Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app Cam I.
Speaker 2: Am forty being everywhere on the iHeartRadio app Welcome Home.
Speaker 1: I am Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. I design custom homes,
Speaker 1: I build custom homes, and I am your guide to
Speaker 1: better understand that place where you live today on the show.
Speaker 1: We look forward to doing this every year. This weekend,
Speaker 1: the weekend after Thanksgiving, we are going to be diving
Speaker 1: into this year's House Whisper Holiday Gift Guide. I've got
Speaker 1: thirty items up on the gift Guide. We're going to
Speaker 1: take today and tomorrow's show to discuss them with you,
Speaker 1: to explain why they have made it, why they have
Speaker 1: ascended to the heights to belong on the gift Guide.
Speaker 1: And this is for the di wire, the person who
Speaker 1: makes stuff, the maker in your life and everything from
Speaker 1: stocking stuffers up to some seriously you know, one time,
Speaker 1: one off gifts, but most of them somewhere in between.
Speaker 1: So it's the Holiday Gift Guide. I'm excited to dive
Speaker 1: into it with you, and of course we're doing that
Speaker 1: and your calls today as always taken calls. Anything you
Speaker 1: want to talk about that's got you scratching your head
Speaker 1: about your home. The number to reach me eight three
Speaker 1: three two. Ask Dean A three three the numeral two.
Speaker 1: Ask Dean eight three three two. Ask Dean. I know
Speaker 1: you're full of turkey or whatever you ate this week
Speaker 1: and leftovers. I know you're a little bit sleepy. I'm
Speaker 1: just letting you know. We've got plenty to talk about.
Speaker 1: But Saturday mornings light, light time and the best time
Speaker 1: to give a shot at calling in to get on
Speaker 1: the air. Why, because you know all of your peers
Speaker 1: and your competitors, many of them are asleep even as
Speaker 1: we speak. Because it's an early show, but not too
Speaker 1: early to have some fun talking about your home and
Speaker 1: also the gift guide. Today, let me introduce our awesome
Speaker 1: team to you. Sam is on the board wrangling our
Speaker 1: live studio audience. Good morning, Sam, Good morning Dean. It's
Speaker 1: nice hearing you. It was good seeing you just in
Speaker 1: front of human beings last week. Last that was really
Speaker 1: cool last Sunday. Did you like the show? I thought
Speaker 1: it was a good show. I absolutely loved it. It was
Speaker 1: so nice seeing everybody out there, and really I look
Speaker 1: forward to those live audience shows with you because you
Speaker 1: really bring in the best crowd. And we had some
Speaker 1: great guests too with us. We had Sharon Belli Oh
Speaker 1: from the Conway Show Legendary Share and she's just such
Speaker 1: a love. We had Neil Savadra, he's just such a love.
Speaker 1: And and we had Amy King, who is such a love.
Speaker 1: They were all just some of my best buds here
Speaker 1: at KFI who took time out of the No, we
Speaker 1: did not pay them extra money, No, they were just
Speaker 1: here out of the love of hanging out with their
Speaker 1: buddy on the radio for a while. So I greatly
Speaker 1: appreciated and all of the listeners who turned out, all
Speaker 1: of the folks who turned up at Aldick Home after
Speaker 1: the show, big turnout over there, and Aldick homb for
Speaker 1: sponsoring the whole thing. The tree was gorgeous. Brian and
Speaker 1: Mada and and Rosie just made it just stunning. And
Speaker 1: then we gave it away. We gave it away anyway.
Speaker 1: It was a great time. We had a We had
Speaker 1: a hoot of a time, and I look forward to
Speaker 1: doing that every year. That's always the Sunday before Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: and then we try our best the weekend after Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: which is today, to dive right into the holidays, because
Speaker 1: I know yesterday was Black Friday, Today is Small Business Saturday,
Speaker 1: and Monday is Cyber Monday. They're gonna end up with
Speaker 1: a name for every day of the week. Follow anything
Speaker 1: to just get your shopping for stuff anyway. I know
Speaker 1: you're going to be interested in that, and so we've
Speaker 1: got a great gift guide for you. Matt Toffler standing
Speaker 1: by to take your calls today, and he wants me
Speaker 1: to let you know. The phone lines are wide open
Speaker 1: and he is ready. He'll tell you everything you need
Speaker 1: to know. He'll pop you into the queue. You can
Speaker 1: listen to the show while you wait. The number again
Speaker 1: eight three three two ass Dean and Eileen Gonzalez at
Speaker 1: the news desk. Good morning, Eileen, Good morning Dean. Good
Speaker 1: to hear your voice. Good to hear your voice. How
Speaker 1: are things going going good?
