I Really NEED a Bigger House!

  With all this craze of downsizing to a thing called a "Tiny House", many folks are ditching their worldly goods and going with the bare essentials.  That is all fine and dandy.  For that matter, my sister and brother-in-law did just that.  They gave away almost every "luxury" item or nonessential item to live with the basics.  Their new house is absolutely gorgeous!  I could fully go that route if it was just up to me but it is not.  There are others that live in the Little Bayou House and I doubt that neither Hubby nor Son would appreciate being in much more cramped quarters.  We all need our space...even from each other occasionally and, as you can gather from the name "Little Bayou House", our home is not huge.  Downsizing would be pushing it.  That said, I do NOT need a bigger home.  Someone else does.

  This morning, I worked cleaning some of the "winter" from the yard.  Things accumulated over the past few months from, not only our construction work but just life in general.  As I hauled limbs and boards to the burn pile, I noticed something strange was happening in the top of the dead pine that sits near the marsh.  This tree was struck by lightning years ago and now stands like a stoic guard overseeing the entirety of the Bayou.  This is where the osprey sits as she waits for a tidbit from her suitor.  This is where the blackbirds roost to guard their wives as they sit on nests.  This is where the flying squirrels romp in and out the holes left by woodpeckers.   Although the tree is dead, it is full of life.  Today, however, a new resident was in the topmost hole.  What drew my attention to the tree was a blob of brown fur that was poking out of the top of the tree.  At first, I was not sure if it was even a critter or some weird type of hairy mold growing on the tree.  As I toted limbs, I kept watch on the hole and, suddenly, a bit of movement!  Aha!  A critter had moved into the tiny house!

  A raccoon had decided that the abandoned woodpecker hole was large enough for a nap.  The coon was wrong.  It was far from being enough room for a nap.  Part of its coon's back stuck out of the hole and its head and right ear stuck out a hole on the other side of the tree.  The coon literally overfilled its tiny house!  Sleeping the day away in this cramped position did not seem to be the brightest idea but, somehow, the raccoon seemed happy.  Come tonight, the coon will be on the prowl and will most likely seek a different nook to take its daytime snooze at sunrise.  Sometimes, you've just got to "upsize" instead of trying to downsize.  Tiny houses are not for everyone.  It is hard to fit a raccoon in a flying squirrel's nest no matter how hard you try.