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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Two Grey Whales, a mother and calf got stuck in Boundary Bay last week. Caught as the tide was going out. Wildlife Rescue were called and watched for a while. Luckily momma and calf got out of the bay and back into open water.

Same thing happened the week before in Washington state. Different outcome. Whales couldn't get out and unfortunately even with human help died.

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Meaning you watched them? From your balcony, or on-site?

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
6ix, could you do me a favor?

Hop over to the Unemployment Rate thread, look at the JSF-URF-1 Table that I posted on 3 May.

Let me know how that looks on your computer display. If it wraps, let me know at what letter or column it wraps.

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Lazy here too...

Not bright though.


Kind of overwhelmed with what needs to be done ATM. I'm going to feel a lot better come Thursday when I can get rid of the next big round of trash. Kind of my bottleneck right now. Also going to have to see if they were able to get any boxes for me at work because I really need to start packing up things that I plan on taking with me but are just in the way right now.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Well... my friend doesn't want my couch, and my brother doesn't want the two high-back lazyboy chairs. Given the mouse problem I've got, that's probably not the worst thing in the world. I cleaned them down real good, didn't notice any droppings on or inside them, and the covering underneath the pieces was still intact without holes in them. But again, if some random stranger is going to take the stuff I won't feel bad about it. I'd always be wondering if somebody I knew took them. So it's for the best.

Verified with the city that the garbage company will take the entire L-shaped couch on trash day. I'm to call them if they don't. In even better news, I don't have to plan a special trip to get rid of any electronics. Turns out my city will come and remove them on trash day after scheduling a special pickup. Going to get rid of my two tube tvs, the innards from the projection screen that I didn't keep, and some old tech that I should have gotten rid of a long time ago.

I forgot to ask if they would take a projection screen. Breaks my heart to get rid of the nice one, but it's another 300+ lbs out of my life and I've got a reasonable sized flat screen to tide me over for a while until more funds are available. I still may choose to break the TV down myself though. There's some nice stuff inside those TVs. I'm not sure if the good one is constructed as well as that ancient one my folks gave me, but if it is, there might be another really nice base with high quality castors on the bottom. I salvaged that from the old TV and it's going to be a cinch wheeling out the pieces of the couch on that.

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Well, someone should put that in a woman's magazine ... how to lose 600 pounds in one week!

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These mice gotta go. Got bait stations all over the place. I'm going to find and clean up all of the traps and get them going too. I'm sure they've been around for a while given the amount of poop I'm finding when I remove furniture and the fact that I can hear them in the walls when I've been quiet for a few hours.

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I have a very active little dog with a strong prey drive (rat terrier) who's looking for work. I wish I could loan her out, she'd do a great job with your mice and be a real happy camper too.

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yeah... the hits just keep coming. *sigh*


Not a single bite of any of the traps.

Granted, that L-shaped couch has been there for about 4 years now, and I have gotten rid of mice in the past. The "evidence" might have been old news.

I'm only assuming I've got mice in the walls. I haven't actually seen anything yet. There are two holes in the soil at the front of the house that I've seen. Jesus, I'm hoping it's not rats.

If not mice, ground squirrels maybe?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yeah... the hits just keep coming. *sigh*


Not a single bite of any of the traps.

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Those holes in the front yard could be moles, Jack.

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Raccoons expertly climb trees to escape danger, nest, and gain access to the roofs of buildings. Tree hollows are actually some of raccoons favorite denning sites as they provide shelter from predators and the elements, so property owners may see adults climbing trunks to their nests. Since they have sharp claws, raccoons in trees mark up the bark as they climb. Finally, individuals might be alerted to infestations of the pest by the presence of raccoon latrines in yards.

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Silence all day...

Haven't heard any activity for a few hours now. The last two times I went up and banged around on the walls I wasn't met with movement or growling. Doesn't mean much at this point though. That could be anything. Maybe mama finally decided that it was alright to go out and forage even with the radio blaring.


Tomorrow is supposed to be dry and sunny and hot. It's been cold and wet and rainy all day today.

Going to keep at the harassment the rest of the day and throughout the night, and tomorrow in between gettting all of that huge crap out to the curb I'm going to be doing some investigating and seeing how they might be getting in.

I suspect it might be because of all the stuff I recently exposed in the porch, because this has never been a problem before. But timing with everything in my life right now seems to be just terrible and this might just all be an unfortunate coincidence coming from yet somewhere else.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Gladiator. That's one sexy ass.



Racoon Confirmed! :)

Learned a bit about my house today too. Would have learned more but, yanno, there's a racoon living up there now....

My suspicions that she found her way up there after I exposed stuff with the porch were confirmed too. I was on the phone with my brother when I said quietly into the phone after going out to the porch for a smoke "shhhh! you hear that!". My brother could hear her crawling on the ceiling above me too. I must have walked out right while she was in the middle of doing something because that is about 15 to 20 feet east of where I'd usually find her in the walls of the house proper.

She was panicing too, hearing me talking loudly right below her.

My brother reminded me of a door that I hadn't even thought about in the attic for years in a room that had boxes in front of it. It's just a 2'x 2' wooden thing leading out onto the porch roof. I went up to it (thinking in my mind that it was just a tiny piece of wood, but thankfully it was at least 1" thick and it's VERY hard to open inward to the house over the carpet installed there. If she ever tried getting into it, she wouldn't ever have been able to force it open. It doesn't have a knob, and I had to get a flathead screwdriver to pry it open just an inch and shine a flashlight in there.