Speaker 3: By the way, I'm sorry I didn't make it to
Speaker 3: your show, but I did see it on social media
Speaker 3: and it was a beautiful crowd and that tree was
Speaker 3: absolutely gorgeous, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't go wrong with an elder tree,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it was a stunner. I love the way
Speaker 1: they decorated it this year in particular. So yeah, it
Speaker 1: was a good time, and yes we missed you. But
Speaker 1: you're here now here in the dark hours, happy to
Speaker 1: be here Saturday morning. And I am very very glad
Speaker 1: that you're here as well. So Eileen's gonna have us
Speaker 1: handled with all of the news this morning. All right,
Speaker 1: there she is my early Christmas present, sitting across the
Speaker 1: table from me. Now, some of you heard last week
Speaker 1: that Tina couldn't join us in studio at the Theater
Speaker 1: on the live audience show because Tina underwent an unexpected
Speaker 1: abdominal surgery earlier in the week before last Sunday show,
Speaker 1: which she will be recovering from for some time. But
Speaker 1: I can and you know what, Yeah, I was nervous.
Speaker 1: Yes it was not a good thing, but it is
Speaker 1: a good thing because she came through with flying colors
Speaker 1: and she's recovering incredibly well. And I am so thrilled
Speaker 1: to say that my best buddy in the world, my
Speaker 1: design partner, the co founder and co owner of House Whisper,
Speaker 1: is sitting across the table from me. Yet again. Good
Speaker 1: morning you, oh, good morning. How are you feeling so
Speaker 1: much better?
Speaker 3: I was just thinking that I was with you last
Speaker 3: Saturday in here and it was a rough one. I was,
Speaker 3: I was struggling. But today, you know, I felt so
Speaker 3: much more myself.
Speaker 1: You're a little over, like we're a week and for
Speaker 1: a week, wee can two or three days out almost.
Speaker 3: Two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I feel so much better. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: a thing. It was a thing the week's leading up
Speaker 1: I couldn't share with everybody, just it was a thing.
Speaker 1: There were some fears, there were concerns, there were nerves,
Speaker 1: and then the surgery took extra long, which was not
Speaker 1: easy on my nerves at all because Mike, I didn't
Speaker 1: notice anything. You didn't notice the thing. Keina woke up
Speaker 1: all groggy and said, oh, how was that was that short?
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, it was long. It took extra long,
Speaker 1: just because they took extra care of you. But I'm
Speaker 1: telling you when you go, you know, when you're pushing
Speaker 1: two hours past where they said they anticipated the surgery
Speaker 1: to end, and there was no word. Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: not a happy camper at that point. I was just
Speaker 1: because you know what, my whole life was in on
Speaker 1: that table and you're out of control with it. And
Speaker 1: that's the truth. And here you are. Now my whole
Speaker 1: life on the other side of the table from me
Speaker 1: where she belongs. All right, everybody, everybody, just grab a
Speaker 1: hot beverage. The holidays are here, by the way, it's official, right,
Speaker 1: we kicked them off last weekend. Now we're past Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: we're into the slide towards Christmas, and we've got the
Speaker 1: Holiday Gift Guide coming up. Yeah, Fie Jean Sharp the
Speaker 1: house whisper. Hey, whether home for you as a condo
Speaker 1: or a cottage or a castle, I'm here to help
Speaker 1: you take it to the next level. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: taking calls, and I'll tell you this. The nice thing
Speaker 1: about doing the Holiday Gift Guide is that I just
Speaker 1: get to bounce around between items on the Gift Guide.
Speaker 1: So as calls come in, I'm gonna be spreading them
Speaker 1: out through the show, as opposed to waiting all till
Speaker 1: you know our normal call segments. So we'll just take
Speaker 1: calls as they roll in, which means if you call
Speaker 1: in this morning, you won't be waiting on hold as
Speaker 1: long as folks normally do. Here's the number to reach
Speaker 1: me eight three to three two ask Dean A three three.
Speaker 1: The numeral to ask Dean. Anything that's on your mind. Construction,
Speaker 1: diy design, Yes, please, anything that's got scratching your head
Speaker 1: about your house. I'm here to help you figure it out.
