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!