The Peanut Butter Heist....

This was definitely the year of peanut butter.... In 2016 I saw a definite shift towards the creamy, buttery foodstuff we all love. For years they had not shown any interest in peanut butter....A jar would sit for 6 months without being touched, and it would eventually have to be thrown away. Other things were happening around the house, so I knew they were around. And other foods would periodically disappear, but I couldn't figure out why they weren't interested. 


I don't know what created the shift, but once they discovered how good it is, or maybe how satisfying that peanut buttery goodness was... The jars started disappearing rapidly. One after one. Often times I would put a jar out and it would be gone by morning. Many days in a row, they would take the jar. There have been over 30 jars taken in the past four months. 


The first jar disappeared out of this basket on the berm on June 28th, 2016

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​I tried many different ways to make the peanut butter inaccessible to raccoons, possums and such. I wired the jars to the crate. I used duck tape. The jars were still taken, but sometimes it was obvious that it was critters.

In the photo to the left, I used 10lb test fishing line and raised the jar 7 to 8 feet off the ground. (In the photo to the right, the ground drops away very fast below the jar.)

I also taped some  Graham crakers in a ziplock bag to the jar.

If a raccoon were to crawl out on the limb and slide down the line, I believe the line would have broken. But that isn't what happened.

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The peanut butter was taken two nights in a row, and the line was Not broken. It was not even stretched. It looked as if the lid had been unscrewed, and the fishing line unlooped from around the neck of the jar, without any trauma to the line.

So on the third day I decided to punch a hole in the jar and tie the fishing line, and screw the lid down as usual. I then raised the peanut butter up high off the gound, as I had done the previous two nights.

The next morning...the peanut butter was gone, and the line was stretched and broken just like I would suspect.

None of the jars were in sight of the feeding area. I did discover, as I was walking the area searching for jars or lids, was this beautiful new structure that occured at around the same time as the peanut butter began disappearing. 

So for many months, I enjoyed trying to come up with ways to prove to myself that only something with two hands and opposable thumbs could take the peanut butter. I think I finally succeeded in convincing myself!

I've created a video showing my treatment of the jars, and of the feeding station area down on the berm.... Become a Subscriber to "Sketching Encounters" to see the rest!

Much love and light to you and yours in this new year!
​Sybilla

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