Diana's Raccoon Relocation Program - Post 3

I've Become a Relocation Specialist!

I'm 7 for 7.

I have been setting the Have-A-Heart trap every night for 7 nights and every morning there is another raccoon waiting to be relocated to the remote BLM wilderness.

I feel like a mountain woman!

In networking with my neighbors, I have learned that there were about 13 raccoons following a route from Fran's home where they drink water from her stream. They pass down the road to the giant oak along Kaweah River Drive near the Edison Power Plant where they feast on acorns and shred branches which drop in the road. From there they make their way across my neighbors footbridge and then across the fence at my home and onto my roof.

Each night I can hear the click of the trap as it closes on my next catch. In the morning before dawn I load my car with the trap and head out to the remote wilderness. Once there, I set out some food, open the trap and set them free. They do not seem to be any the worse for wear, and by now they should have quite a community going and not be lonesome at all.

I expect that I may have quite a few more relocation opportunities before the relocation project is complete. Last night was our first night of quiet with no varmints running around on the roof, yea!!!

In real estate there are offices that specialize in various kinds of real estate including "Relocation." I can now honestly say I have had more relocation experience than any other agent in Three Rivers.

First Fire

Fall is in the air! On Saturday night we returned from an outdoor dinner/murder mystery event quite chilled. As we entered our living room, our dear daughter had a welcoming, cozy, crackling fire burning. This was the first fire of the season for us.

As the night progressed our daughter, who was home from college for the weekend, regailed us with her adventurous stories. We listened wide eyed as visions danced in our heads of her hanging off of cliffs in our local mountains, exploring the ocean at the Central Coast, rafting class four rapids and basquing in the presence of the young man whom she loves.

Life is so good and peaceful in Three Rivers. It is a place to relax and enjoy! We are so thankful to have had the opportunity to raise our children in such a place. Now as empty nesters, we could not imagine being any place else!

Diana's Raccoon Relocation Program(Post 2) "Owls in our Attic"

When you live in a rural environment, you are living in nature and you will encounter wild animals.

In Three Rivers we get to see deer and bobcat, bear and snake and spiders and hawks and eagles, raccoon and skunk and more.

We are so blessed!

With that said, we do not want these wild animals to move into our homes. The following tale supports Diana's Raccoon Relocation Program.

"We've Got Bats in our Belfry and Owls in our Attic."

We returned from vacation and found that a barn owl had moved into the crawl space above our bathroom via an open air duct.

For about a minute, we were excited to think that a beautiful barn owl was nesting in our house. Then we realized that this big huge predator bird had built a nest; laid eggs and was calling this home.

What should we do? We decided to smok 'em out! I put up a ladder, donned a leather jacket, jeans, goggles and a helmet, and looking like a WW1 fighter pilot with smoke bomb in hand made my way to the entrance. My darling Geoff was hiding on the porch with his camera. I lit the bomb, threw it in the hole and ran. An owl came screeching out heading right for me just as I rounded the corner and ran into the garage. I ran up and nailed the opening closed and made it out of there just in time to miss the owl's return bombing run on the opening.

It was the male owl that came flying out and the female owl was still inside protecting her nest and screamed for two days. We had to stay in a motel. We could not get near the opening or take the chance of being killed by the male who was on guard in the oaks. When we finally could get up and take the board off the opening, we could see that the male had bloodied himself by attacking the door and it broke my heart.

Now they had won and pretty much took over. After consultation with various wild animal groups we found we were stuck with them until their young hatched and could fly. The gestation period would be 89 days and there was nothing we could do about the situation. It was awful!

First of all, owels are "up 'n at 'um" all night long! The sound of thundering hooves, clomp, clomp, clomp across the ceiling. The first time the mom and dad started moving around at night, we woke with a start and jumped out of bed to see what on earth was happening to our house. We banged on the ceiling to "scare them out". Several nights we poked at the ceiling with an umbrella which resulted in umbrella holes in our ceiling!! We were awakened many nights by the sounds of thundering hooves for the duration of their stay. We went to a motel on more than one occasion. After we closed of that side of the house we could not hear them quite so much.

Then there was the stench! Predator animals thrive on rodents, they go out early in the evening in search for food for their young. They bring their dead prey home to their loved ones. They eat their prey and then throw up their dinner for their young to eat. Kind of an owl's version of the food processor. Then of course there are the carcasses and a lot of bird poop up there too. Rotting, stinking and drawing awful bugs that prey on dead animals. I shudder to think! Our bathroom smelled so bad we could not use it, and flies came down from the crawl space through the light fixtures. We had to block the bathroom off and not use it for at least 2 months.

We pretty much got used to them. Of course we could not use half of our house for the entire time. Then one day Geoff said he thought he saw the babies flying around the yard. We gave them a little more time and then I once again donned my assault garb, climbed the ladder and stuck a spotlight in front of the entrance. They were gone in one night. They moved to the trees over our house, all five of them in a row, mom, dad and three babies, sat and screamed at us for 3 nights.

Then we got out the power nozzle for our watering hose and when they took their place on the branch of the old oak tree, I let 'em have it! I blasted 'em out of the tree with a riveting burst of water. It was a standoff for two nights and then they were seen no more. It was over.

I peeked in the hole to see what was in there and the sight was disgusting. Carcasses and encrusted bird shit two inches thick. We had to replace the entire ceiling and joists.

I still love owls, they are so beautiful and I treasure their presence. When I see them fly through the yard it takes my breath away - and then they are gone. Owl's gave me perspective on the racoons that have been trying to nest on my roof. Instead of saying how cute they are and how fun it will be to have them here, the smarter side of me said "get with the program", Diana's Raccoon Relocation Program.

Diana's Raccoon Relocation - Us or Them :-)

Aren't they just the cutest little things?

My husband and I live along the Main Fork of the Kaweah River and we have recently been bothered by Raccoon's. The pesky varmints have a path along the top of the neighbor's fence, across to our giant oak tree and up onto our roof where they make quite a racket in the middle of the night. The raccoon's get up in the oak and rip branches off the tree and eat the acorns. They drop the branches on the tin roof on our porch and our bedroom. In past years they have tried to nest on our roof and have pulled up shingles and created quite a mess.

There seems to be 3 families that visit us each night. The first family tramps around on the roof at about 9PM. The next appears at about 1AM and the third group comes at about 3AM. After a couple of years of this activity coupled with what seems to be a population explosion, we have decided either we need to relocate ourselves, or relocate the raccoon's. It's us or them!

We have put motion detector lights on the roof to see if that would scare them away. We have networked with professionals to see what they might suggest and have had no real solutions. A contractor friend suggested we install an electric fence around the roof, but we could not wrap the whole house and property with the fence so that did not seem like a solution. The most universal suggestion was to trap the raccoon's and relocate them to a wilderness area and that is our plan of attack!

We bought a "Have-a-Heart" trap at the local Mercantile and I set out to "relocate" the raccoons. This is my project as my husband is just sitting back watching to see what happens.

I am a farmers daughter from Wisconsin and these things do not faze me one bit! My father used to tell a story about pouring gasoline down the gopher holes and dropping a match in the hole and watching the gophers fly out the other end. One of my fathers friends tried that remedy and ended up burning down his garage. I hope I have better results from my endevor. I will let you know what happens.