I woke this morning to Patti Smith’s post The Sphere of Generosity, where she describes the dread she is feeling, that is infusing the air between news of ICE, war between Iran and Israel, climate change, injustice — and then the joy, humor and generosity that also endures in our humanity. As I’ve shared before, my best antidote to the dread, which easily leads me to doom scrolling and anxiety, is to cultivate my garden, sweep the barn, and find some purpose and connection within my island community. My piano students played in a recital at the island performance center this week, and we continue to tell stories of diverse communities via food narratives, recipes and ingredients at our farmers market popup, welcome distractions.
This past week, now that the weather is finally warming here, Beau and I have been spring cleaning the barn, making order in the accumulated chaos of the winter months, creating a space where our countless projects are set up for success over the warmer months when we enjoy barnlife.
Yesterday, while I was filling up a cupboard we found in the Free Pile at our local Transfer Station (aka the dump), assigning it all of our gardening-related potions, pots and tools, Beau called me outside to the raspberry bramble that runs along the barn beside our lean-to wood shed. A drama was playing out.
We have extensive video footage of the animals that appear around the house and barn, and our most regular appearance is just your run of the mill raccoon, who we normally see wandering around at night. Beau had been surprised to see it, in person, a couple days ago, looking rather tired as it emerged from under the barn to head for the forest in broad daylight. “What’s the raccoon doing up at this hour”, Beau wondered.
But yesterday, it was out in broad daylight again, only this time in the company of adorable baby raccoons, clearly scared and confused. Ah, that explains the unusual daytime activity from our nocturnal raccoon — we all know how babies disrupt our sleep cycles! This ruckus coincided with the generator going on, just behind the barn, which it does, quite noisily, every Friday afternoon for about 15 minutes. I’m going to guess it might have woken up the raccoon family!
As we approached to see what was going on the baby raccoon turned from its mother and headed in our direction, as if we were the ones who were going to keep it safe, turning its back on its mother raccoon.
The mother was distraught as her kit scurried toward us, so we backed away from it, into the barn, and watched her herd the baby back to safety.
But this wasn’t the end of the saga. Another kit was mewing frantically in the bushes. You can hear the loud generator in the background. We went back inside, hoping the mamma would rescue this one too.
After about 30 minutes, we checked in and saw that the baby raccoon was still crying in the grass behind the barn. Worried it would be a quick ready-meal for an owl, eagle or hawk, Beau decided to take matters into his own brave hands.
I thought the growls that started as Beau brought the wee kit back closer to its supposed nesting area under the barn, was the protective mother raccoon, but apparently the little kit is capable of both mewing and growling. Once deposited closer to safety, the kit scurried under the barn, and I heard it mewing for a good half hour more as I continued my organizational quest inside the barn.
Soon enough the sounds subsided, and I can only hope the family was reunited, though I saw no signs of any of them in our cams last night. Last year we saw footage of a mamma raccoon roaming around the peach tree at night, with her babies, but alas the raccoons did not make any appearances last night, so we can only speculate that they were reunited.
And because everything is growing and blossoming on the farm, and on the island, regardless of world affairs, here’s a few snaps. Have a great week!