Speaker 1: Phone lines are open. Matt Toffler standing by. He'll tell
Speaker 1: you everything you need to know. So as you call in,
Speaker 1: I will do my best to turn away from the
Speaker 1: gift guide. Take the calls as they roll in. And
Speaker 1: it's a minimal weight. It's a it's a lightning lane
Speaker 1: fast pass. I'm dating myself. It's not fast pass anymore,
Speaker 1: is it, Tina, It's lightning lane at Disneyland? Correct? Correct?
Speaker 1: What's that really expensive one? Where like, if you're you're
Speaker 1: super rich and pompous, you can you can spend.
Speaker 3: Like four hundred bucks and just stroll.
Speaker 1: Right in to just you just get on the ride, right,
Speaker 1: you just walk up and get on the ride, Yes,
Speaker 1: and just flaunt the fact that you've left the plebeians behind,
Speaker 1: the peasants out in the standby line. It's a little uh,
Speaker 1: it's a little haughty, and it's also crazy stupid expensive.
Speaker 1: All right. This is not meant to be an editorial
Speaker 1: on one of our favorite places, Disneyland. But the point is,
Speaker 1: what was my point. Oh for free. You can get
Speaker 1: to the front of the line today. All you have
Speaker 1: to do is call in the show eight three three
Speaker 1: two ask Dean, all right, it is time. Let's dive in.
Speaker 1: First item this is a This is a great one.
Speaker 1: And by the way, this year's guide all tools and gear.
Speaker 1: This year, nothing but tools and gear on the guide.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I mix it up, sometimes I just go it's
Speaker 1: an all tools year, so very very useful for you
Speaker 1: who are thinking about getting gifts for that di wire
Speaker 1: in your life. Item one on the gift guide is
Speaker 1: a folding utility knife from Milwaukee. Now, utility knives. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about utility knives for a moment. I love tool talk.
Speaker 1: This is just one of my favorite things in the world.
Speaker 1: Utility Knives are perhaps literally one of the most important
Speaker 1: tools in any any builders, any craftsman's arsenal of tools.
Speaker 1: I mean literally one of the most important tools. Blades
Speaker 1: are critically important, cutting instruments are critically important. And I
Speaker 1: love a good knife as much as anybody. Okay, I
Speaker 1: love a good kitchen knife, I love a good pocket knife,
Speaker 1: I love a good bushcraft survival knife. I mean I
Speaker 1: love all knives for what they are. But I got
Speaker 1: to tell you when it comes to building, when it
Speaker 1: comes to craftsmanship, when it comes to being a maker.
Speaker 1: The utility knife. Now, what is the utility knife. It's
Speaker 1: the one that holds the little razor blades. The you know,
Speaker 1: some people call them box cutters. Fine, that's actually a
Speaker 1: very very specific, dedicated utility knife that the blade does
Speaker 1: not extend much further than about a quarter of an inch.
Speaker 1: So every utility knife I know has one of those
Speaker 1: settings on them, or at least one of those areas
Speaker 1: where you can utilize it as a box cutter. But
Speaker 1: it's not a box color cutter. It is a utility knife.
Speaker 1: And why are they so dang important? Why are they
Speaker 1: such a brilliant invention, by the way, Well, simply because
Speaker 1: it doesn't get sharper than a razor blade. And when
Speaker 1: you are needing a knife, especially in construction, you've got
Speaker 1: this paradox happening because you want the absolute sharpest knife possible.
Speaker 1: And let me re emphasize this for those of you
Speaker 1: who are not familiar with tool theory, this goes true
Speaker 1: for anybody who works in a kitchen as well. Keep
Speaker 1: your knives sharp. Sharp knives are the safest knives, just
Speaker 1: like sharp saws, any tool that has a blade that
Speaker 1: needs to be sharp, the sharper it is, the safer
Speaker 1: it is. And I know some people are like, huh uhhh,
Speaker 1: it's very very simple explanation. One. You want that tool
Speaker 1: to do its job with the least amount of pressure
Speaker 1: on your hand or on your arm as possible, because
Speaker 1: it's when a saw blade is dull. It's when a
Speaker 1: knife blade is dull that you are having to push
Speaker 1: it through something saw back and forth instead of gently
Speaker 1: gliding it through the material. And once that pressure is applied,
Speaker 1: that is when a little bit of mispressure, a little
Speaker 1: bit of misalignment, and that blade goes slipping and sliding
Speaker 1: where you don't want it to go. That's when you
Speaker 1: get yourself hurt. Okay, a dull saw blade bucks against
Speaker 1: the wood in the saw or whatever it is that
Speaker 1: you're cutting. That's when you get yourself hurt. The very
Speaker 1: very safest tools with blades are tools that are the
Speaker 1: sharpest tools. Makes sense, I hope it does. Okay, remember that.
