I know that photos always make a houseblog more fun, but it’s almost 11:30 pm and I’m up and just felt like writing, and so photos are out of the question. I’m not about to get out of bed (laptop) throw on some shoes, and run outside to take a photo in the dark of the front yard…but just so you know, Eric made quite a bit of progress yesterday. He ripped out almost half of the front walkway, and had Trevor come over and take a look and give some advice. As soon as Eric is done ripping out concrete and old paths, then Trevor will come in to set all the stone and build some walls for us. Trevor and his wife are expecting baby #2 soon, so we want to make sure to get him over here before he becomes overwhelmed with job and baby!

So, Cassidy, our bigger dog, has been staking out the back northwest corner of our yard with her nose pressed up against the fence. I love the way I can hear her breathing going in and out of her nose so loudly from the other side of the yard. She’s been smelling a lot of fun smells! Apparently the folks who live behind our house have a racoon and babies living under their shed which is right behind the back fence. Cassidy got into a fight with the racoon two days ago. Which Eric thought was funny, but then I wanted to know if he’d ever seen “Old Yeller”? Doesn’t he know it’s not good for family pets to fight with wild animals?? Just remember what happened to Old Yeller.

Eric met this racoon himself almost three weeks ago when he was sitting out in the hot tub, which is on the back northeast corner of the yard, late at night. Apparently the ‘coon came walking across the top of the wood fence, froze when it saw Eric, and then just stood there staring at Eric in the hot tub. Eric was a bit worried that the ‘coon was leaning forward and looked like it was thinking about jumping on him (I can just see Eric and a ‘coon fighting in the hot tub, sounds like a National Lampoon!). Eric quickly splashed some water on the racoon and he screeched and fell to the other side of the fence. I’d like to get the wilderness rehab people (or whatever they’re called) in here to trap the racoons and put them back in the wild where they belong. Apparently the woman who lives behind us thinks they’re cute and hopes they move off once the cubs are old enough to travel. Since they’re not living on our property, I guess we’ll hope they pack up soon!!