Intruders and Visitors of Another Kind

If by any chance we hadn’t been able to make it to camp for awhile, which wasn’t often, we liked to pop in, check it out and see how things were. Pretty much, just to step foot in and breath in the familiar smell of the Schoolhouse. We’d walk around, inside and out. Open cupboards in the kitchen, check the fridge,  in hopes it was still running. Make sure everything was in its place and how we left it.  There would almost always be random mouse droppings here and there, but no other signs of life.  Well…on a normal day….

At some point in 2013, we did just that. Popped in. I opened the door, coming in off the porch and stopped.  My first thought was we had an earthquake.  The only thing that made sense to me. Every shelf was cleared off. Things everywhere. As I walked through and into the galley kitchen, my mouth dropped.  What in the hell?? Our white cabinets had black smeared on them, as well as the door casing. I turn and look at the enamel topped Hoosier and see little footprints.  Then I noticed the poop left behind in the castiron farmers sink. Nice! Gahh..In all of the confusion and trying to figure out what and how, we noticed the cleanout door to the chimney was cracked open. A raccoon had made its way down the chimney and into the house, making a sooty mess! Next thought, as we’re looking at each other…is it still in here?? Trying to decide whether we wanted to find out or not, we left the front doors open. All parties had an escape route. We continued into our investigation only to find the critter had already evacuated. It did leave us another parting gift. Poop!! On the bed!!

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That wouldn’t be our only visit by a raccoon. I had never seen or heard one here in all the years we’ve stayed. Porcupine, we’ll periodically hear chewing on wood outside. Which, by the way, is crazy loud in the middle of the night. It’ll wake you out of a dead sleep. We’d hear mice and ermine running in the walls and overhead in the attic (I refuse to go up there).  We’d hear the mice rustling in a chip or cookie bag in the kitchen. With the house buttoned up, gaps sealed and 4 cats…mice don’t have a chance inside, if they manage to make it in. Unless we save them.  Pftt…

During the late summer 2012 or 13, we had as porcupine that kept showing up. I was more concerned about the dogs then anything. I spotted a porcupine one afternoon coming from the alcove, which heads to the breezeway. The breezeway isn’t on a foundation, just posts, and underneath isn’t enclosed. Most likely,  that’s where he’d been. The shed, being attached to the breezeway, didn’t have a solid floor and sat on blocks. Any critter looking for a cozy place could easily get in. Being exactly what we didn’t want.  I told Jesse about the porcupine and he ran out and grabbed a broom and an axe. Long story short…the porcupine turned around and looked Jesse square in the eyes.  The axe dropped to the ground and the visitor was shooed off with the broom. Apparently, he looked a lot like our pet guinea pig, Ozzy. Jesse couldn’t cause him any harm. Not that I wanted him to. Later that afternoon, Willa, our St. Bernard/Newfoundland walked up to me. That’s when I noticed a single quill sticking out the tip of her nose. She never even saw the porcupine. She had sniffed the broom that was used to shoo the bugger off.

A few weeks later I kept hearing noises coming from the outhouse. Mostly up in the ceiling. The overhead storage in the shed is directly over the outhouses. It had just been cleaned out. Everything and anything that had been stored up there, was covered and coated in animal feces and urine. It was disgusting. It all went. As the noises continued, I borrowed a live trap from as friend. After a few failed attempts, we finally caught our guest. It wasn’t the porcupine I was expecting.  It was a raccoon. A very disgruntal one too. The raccoon was relocated a few miles away, with the chance it may return. Shortly after, that same day, I heard scratching and thumping again. This time in the wall of the outhouse. Our son-in-law climbed up in the overhead storage and listened.  The noise was definitely coming from the wall, between the studs. He reached down and up came flying a baby raccoon.  It literally ran up his arm to his shoulder and jumped down from the storage area into the main part of the woodshed. Hissing, growling, spitting. Cute, but scary! Four more, not so aggressive, siblings followed. I felt terrible. The mother was gone, the babies were running up into trees, into the fields. We’d unknowingly split up a family. The thought still bothers me, seeing these pictures.

