Mike's Senior Prom

This is old news, but just got some pix of Mike at his senior prom - here's a cute one of him and date, Loren, mugging for the camera!
She's looking pretty gorgeous, he's doing his best 'Bond, James Bond' suave thing. My baby's growing up!!!

eBay is Amazing!

So in a continuation of the raccoon story, I did actually check out what a search of 'raccoon' on eBay gets you. Just for fun. A 'Davy Crockett' style hat will run you about 20 bucks, should you be so inclined. As you might expect, many items can be found in 'collectibles' but that doesn't solve my problem in the least - what to do with all the raccoons I've been catching in my trap. The most interesting opportunity is in 'raccoon penis bones'. Believe it or not, there is a thriving eBay market in such - see, for example, this link. I thought it must be a joke - in fact, I was unaware that penis'es HAD bones!! But a little more googling and I discovered many web sources that describe these little trinkets - and so this appears to be a for-real opportunity to utilize my overstock of raccoons. Not that I would really do it. Don suggests that posting copies of these websites near the trap might discourage raccoons from entering. If only they could read! OK, i'm in a weird mood - must stop now, before this gets completely out of control!

I love summer

I really love summer - even when its hot and steamy, I still love it. Garden is starting to look good - knock on wood, since we are ALWAYS under attack by the critters. For now the racoon fear thing seems to have put the woodchuck off his feed and there's been no sign of him for almost a week. I quit with the racoon trapping, for now, but will start up again at the first sign of groundhog.

The daylilies are coming out now - here's a couple of pretty ones that I especially like. First one is a miniature called 'Little Wine Cup' - I bought it a couple of years ago at Bloomingfields Farm in nearby Sherman, CT. It is not quite as pink as in the picture, more a deep winey red color. (Note our calico cat, Tina, stalking something interesting in the background!) Bloomingfields is a great place - you can order on the web, but Don and I took a drive up to visit them one Sunday. They have 11 acres and one large field of daylilies supplies their business. They sell only on the web, and I can vouch for the quality of their plants. Their varieties are many, and just gorgeous in mid-summer! Makes me think this could be another great crop for Villa Mir!



One of my other favorites that is in bloom now - and very nice this season, too - is this lush lemony yellow one. Gigantic flowers with slightly ruffled edges - very pretty in a cool green corner of the garden! Don't know the variety of this one - I bought it years ago at a nursery and unprotected it was eaten almost to nothing by the deer year after year. Finally in the last few years I got serious about protecting it and it is rewarding me with beauty! A fair exchange!

I'm off to France on business this afternoon, which will curtail the gardening for the weekend. Next week I'm back, then off to Ohio!

Mike's a Graduate!

Hard to believe its been since January that I posted here and its already July 4th!! Much news:

First, Mike's a graduate of Ridgefield High School. Ceremonies were two weeks ago, at the tail end of a week of miserable rain, humidity and gray weather. This did not mar our pleasure at the event, however. We celebrated afterwards with dinner at the Cobb's Mill Inn in Weston with our friends, Matt and Janine Sneed. Matt celebrated his first year as a high school teacher - he is now a full-fledged member of the Ridgefield English department!

Our grand-daughter Brynn - or Brynnikins, as she is fondly called by her doting parents - turned 1 year old in May. There was little fanfare for the event, but every day brings a new capability and adventure for her. She is a charming young person, who knows her own mind and has a delightful sense of humor and fun. The picture shows her with her great-grandmother, Ruth (Don's mom). Ruth also celebrated a birthday recently - at the other end of the century from Brynn, she turned 94 in June.


Meanwhile, Don and I continue to do our things. He's been enjoying a brief respite from teaching, but begins the summer semester at Pace University in mid-July. I have been travelling quite a bit for work lately, but am looking forward to some time at the farm in late July. I made my first trip to Africa in May, as part of my board membership for Africa Harvest. We are a non-profit that is bringing advanced agricultural biotech methods to Africa to improve yields and nutrition and reduce poverty. More on this, perhaps, later.

The garden is looking very good this year. I finally got up a fence that - mostly - keeps the deer out. But wouldn't you know it, just when I get that problem solved, along comes a woodchuck who thinks living under my gazebo is just dandy. He likes to eat the tender buds of plants, and many of my green things in the vegetable garden. Fencing is pretty ineffective with these critters, they dig under everything and so finally, in a fit of irritation, and against Don's advice, I bought a Hav-a-hart trap, which I promptly assembled, baited and placed in a good spot to catch the little feller. Next morning, Don delightedly announced the "There's no woodchuck, but I think you got a racoon!" Sure enough, we had one angry racoon to break in our new trap.

A helpful tip, should you ever want to try this yourself: setting the trap is a lot easier than

releasing the pissed-off critter once you've got him. God knows what I'd do if I accidently caught a skunk! Anyway, after much snarling (racoon, not me), I finally got him out and he promptly ran off into the woods. Good. Set trap again next night - you guessed it, ANOTHER racoon. Don and I have speculated whether it was the same one or different. In the 5 nights I have set the trap for the woodchuck, I have caught 4 racoons. I wonder if there's a market for racoons on eBay? Finally took a picture of this morning's catch - cute, eh? Not so cute when he's snarling at you and attempting to rip your fingers off, trust me! Anyway, there's been no sign of the woodchuck, I am hoping that racoons have fear-scent that is making my little yard less desirable for rodents these days. Until I lose some more daylilies, I think I'm retiring the Hav-a-hart! I am getting a little tired of the racoon catch-and-release program!