Raccoon Skirmishes

We have a raccoon problem here and they are set on destroying my summer potted flowers. I came down the stairs this morning to look out the front door at THREE of my pretty red geraniums uprooted and potting soil everywhere.

The fact that raccoons reside in the wilderness surrounding our house is no surprise. We have seen them for several years, and I know they eat all birdseed in the feeders every night. They also have been known to raid the garage if we forget to close the door, and they destroyed a few potted flowers last summer.

I worked really hard several days last week to prepare some pretty pots. I mostly stayed with geraniums, pansies, snapdragons, and coleus. I have probably close to two dozen pots set out all around the house and garage. The arrangement above is by our front door. I worked too hard and spent too much money to have it vandalized every night by raccoons.

I have talked about trapping them, but have never followed through on the acquiring of traps and all that entails. After this morning's discovery, I began thinking guns and poison! Militant action! However, I calmed down, and now have two traps borrowed from friends who had a family of raccoons in their attic a couple summers back.

I will keep you updated on future skirmishes.

It's the last day of May! That means it's time for my May wrap up. What good stuff did I accomplish? Here are my 9 selections:

The top row shows my early Ohio Star blocks for the Dreamy Stars quilt, an item from my 2020 goals list. The bird feeder shows a woodpecker on the left (a regular visitor) and a rose-breasted grosbeak on the right (a rare visitor). Then the window picture is from my cleaning and making new curtains for our bedroom. The curtains are made from drop cloths bought on Amazon from the hardware department.

In the middle row, after such success with the bedroom windows, I decided to use leftover curtain fabric to make valances for the sewing room. The middle picture shows me (in the visor) with my card-playing friends, Mindy, Cheryl, Dorothy, and Rhonda. We are wearing our pink for one of our group who is currently in treatment for breast cancer. Since the Komen Race for the Cure was canceled this year, we did our own race at a local park. We took pictures and videos to send to Sally to cheer her as she fights this ugly disease. Then there is the finished Dreamy Stars - quilted, bound and covering our bed! Made from start to finish in about 2 weeks! Wow.

The bottom row begins with several old flower pots that I spruced up with black spray paint. I have so many mismatched pots from over the years, and rather than buy more, I painted them for continuity. I was pleased with the results. Bottom center is that front door picture from above, with 3 of the new-black pots. And the last picture is my Larkspur Stars quilt top. I finished it up today, and took it out to the yard for a picture. I will share more about it in an upcoming post.

Wonder what June will bring? I need to get a plan in place. Perhaps that will comprise an upcoming post, as well.

Here's to June!
Happy Quilting, Friends!