Jonathan Moeller vs The Great Raccoon War
Why did it take so long to finish BLADE OF THIEVES?
Well, I had a couple of things to take care of in Real Life, one of which involved raccoons.
In the corner of my yard I started seeing…well, let’s call them large “deposits” of waste, if you get my drift. Like, really large. So large that I was wondering if one of the neighbors was getting drunk and leaving deposits in the yard. A brief consult with my brother, who is in pest control, confirmed that my neighbor was not getting drunk and relieving himself on the lawn.
However, I did have a raccoon nesting nearby. This was probably unavoidable, since a lot of the neighboring houses tend to have overflowing trash cans that they don’t secure properly. But I didn’t want the raccoon relieving itself in the yard, because raccoon droppings are nasty with various parasites, and also draw lots of clouds of flies. For that matter, the raccoon might be looking for a place to nest, and I really didn’t want a family of them living in my yard because they’re so destructive.
So, after some research, I covered the portion of the yard the raccoon was using as a latrine with pepper flakes, which repels raccoons.
The good news: the next morning I saw no raccoon droppings.
The bad news: the raccoon responded by going berserk and gnawing holes into my deck. To be fair, I probably wouldn’t be happy if someone dumped a lot of pepper flakes on my toilet, but still.
Thankfully, it never quite made a hole large enough to squeeze into the space beneath the deck, but it ruined a couple of different deck boards. I was tight for time at the moment, so at first I covered the holes with bricks and then got a couple of motion-triggered strobe lights/ultrasonic generators.
(The motion detectors really did the trick – I haven’t had any more raccoons problems since I installed them.)
Once I had more time, I bought new boards, ripped up the old ones, installed the new boards, and then painted them. I’m still not entirely done, but the motion detectors have been keeping the raccoons away.
So that is just one of the reasons it took so long to finish BLADE OF THIEVES!
I’ve been a homeowner for a while now, and when I started I didn’t realize how much time I would spend in battle against Woodland Creatures. Raccoons are just the latest. I’ve had problems with mice, red squirrels, gray squirrels, spiders, ants, wasps, and woodpeckers.
No bears yet, though I suppose it’s only a matter of time. 🙂
-JM