Big Vegetables and a Possum tale

We dug the last of the carrots, leeks, and potatoes out of the garden last week. This is our biggest potato. A Yukon potato weighing 1 pound, 4 ounces. That's a AA battery beside it.

Our longest carrot - a full foot.

Something I didn't get pictures of was shooing the possum out of the chicken coop. It was full dark when Stephen went out to do the chicken chore. We usually close up the coop when it is at dusk but we were busy. For some reason, the small chicken sized door was shut. The wire had broken or slipped off or something but anyway, the door was shut. Stephen went to mess with the door and he saw something that didn't look like a chicken in the last nesting box. He wisely came up to get me. He was sure that it was a possum. I was just glad it wasn't a skunk!

We got the door fixed open so that the possum could leave if it wanted to. I wasn't sure how aggressive a cornered possum would be. It turns out that they aren't very agressive at all. He/she(?) was more scared of me and just wanted to avoid me. I checked with a pole and sure enough, a big possum was in the last nesting box. I poked him about ten times, but he didn't want to move. So I left and watched through the window figuring that if we left him alone, he'd wander out on his own. He didn't. So I got a shovel and went back in.

I poked him and hit him and hit the nesting box. All the chickens got nervous and ran to the farthest part of the coop from me but that possum wasn't coming out. Finally I pried him out of the nest and he fell down. Believe it or not, he walked RIGHT PAST the open door and headed under the roosts. I stopped him with the shovel and prodded him some more and finally got him turned around and walking back towards the boxes. He was going to walk right past that open door again. I was able to shove him out the door with the shovel and he ran away. And of course, this happened when my dh was away on a business trip.