Guest entry: Twinkletoes...or learning to coexist with our (stinky) suburban neighbors

(Ok, this is not really food or plants, but I'm an animal lover, too...)

So we have a guest in our yard this year...we call him (maybe her?) "Twinkletoes". We noticed one day that something had eaten one of the ladies' eggs, and the ladies were not roosting where they were supposed to - they would hunker down over behind the raspberries and stay out at night. So the second or third night of this, the Campesino tried to shoo the ladies home. Juliet, our alpha-hen, stopped at the coop door and looked, and looked...and wouldn't go in. So Campesino opens the coop door, and from across the yard I hear, "Woah! OK ladies - you sleep wherever you want!"

Twinkletoes, in case you hadn't guessed, is our nocturnal black-and-white friend...a skunk. Of course, our first instinct was call someone to trap it - get rid of it. I called the federal trapper for the county, and when I told him what part of town we lived in, his response was, "Ah, the skunk capitol of the county." Great. So he was too busy to come trap Twinkletoes and he didn't want to accidentally trap one of the neighbor cats that roam our yard, either. So Twinkletoes (and family...there are at least two others) stayed.

Since then I've read that if you trap and remove them, other skunks or urban wildlife like raccoons will move in to take their place. I'd much rather have skunks, who eat the occasional egg, than raccoons, who kill full-grown chickens for sport, so I'm hoping the skunks discourage the 'coons from returning later this year. The chickens started laying in the ivy along the back fence, so Twinkletoes doesn't find the eggs very often (then again, neither do we...the chickens are pretty good at hiding them.)

Anyway, that was a few weeks ago, so we've decided to try to learn to live with our musky little friends. They're actually quite cute (I'll try and snap a photo one of these nights) and beneficial. They eat all sorts of undesirable garden pests: beetles, aphids, lawn grubs, black widows, rats and mice, etc. and downed-fruit, but so far nothing on the vine or plant. As soon as it's dark (and sometimes not even dark) Twinkletoes is out roaming the lawn and garden, nose down, sniffing and hunting very determinedly. We find these funny little snout holes all over the garden, about 3-4" across and 1-2" deep, where the skunk found a good snack to dig up. But they seem to be much less destructive than chickens can be in the garden - no digging up plants [Well, minimal digging up of plants, but not as bad as chickens - Campesino], eating ripe veggies or excessive scratching, just very targeted snout-sized digging.

Campesino has had some accidental but fortunately not stinky encounters with Twinketoes and sons, just surprising them out in the garden. But, as is usually the case with animals, they seem more scared of us than we are of them. We watched Twinkletoes hunt in the lawn for a few minutes the other night. He moved very quickly while hunting and didn't see us for a while, but as soon as he did (he was getting a bit close for our comfort - within about 10 feet) he shot back into a bush. Skunks are good diggers but crummy climbers and have very short legs, so they don't walk or bound like squirrels or cats, they...well, "twinkle". Think classic Tom & Jerry cartoons - you know when one is sneaking up on the other, only paw-fingertips moving with the "tinkle tinkle tinkle" sound effect? Just like that. They almost seem to levitate and travel without moving.

So, we'll see how co-existing with Twinkletoes and family goes!

What hast thou to do with me, Jacob?

We planted a type of bean called Jacob's Cattle this year. That's them at the the top of the post. The bean is a beautiful purple and white speckled heirloom variety. I don't know what it tastes like yet, but it sure is pretty. There is also a kind of sheep called Jacob's Sheep.

www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/sheep/jacob/index.htm

What does this have to do with anything you may ask. A more appropriate question is who is Jacob? Jacob is a biblical trickster character who tricked his twin brother out of his birthright and blessing; and then managed to get rich off of his father-in-law. Not exactly a paragon of virtue, but he is one of the patriarchs of the Bible. In fact his twelve sons begat the twelve tribes of Israel. {insertion by way of request from the campesino's wife: if you actually want to know why it is called Jacobs Cattle bean go to Genesis 30} Again, you might ask: So? I am in fact a somewhat religious person, but regardless of the meaning I take from biblical stories, I believe that in order to really understand western literature (or something as random as why a bean is called what it is) the Bible is required reading. I took a course in college called "Reading the Bible as Literature" and frankly it opened my eyes. I had read the entire book several times already, but only as a religious text. Frankly, you can not read Shakespeare or any number of authors from Augustine (maybe not the best example) to Margaret Atwood, and really understand what they are talking about, without a basic knowledge of biblical stories. So, if I was going to suggest anything I would say read the Old Testament (you can probably exclude Numbers). The New Testament has all kinds of interesting stuff, but the Old Testament has the best stories. You can't beat Eglon getting struck down by a left-handed man in his "cool private chamber." A simple story like that leads one to ask "Why the big deal over the left-hand?" and "would the fat really swallow up a knife?" Or, is the take home lesson from the story for the modern reader "Don't be an evil oppressive king" or "Don't talk to left-handed strangers while sitting on The Pot." These may not be literary questions, but I have wondered about them for many years.

Also, if you are reading Psalms, Proverbs, or really any book you need to use the King James Version. Not the most accurate but it reads like literature. The other versions make it easy to read (i.e. boring). Well, that last is not entirely true, but if you are reading it for literature, it needs to read like literature.

"I thought this was a gardening blog" you might say. So I leave you with Isaiah 5:8 "Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!" So there you have it, a biblical injunction against hogging all the land. Not because you will hurt others, but because you will need friends and helpers. Gardening alone is peaceful (and enjoy it), but we are made to be in community. So, though I dream of moving off to 100 acres in the middle of nowhere I know that I will probably stay in the area I am. However, in the American Dream kids are supposed to be better off than their parents. So I am aiming for least ten acres anyways, because my dad has seven.

(I will try and get the guest blogger back, she is actually better at this stuff.)

-A Campesino