In the garden, and RAIN!!!!

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 216 of 1154

PREV PAGE 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 NEXT PAGE

6IXSTRINGJACK

Monday, July 15, 2019 8:05 AM

I think I'm going to see what I can do to verify that the racoon is out, and focus now solely on closing up access to the attic to keep others out.

I'm thinking that you're right about the gear I should be wearing, but I lost a ton of water by sweating up there for the 10 whole minutes that I was putting up the ammonia and setting it out. I was shirtless at the time. I think an unforseen side effect of doing this at this time of year would be me passing out while I'm up there.

I wore one of those suits with the filter and goggles the whole time I removed the mold out of the basement. It was just as hot as it is around here right now, but that was in a basement... not an attic that reaches around 120 degrees during the day in this weather. I was also only 32 at the time.

I think I might go up with gloves and a bag with a mask on early one morning just to get the large pieces out of there, but when it comes to taking any time to really scrubbing anything I think it's going to have to wait until the fall.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

SIGNYM

Monday, July 15, 2019 5:33 PM

Oh yeah... speaking of weather ... I see we have a 10-degree cooldown come Wednesday. I'm doing my very best to get the yardwork done (as much as I can) and the furniture moved back into our bedroom and the shower fixtures put back so we can move back into our bedroom again, before my sinus surgery next Monday. 'Cause I know for sure that I'm not supposed to bend over or lift anything heavy ... or sneeze, or blow my nose hard... for the next few days, and for sure I'm going to be sleeping like shit until the swelling goes down.

Also we ran into a bit of a snag buttoning up the under-sink holes. At the last sink, hubby moved the copper supply lines a bit, and the damn things sprang a leak! One was leaking from the connection to the sink, the other was leaking from the shut-off valve under the sink. YIKES! He managed to jiggle it back into place and stop the valve leak, the other he disconnected, but now we have another repair to make.

*****

Yeah, I hear ya SIX. Attic work, no fun! I found, from my elderly vantage point, that hydrating AHEAD of time, really helps. I drink at least a half-liter of water even before I take puppy-wuppy out for a walk, and at least another half-liter before yardwork. (I just keep re-using an old Powerade bottle.) But, yeah, fall... sounds like a MUCH better option! Working when half-passed out leads to a lot of errors.

-----------
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 .

BRENDA

Monday, July 15, 2019 10:38 PM

Sunny here today. Suppose to head for a rain by Wednesday.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Tuesday, July 16, 2019 12:04 AM

Yeah, Sigs...

I don't think this house is going to be ready to sell until at least the fall anyhow. My friend kind of berated me on the phone the other day for asking how much he'd charge me to come over to help me with a teardown and said he knows I'm freaking out about things but he's still going to come over and we're going to fix the porch and make it structurally sound. He says I've just got to be patient since he's got a really busy schedule from now to the end of the month. If we can actually do that, as well as fix another more minor problem with the front porch, that will bring an end to my constant feeling of immediacy with all of this and will allow me more time to actually get some more internal rehab stuff done (the stuff that I'm comfortable doing with my skills and money on my own).

Besides, the house would likely sell much better in spring or early summer, and it's too late for that this year unless I just sell it for cash.

In the mean time, as horrendous as it smells up in that porch attic, it doesn't smell at all in the house (or even if you're sitting out in the porch itself, which I regularly do for smoke breaks since I don't smoke in the house proper). If my whole house smelled like a damn zoo because of it, I'd be in a much bigger hurry to clean it up, but really my only priority with the racoon at this point is just getting it out and making sure it can't get back in.

Honestly though, even without heat being an issue currently, I'm kind of afraid to go up there and do anything. I can't imagine that it would stay up there with that ammonia wafting through the air everywhere, but the possibility of being surprised and bitten has been enough to keep me from biting the bullet and going up there.

I wish I had a way of knowing for sure if it was out while I'm up there, and more importantly... if it took any potential litter it had with it when it left.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

6IXSTRINGJACK

Tuesday, July 16, 2019 6:49 AM

Found my countersink bit set. Well... part of it anyway. Got the box with two of the three bits, but missing a third bit and the do-dad you need to plug it into a drill. Talk about a needle in a haystack there...

I did find my mask though. I was wrong. They are P100 filters. Even better, I have an unopened box of filters to change out when I get around to cleaning that attic up. :)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

SIGNYM

Tuesday, July 16, 2019 8:12 AM

Awesome! on the filters! That should make you feel a whole lot better!

