Caroline Burch: Postcard from the Backyard

A home improvement project satisfies the neighbors.

For the past two years the stone walkway going into my garden shed was only half finished. Last Sunday I decided to complete the job. Two hours later, after setting in the final stones, weeding around all the existing stones, and spreading down mulch, I stepped back to admire my work. Fortunately, I also thought to take the picture above.

Little did I know that two days later, I would go out in the morning to find it looking like this.

It soon became evident (by the path of destruction and faint odor) that an opportunistic skunk was on a nocturnal mission to find grubs, worms, and other tasty morsels in the newly disturbed dirt. The skunk also completely uprooted a newly planted boxwood shrub, tossing it unceremoniously aside while investigating the hole. I imagine it had been watching the whole earth-moving operation from afar, gleefully rubbing its little paws together in anticipation of a nighttime feast.


When I told our creative director, Alethea Morrison, about the skunk’s destructive shenanigans, she appropriately responded, “That stinks.”

Caroline Burch is Storey’s production director. She lives in Stamford, Vermont.