Late night visitors

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baymareb

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Last night I heard some thumping around on the deck outside my window so I went to investigate. It was a momma raccoon and her four babies exploring and mooching for food. They're awful pests but they are so cute! Grabbed the camera and tried to get a few shots (note: the garbage bag in the photos is full of empty plastic water bottles - we don't leave any kind of trash out where the varmints can get it).

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Note the small face peeping out from under the bench at the right.
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Aww, I can imagine they can be a pain though! But they are adorable, with big illuminous glow in the dark eye balls! :D:D

They didn't run away then? Thought they would scarper when they saw a human.
 
if it wasn't for the fact they are renouned for causing so much chaos and mayhem and having razor sharp teeth they would be totally adorable
 
sarahsum1 said:
They didn't run away then? Thought they would scarper when they saw a human.
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Oh, no. They're quite bold. If I'd approached too closely they would have run but they were determined to stick it out and find something to mooch.

We've also had baby skunks here and if you think raccoons are cute, there is nothing as cute as a baby skunk! They were practically tame - Momma never bothered about people or cats - just serenely led her troupe of 7 babies around. The babies would romp right up to us and nibble on our shoe tops. I have no pics because they got too close to take them!
 
baymareb said:
Oh, no. They're quite bold. If I'd approached too closely they would have run but they were determined to stick it out and find something to mooch.

We've also had baby skunks here and if you think raccoons are cute, there is nothing as cute as a baby skunk! They were practically tame - Momma never bothered about people or cats - just serenely led her troupe of 7 babies around. The babies would romp right up to us and nibble on our shoe tops. I have no pics because they got too close to take them!
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Awww! Do skunks only smell when they spray? Also do other people kill the racoons? If they are in their lofts or just being a pain? :)

We only ever get the odd fox, but they tend to run away if you even open a door. Had a hedgehog visit the other day :D
I bet it's wonderful living in California isn't it?
 
They are soooo cute! We never get any fun or 'exotic' animals in england :(. Its always rats and rabbits with the odd deer. Although we do get a recurring visitor; a fox with a gimpy leg that its had since it was a littlun, seems to get around totally fine!
 
Yes, skunks only smell when they spray. If you don't startle them or corner them, they aren't a problem. And most people don't kill the raccoons - they just keep their trash in secure bins and try to remove temptation!

I love California! It's beautiful and there are so many different types of landscape. My house is nestled in a Redwood grove but I'm 20 minutes away from San Jose, 45 minutes from San Francisco, 20 minutes from the ocean. Anything I want is within close driving distance and the weather is gorgeous. :)
 
hannabanana said:
They are soooo cute! We never get any fun or 'exotic' animals in england :(. Its always rats and rabbits with the odd deer. Although we do get a recurring visitor; a fox with a gimpy leg that its had since it was a littlun, seems to get around totally fine!
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Well, to be fair we also get things like rattlesnakes and mountain lions which aren't nearly as much fun as raccoons!

And you have all those wonderful pony breeds - we don't have anything like them in the States.
 
baymareb said:
Yes, skunks only smell when they spray. If you don't startle them or corner them, they aren't a problem. And most people don't kill the raccoons - they just keep their trash in secure bins and try to remove temptation!

I love California! It's beautiful and there are so many different types of landscape. My house is nestled in a Redwood grove but I'm 20 minutes away from San Jose, 45 minutes from San Francisco, 20 minutes from the ocean. Anything I want is within close driving distance and the weather is gorgeous. :)
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Well I am not jealous at all!! :eek::eek::D

Sounds beautiful, I have a family friend who lives in Idaho, They live in the middle of nowhere by the sounds of it, and have big black bears coming up to their cabin. They fell trees for a living. (think that's the correct term) I would prefer to live by the ocean though!

Do you have any photos of the local area? I'm so nosey :D
 
baymareb said:
I love California! It's beautiful and there are so many different types of landscape. My house is nestled in a Redwood grove but I'm 20 minutes away from San Jose, 45 minutes from San Francisco, 20 minutes from the ocean. Anything I want is within close driving distance and the weather is gorgeous. :)
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Oh lucky you! rub it in :p. While I have to sit here and look out the window to see it is STILL p!s.sing it down with rain. There has been no such thing as a summer this year :(.
Although it did mean I got to put my new sexy pink rug on!

:eek::eek::eek: Mountain lions!! I think I wil stick with the rabbits...:o
 
sarahsum1 said:
Do you have any photos of the local area? I'm so nosey :D
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Not at all! I love showing off where I live. :)

These first few are at the farm where I board my mare. They have a vineyard and winery as well and lovely trails in the mountains.

The vineyards
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Entrance to the trail
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Out on the trail. To the right, you can see San Jose in the distance.
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Redwoods surrounding our deck
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At the beach
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Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk - rides and amusements right on the beach (my daughter modeling)
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One of the many old Spanish missions
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WOW!!! Really beautiful! I love the redwood trees! Don't you have to be careful out hacking! With wild mountain lions and bears wandering around?
The beach looks amazing too :D
 
No bears around her to my knowledge. I have never in my life seen a mountain lion though I did see tracks once. They do tend to be shy and there are so many riders and also cyclists on the trails that I think they'd be scared off.

Mostly I worry about the cyclists when out hacking - they come flying around turns and down hills and can be quite alarming to the horses. As for animals, we often see deer and coyotes on the trail but the horses pretty much ignore them. In fact, there is a pack of coyotes that live in the pasture. The pasture horses don't seem to care.
 
hannabanana said:
Do you get earthquakes???
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Oh, yes. My house is actually about 50 yards from the San Andreas Fault - it runs parallel to us just across the road.

Earthquakes are rather neat as long as they stay below around a 5.5 magnitude. I haven't felt anything larger than that and don't really want to but it's not like the way they portray them on TV - they don't happen all the time. In the 11 years I've been here, I've only felt a handful, all but one relatively small. The one was about a 5.5 and that was pretty neat.
 
Oh well plenty of smashed plates I guess? Good thing about Britain is its slap bang in the middle of a tectonic plate so we wouldnt get anything. They always make them look really scary on the telivision. The amount of things I have watched I would be paranoid about living next to a faultline/volcano/ocean/unstable cliff side/flashy river :p
 
Well it all sounds amazing! If you fancy swapping with me to lovely cold and raining UK then i'll get the paperwork ready now :p:D
 
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