant annuals for color and hope this is the last year I live in such a big space. Oh, and mom fell again; well, actually slipped out of her chair onto the floor and couldn't get back up. We recognize this is a new and concerning development and we have to be even more watchful. This week continues to test my strength.

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I'll tell the ending first: a week ago, I discovered I had a nest of raccoons in my chimney. A raccoon removal guy managed to get the three babies out and we assume at this point the mother has either left or will soon. The guy will be back today or tomorrow to make sure the mother is out and install a chimney cap so it won't happen again.

I'm one of those people who think "it's not going to happen to me". Two different neighbors had raccoons last year and both advised me to get the chimney capped. I decided I would, but procrastinated until the inevitable happened. I've not had good results from wildlife handlers in the past, so at first I decided I might take the advice of several web sites and just let the raccoons stay until the babies were old enough to leave the nest--8 to 10 weeks. However, after just five days, Frankie and I had both had enough. I tried all the suggestions like playing loud rock music and audio of vicious barking dogs as is suggested everywhere on the internet. But you'll notice one thing about that: all the people giving the advice did not actually have a success story to tell. I learned that the ones who hated the loud rock music the most were Frankie and me. I had a speaker right inside the fireplace playing nearly 24/7 and it had no effect whatever.

I was running on between 2 to 4 hours of sleep a night. I finally gave up on that and called a raccoon removal service. I lucked out and got a really good one. The guy came out two days in a row, took pictures to confirm it was a raccoon (although the mewling and chittering was pretty evident). He poked and prodded the mother from below and above and could get her part way up the chimney, but she always went back down. The first day, he hoped the mother would decided the chimney was unsafe and move the babies overnight. She didn't. Finally, on the second day, he used a long device to remove the babies up through the chimney. Even though the babies were retrieved alive and in good condition, I knew they would be euthanized later on as the law requires that. The mother did not leave while he was here, but he will be back later to ensure she's gone. The whole process cost me about $500. It sounds high, but after the ordeal of trying to evict them on their own, it was worth it

No sooner had that guy left, than my yard cleanup crew showed up unexpectedly. I had called them earlier in the week and asked him to let me know when they were coming. Well, I have two solid days of work for them, and I'm certainly not sending them away once they're here. They put in a good 8 hours yesterday and are back today. I don't know why I find it so exhausting when they are here. I worry about them pulling up my perennials. I know I will lose some and I have to be resigned to that. I am facing the truth I can't manage this yard by myself anymore. I have a lot of pain in my joints and back after working only an hour. I'm too slow at this now. And after two years of hit and miss efforts on my part, I need this crew very much

Especially, since I'm considering selling my house this year and truly downsizing

My timing couldn't be worse for buying a little house without stairs, near my sons, as I want. Real estate prices have exploded. I know that means my house will sell for more. But for some reason, those little one level houses have gone up at a higher rate that other single family homes. I was depressed about that at first, but I decided to keep working on getting my house ready so I can pull the trigger the minute I see a good opportunity. I may sell first in order to make a cash offer, as those are most competitive right now. I hope this can happen this year. My body is suffering from the stairs. Especially carrying laundry down and up and carrying groceries up

Thus, in the midst of my raccoon crisis, I have scheduled workers right and left to help me. Tomorrow, I have an electrician coming to see about installing a new light fixture in the entryway for me.  I also had expected a guy to come this weekend to turn on and test the sprinklers outside, but he is two weeks about now and I may have my son help me do it ourselves. Or maybe my new landscape cleanup guy will do it. He is turning out to be something of an Alberto for me

All of these things are necessary for staging my house as best I can. I am still thinking about painting some of the rooms that currently have what was my idea of pretty paint colors, to return them to neutral. Or I might just offer a paint allowance to buyers

I've been selling things, giving away, and throwing away. Selling is hard. The only way you sell stuff is to price it ridiculously low. I still need to sell my lovely piano. I guess that comes next. No more putting it off.

And if there hasn't been chaos enough in my life, I have been helping along with two other siblings to take care of my 92 year old mother, allowing her to live in her own home as she wants. However, that is fraught with problems -- not the least of which is a form of dementia that has me baffled, in which she suffers from delusions and hallucinations and false memories to an extreme while still having a pretty accurate long-term memory for some things. I am thinking I may write about that at some future time. She is very frail and sort of shrinking away, but she has always had a mean streak, and that manifests itself even more now, making her difficult to manage. Then, yesterday, right in the middle of baby raccoon removal, I got a call from my brother saying she had fallen in the night and was still on the floor when my niece (her daily caretaker) arrived in the morning. They managed to get her up and determined she hadn't broken anything and her vitals soon returned to normal after she was fed and rested. She has one of those emergency alert necklaces but she wouldn't wear it. We'll make her wear it now or we'll have no alternative except moving her to extended care. We live day to day with her situation, knowing everything could suddenly change. But we do our best to fulfill her wishes for living out her life at home

So, to say life has become crazy right now is an understatement. I'm back to carpooling grandkids to and from school for another month. But I've had my Covid vaccination shots as have nearly all of my kids and some of the grandkids. At least I'm feeling safer and more confident with my own family. Life is far from my idea of normal. But, if I can get over this hump of getting my house ready to sell, I will try to keep a positive attitude that I will find something that I love and will be able to move sometime this year. And with those raccoons gone, I hope to be getting more sleep, too.