Back and forth the light went. For a few minutes at least...

Then I saw the shine. Those beady little eyes reflecting the light back at me. She must not have noticed right away that I was looking right at her because when she did, she ducked her head behind some insulation. The entire time I was going through this process with the door she didn't make a single sound.

Once she hid, I began barking and being as loud as I could. Banging on the wall and scratching it. She didn't make a sound. I would have started slamming the door a bunch of times, but like I said the thing can barely be opened.

I've never looked up there before. I guess I always assumed that was closed off from the porch roof, but it might be wide open into the house. Either that, or she gnawed her way in there. If she actually did that, then I guess I'll consider myself lucky that's where she gnawed in instead of the finished inside of the attic.


I haven't heard a peep out of her since then. I'd imagine she's pretty terrified right now.



I've got a boom box in the garage. During the middle of the day while she's most likely to be out foraging if she hasn't left for good, I'm going to put on a rediculous amount of clothing and figure out a way to protect my head, just so I don't get bit in case she is still up there, and I'm going to put the radio right in there and turn it up twice as loud as the alarm clock that's been keeping her quiet from outside of her dwelling.



I've got to admit, she was really cute the way she had her head poked out and quickly hid it when she realized that I was looking right at her. I almost feel bad having to evict her. Hopefully she makes this easy and painless.

Then I have to find a way to make sure another one doesn't try the same thing once she gets the message.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Originally posted by Brenda:
That it is.

I knew people that had a raccoon living under the front stairs of their house and while she and I think she had babies, were out the man boarded up all the holes under the stairs so they couldn't get back in.

That is all you can do is board everything up Jack to keep her out and from maybe having a family in your attic.

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What to do if a raccoon is living in the attic
Be patient with a mother raccoon in the attic

Your first option is to do nothing at all. Raccoons typically live in attic dens for short periods. Raccoon babies are independent by the end of summer, when they leave the den and disperse from their family groups. Raccoon mothers commonly move their babies between den sites during the nesting season, so she may leave on her own. If you wait until the babies are grown and/or have left, then you can close off the access point to prevent other raccoons from using the attic as a den in the future.

Trapping and relocating a raccoon might seem like the “humane” option, but it isn’t. Relocated raccoons don’t tend to survive when they’re moved off of their home territory. Relocated mother raccoons leave behind babies who will die without a mother to care for them. A mother raccoon relocated with her babies will be so frightened she will abandon them when faced with a new, unknown territory. In Ontario, it is illegal to relocate any wild animal more than 1km from where it was found.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I used to think that raccoons were cute until I was faced down by one that I truly think might have been rabid.

They're destructive and aggressive critters and - worse- they commonly carry two parasites that can be spread to people. One is the common roundworm, the other can wind up eating your brain

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/baylisascaris/index.html

While infection is rare, if you wind up cleaning up the area, wear gloves and an N95 mask.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think they forage at night and sleep during the day, I've seen them mostly at night (except the one that I think was rabid) so if you want to cause maximum annoyance, I presume you're supposed to play your boom box during the day, when she's (they're) home?

I really like the idea of driving him/her/them out with annoyance. Getting them to leave voluntarily is a lot less messy than killing or trapping them.

*****

It sounds like you're making fantastic progress on the cleanup! I'm so jealous! This week I managed to have a doctor's appointment for either me or dear daughter every day of the week except today, which is the day that we're going out to lunch with her auntie. That really kills the schedule! Now that I'm on the mend (with antibiotics) I hope to finish up painting that room FINALLY and then we can start moving our stuff in. I must have been running a mild infection for a long time, I can't believe how much better I feel overall, let's hope it lasts! Also, I got the radiology and bloodwork results from the Rheumatologist. Osteoarthritis here and there, plus some tendonosis, rotator cuff, and plantar fasciitis. Nothing terrible. Bloodwork shows mild rheumatoid factor plus mild non-specific inflammation (sed rate, CRP) which Dr suggested treating me for if I wanted (not). I figured out that that horrible crisis of "pain everywhere all the time" really was probably from levaquin bc the Dr knew how to make the osteo hurt by pressing on various joints - but that's not where I was hurting. Since it's not the osteo and the rheumatoid isn't showing up on xray, by process of elimination it must have been the levaquin. It's nice to know that it's something that will eventually go away on its own without treatment. I have to say that horrible reaction to levaquin was about on-par with my reaction to statins, which was equally horrible. I can chalk up two meds to avoid!

*****

But how's the job situation? On leave? Still working? Quit? Getting unemployment? Fingers crossed that it all works out for you!

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
BRENDA, it sounds like you're able to ge out and about much more easily that before! I'm STILL so happy for you! I can imagine you in your new, heated apartment with sunshine and view, and space for your things so you can get organized. Just OOC, what are the things you appreciate most in your new place? Indoor laundry? No hill to confront? Enough hot water and electrical outlets? Actual kitchen area?

I read that you too are unboxing and unloading. Isn't it great to be able to strip down and organize your things, putting them where you need/want them??

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
If you don't mind trapping her, you can get Have a Heart live traps, they're really easy to set up. We used to have a feral cat problem and I managed to trap four of the six cats including the queen (damn she was a productive mom!) and spay/neuter them for release. Also managed to catch a few possums unintentionally. They're about $40, o wish I could lend you mine! Your biggest problem will be releasing the critter because it will be PISSED. Also you don't want a return so maybe not bother until you've figured out your porch and at least sealed up wherever she came in from?

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