So the garden / hot tub room renovation took an interesting turn right from the get-go last week. Brett took down the old canvas tent and had started to cut up the old wooden deck, when he suddenly saw a little flash of black and white fur between two boards, dangerously close to the circular saw! {GASP!} After a bit of regrouping and some gentle pry barring, we realized we were dealing with a mama skunk and at least a couple of babies! Yikes! That was unexpected! This discovery definitely slowed down progress because we clearly didn’t want to harm anyone, and it seemed as we worked they just kept moving from one side to the other under the decking, so I used the hose dripping some water to kind of move them off to one side as we pulled up enough boards to get a better sense of what was living there and it turned out to not just be a few – but seven baby skunks! This was about the point that mom took off and left us to figure out how to safely get the wee ones out from under this damn deck without harming any of them for the next couple hours. Loads of freaking fun – ughh!

When he finally lifted the deck up from their last stronghold they scattered in every direction and I basically ran around grabbing them up with both hands and stuffing them into an oversized cat carrier to keep them safe while we finished tearing up and tossing the old deck into the dumpster. I managed to catch six of the seven, but one baby scooted under the other deck while I raced around catching its siblings. Once we were settled, I of course fed them a hearty meal of wet and dry cat food and peanuts and they curled up in the back of the carrier in a big fluffy pile of baby skunk. 🙂 Totally adorbs!!

But as the hours went by with no sign of mama, I began to worry about them, especially the one by itself under the deck, and after a very brief discussion, we opted to release all of them under the other deck so at least they would be together.

We basically assumed mom would come back after dark, and a Google search informed us that by eight weeks old they would likely all move out of the nest anyway, so I figured worst case scenario, I would have a sweet little skunk family in the yard for maybe another four weeks. Well that was almost a week ago now and I have not seen or more importantly, smelled any sign of them, so I think mama skunk and the 7 lil stink dwarfs have moved onto someplace a bit less potentially chaotic. I have to admit to feeling a little guilty about evicting a single mom with 7 mouths to feed without even a month’s notice but – oh well – it was certainly unplanned. 🙂

So there has been some progress with the renovation but sadly the concrete had to get pushed off another week due to uhmm technical difficulties that had nothing to do with the skunk family. But okay – at least they have a clear slate to work with on the 10th. 🙂

Once the dust settled from that Brett and I – (OK mostly I) decided it was time for our next AT hike and we we both a bit tired from the week’s events so we opted for what I thought was going to be a fairly nice flat, easy one. We parked one car by Dawn Hill Road and took the other back to St. John’s Ledges and set off to hike a fairly flat almost 5 mile section. It was a beautiful stroll along the Housatonic River for the majority of the hike and we didn’t see any snakes this time but we did see a happy little turtle sunning on a rock. We also came across more than a half dozen millipedes with their heads bitten off and normally I am not sure I would have thought much of this but I had coincidentally JUST read this fairly creepy article about how no one really knows what is biting the heads off these critters and how there are an abundance of them decapitated in Nantucket – check it out- Mystery of the Headless Millipedes Totally weird!

Anyway, so a long lovely hike that included meeting a fairly older gent named Tommy – Trail name “Half assed” or “half fast”. When you asked him to clarify he said spell it however you want with a wink. He was thru-hiking from Harper’s Ferry, Virginia and had been on the trail for 33 days.

Part of me loves the idea of just heading out into the “wilderness” to hike for days, weeks or months and part of me really likes day hiking the heck out of a trail and then going home to take a hot shower, tick check and sleep in my own warm comfy bed for the night. Who knows – maybe next year Brett and I will build up to an overnight or two and see what we think but for now – day hiking it is!

Ohh! So the least favorite part of this particular hike included a nasty spill! Clumsy me decided to check my phone to see how much of the trail was left and I stupidly tripped over a rock and went totally flying forward, slamming my right knee onto the hard ground and jamming that hip pretty badly in the process. I got up a bit slowly, dusted myself off and finished the hike including a lovely little steep incline at the end – but I am definitely feeling that hip today. 😛 Bleh! I’ll be alright in a day or so but that will teach me to watch my dang feet!

And one last thing – while I was changing out the stools on my second floor back deck, I came across a weird little key. It had fallen onto the deck and back in a spot I never would have seen it had I not pulled everything out. It is definitely not ours so I am thinking someone out there dropped it but clearly they didn’t need it to drive home or we would have known it was lost sooner – lol. Anyone recognize this and want it back? Email me! Mistress@SxySadist.com