Sigh…Every year we have crop failures. Blame the raccoons for the watermelons. We have a gorgeous field of watermelons that are just about ripe. But the raccoons know this, too. I think every raccoon in Boulder County must be visiting our farm at night. We have a field full of hundreds of watermelons. About 70% of them have been eaten by the raccoons. I can just imagine the tubby little raccoons sticking their sharp claws through the watermelon rind, then using their paws to scoop out all the delicious, sweet flesh of the watermelon. Then they waddle away with their full bellies after a night of gorging in our field.

Watermelons eaten by racoons

A few years ago the coyotes found the watermelon field. They would pull the melons off the plant and roll them away. Then they would open them up and eat every last bit up to the green skin, so that skin would collapse on itself.

The watermelons are at our farm on Valmont Road. Wyatt says that next year we will try putting the watermelons at the farm where we live, on 63rd Street. The soil at 63rd Street isn’t as good for melons–it has too much clay. But we have 2 big dogs who woof all night and keep the coyotes and raccoons away. Maybe then you will all get to enjoy some watermelon on a hot August day.