The last to come out of hiding was calm and docile. Our daughter wanted to keep it. Obviously, it’s adorable. Who doesn’t dream of having a pet raccoon? But, that wasn’t an option. With a little nudging and coaxing, the littlest ran off with it’s siblings. My guilty conscience often wonders if they made it in the big scary woods or if their mother came looking for them.

March 2015 I made another “check in” trip. I did our routine walk through. Nothing askew, everything was where it should be and working. I hung out for a bit and enjoyed the beautiful day. I was getting ready to leave and was closing the Schoolhouse back up. I stepped into the breezeway to use the outhouse before I headed back out.

When I opened the door to the outhouse, I automatically thought someone broke in and trashed the bathroom. I could not process the mess I was seeing. It took a few. I was flabbergasted by what I was looking at……

All I saw was mud. Mud everywhere. Then it dawned on me. It wasn’t Mud. Not. At. All.

Once my brain settled, I noticed little paw prints, chewing, scratching and a few stray quills.

A porcupine had pushed itself through the closed toilet seat and lid. Apparently,  the lid fell back down and trapped it in the outhouse. During this adventure, he just so happened to be covered in the contents of the toilet. With every move, he smeared. And smeared some more. Eventually,  he escaped, by chewing the wooden center piece out of the window, which loosened the glass and dug through the screen. What a mess! All I could think….thankfully it was March and still cool out!! This could have been much nastier!

The outhouse was scrubbed clean. It took us 5 years to find an old window to replace the destroyed one. After searching junk places and antique crap places, we found one for $5 a few towns over! In the mean time, I cut insulation board to fit, used as piece of plywood and plastic. Wasn’t pretty, but it worked.

The only other animal we’ve unexpectedly had inside was a bird. With a nest of babies. There had been a broken pane of glass in the breezeway at one time. Well, mother bird thought it would be a safe place to build her home. We left them and they eventually left on their own. Birds nest are really gross. Not just from all the droppings, but the bugs that emerge from the nest. The bugs that initially emerged from the living birds. Lice and mites. You can bet I fumigated the breezeway….itching and scratching the remainder of the day. I seriously have the heebie geebies thinking about it. And that window also got fixed.

We’ve seen, heard, even smelled numerous wild animals here in Kingsbury. Some even coming uncomfortably close. Sitting by the fire one night it was so dark you couldn’t see beyond the light of the flames. I heard huffing, heavy breathing and the slap of large pads on the gravel. A black bear was running down the road. Not bothered by us sitting by a fire. He just kept on his merry way. I on the other hand, flew off the bench and ran for the house. Another evening by the fire, we had a gorgeous fox go sprinting by. I yelled, “hello foxy, foxy”. To my surprise, it turned around and started walking towards us. Head tilted off to the side. It was quite curious itself. “No foxy, foxy. Carry on” and it did.

I usually catch a glimpse of the wildlife as I’m gawking out the windows. Moose crossing the bog down below us (where I saw mother bear and 3 babies this summer), trudging across the snowy field in the winter. Sometimes nonchalantly down the middle of the road. On a snowy afternoon I watched a fairly large moose for quite sometime. He was struggling getting across the field through the heavy snow. I ran outside, climbed up on the 7ft snowbank and watched him. I thought to myself, he’s only got 2 ways to go once he hits the road. Not 2 minutes later, he was trotting right towards me. I ran back to our side, up onto the snowbank. Then I thought it would be my best interest to get closer to the house. So I was heading for the front stairs. I just about crapped myself! The moose decided to come trotting down our driveway, that was plowed, with nowhere for this big guy to go. With his crappy sight, he was running straight at me. I spun around, got myself tangled and caught up in the dog lead, trying to get inside the door. My heart was racing, the moose retreated and I was having a mini anxiety attack on the enclosed porch. All was good. I got my pictures.

Over the years, the sightings of wildlife have slimmed down tremendously. From seeing moose weekly, hearing the coyotes regularly, identifying tracks and scat for enjoyment….I now see a moose yearly, hear the coyotes periodically and hardly any sign of physical life. Regardless, I’ll keep scanning fields, watching our hawks skim across the ground and hope to see some more beautiful wildlife. Hopefully with camera in hand.