Hey, I have a random question: Has anyone heard anything from JO? Last I heard he was hinting that he wouldn't be able to keep his house; was he serious? Is he OK?

-----------
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 .

BRENDA

Tuesday, July 16, 2019 9:09 AM

Been for my yearly review and got the results today. All numbers are good. I am in perfect health for a 54year old woman.

1KIKI

Tuesday, July 16, 2019 12:55 PM

https://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3364.htm

https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/conservation/wildlife/Pages/Raccoon.aspx

Here's some information I found on a couple of websites that's appropriate to your climate. I was surprised to see that coons den during the winter where it's cold! Here, the only time they den is when a female has and is raising her pups. And here females in dens with their litters are VERY quiet because males predate on babies. And ... like a cat, she'll often relocate her pups partway through their babyhood for the same reason.

Your legal ability to /trap and euthanize/ or /trap and relocate/ is determined by state, county, or local law, whichever is most restrictive. But I think once you either get rid of her or find she's no longer around (does your county have a pest-control service*?), you'll be able to comfortably block any openings without being nervous; and the clean-up and repairs can be securely done whenever they can be done.

*I had a rather large bee swarm on my front fence which is right at the edge of the sidewalk, and I called the county because it seemed rather dangerous, and they sent out a bee relocation team RIGHT AWAY. In fact right after I hung up the phone I went a couple blocks to ACE to get some of those stand-up yellow caution signs and caution tape - it took me maybe 15 minutes - and by the time I got back the bees were gone. So, I recount this story because sometimes the county or city had some useful services.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Tuesday, July 16, 2019 7:32 PM

Will my county/city take care of it?

That's a good question.

My grams lives in one Chicago suburb in Illinois that will immediately come over and take care of the problem (or at least she knows that's how it used to be). My friend says that's bullshit and after charging him $250 deposit on a racoon trap for a rental property he had, they nickel and dimed him to death "following up" on things until he owed a total of $500 to basically take care of the problem himself and says the worst thing I can do is let the city know.

Here in Indiana, I think they'd be generally more help than a hindrance. I would have already made the call on it long ago, but until the porch is fixed I don't want to invite anybody in here that doesn't need to be.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

6IXSTRINGJACK

Tuesday, July 16, 2019 11:57 PM

Probably shouldn't jinx myself, but I don't believe in that jinx crap anyhow...

I think I took care of the racoon problem.

It's overcast, muggy as crap and raining off and on today, but without that oppressive sun heat baking the roof I figured it was either today or I might have to wait until September to do it.

Instead of wasting time and money buying lumber that might have made the job easier and look better, I didn't want to do anything that would keep me from taking care of this once and for all and I improvised with what I had. Doesn't matter what it looks like up there since I've lived here 8 years and until the racoon problem I never even knew what it looked like (or the fact that there was actually nothing stopping this from becoming a problem the entire time I lived here too).

Without going into any confusing detail (I'll have pics up eventually), I fashioned some blockage out of old weatherproofed 4x4's from a since removed pool deck, and after they were in place I used some 1/4" wood scraps I had to screw into those to totally block off access to the house attic from the porch attic. Then I found a whole bunch of bricks that I had recently "unearthed" while cleaning out my garage last week and blocked off the access hole she had (that has been there since I owned the house, which is why I don't understand why this has only now become a problem).

Time will tell if this truly solves the problem, but I can't imagine a single way a racoon could get into the actual house now. I'm hoping this was all I needed to do to keep them out of the porch too.

Oh... and without getting all the gear on, I just cleaned up the crap too. I didn't bleach or anything, but I just covered my hands with some plastic bags tied off, then triple bagged some other grocery bags to fill and I'm done with it. There had to be at least 3 lbs of it that I got out of there. I tried looking everywhere that I could and didn't see anymore. I'm hoping that she didn't do it in the house attic that I have no access to without tearing down walls. But as long as she's not coming back in ever again that would eventually dry out and there shouldn't be any smell as long as the behavior doesn't continue.

Hopefully I don't die of some brain parasite. But I can assure you, as tempting as it was, I didn't eat any of the shit.

After around 3 days of getting nearly nothing done and feeling super guilty about it, I'm very happy with how the day has turned out so far. Fingers crossed. :)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

PREV PAGE 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 NEXT PAGE