Speaker 1: So there's a utility knife that is specifically on the
Speaker 1: gift guide this year. I highly recommend it. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: explain its features to you. You're listening to Home with
Speaker 1: Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: KFHI and six forty Light Streaming and HD everywhere on
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app Dean Sharp the House Whisper here with
Speaker 2: you on this Saturday morning post Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: Have you recovered? Do you still have a bit of
Speaker 1: a tum from all the eating on Thursday? Well, it's
Speaker 1: a beautiful weekend. Time to get out to stretch your
Speaker 1: legs a little bit, maybe do a little shopping, which
Speaker 1: is why, as always, we are doing our House Whisper
Speaker 1: Holiday Gift Guide today and tomorrow during the big show. Plus,
Speaker 1: we are taking your calls, and I've got some calls
Speaker 1: on the board. I want to get to them asap here,
Speaker 1: So let me finish up this thought on the front
Speaker 1: item on our gift guide, which I've been waxing poetic
Speaker 1: on the value of a utility knife in every maker's arsenal,
Speaker 1: utility knives are simply fantastic because of the paradox of
Speaker 1: wanting a knife that's as sharp as possible, and also
Speaker 1: to do tasks with it in which you're going to
Speaker 1: damage the blade quite often. I mean you just be
Speaker 1: able to push it in. And this is why utility
Speaker 1: blade exceeds the usefulness of even a really really good
Speaker 1: pocket knife. And because you know, and I've got a
Speaker 1: few pocket knives right of various types, locking blades and
Speaker 1: so on. The point is that you keep them sharp.
Speaker 1: They are never absolutely as sharp as a razor blade.
Speaker 1: I don't care how you know, well you sharpen them,
Speaker 1: and I can sharpen a knife really really well, but
Speaker 1: I mean, you can approach that level. But razor blades
Speaker 1: are just what they are, the blades. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, sometimes, especially you do in construction work and
Speaker 1: building project stuff, you end up using a utility blade
Speaker 1: for you know, something nasty that's gonna damage it. I
Speaker 1: don't want to damage a pocket knife blade because that's
Speaker 1: a big investment. And that's the real key for the
Speaker 1: utility knife, because you just switch the blade out, you
Speaker 1: turn it around right, two blades to every single blade,
Speaker 1: to cutting surfaces, You flip it around once and then
Speaker 1: you toss it and bring in another one for super
Speaker 1: super cheap, so you have something that you can not
Speaker 1: worry about damaging. The invention must be given to Ukraine
Speaker 1: with it okay, and at the same time, you've got
Speaker 1: the sharpest possible blade on your hands. So the holder
Speaker 1: for that, okay, the mechanism to hold on to it,
Speaker 1: the utility blade, This I think is one of the
Speaker 1: very finest ones on the market. We've gone through a
Speaker 1: lot of iterations. Classically, the utility knife was a retracting blade,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people find that to be, you know,
Speaker 1: very convenient. You know, the little button on the top
Speaker 1: and you slide it and the blade comes forward. But
Speaker 1: if you know anything about knives or blades, you'll know
Speaker 1: that a blade that moves like that is never the
Speaker 1: most secure blade. In fact, many of you have experienced
Speaker 1: you're using the utility knife, you're bearing down on it,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, the little catch that
Speaker 1: holds the blade out is overwhelmed by the pressure that
Speaker 1: you're putting on the blade, and it slides back in
Speaker 1: and messes up your cut. It just kind of messes
Speaker 1: things up. In general, you don't want that blade moving
Speaker 1: on you. I much prefer a fixed blade utility knife,
Speaker 1: but one that folds and locks away so that the
Speaker 1: blade is not you know, sticking out. So the folding
Speaker 1: fixed blade utility knife that folds up, It folds up
Speaker 1: really small. It's got a great belt clip, it slides
Speaker 1: into your pocket, it's got blade storage, and the one
Speaker 1: from Milwaukee especially, you've got a beautiful thumb indentation grip
Speaker 1: in just the right place so you get your hand
Speaker 1: on it in a really really excellent cutting way. And
Speaker 1: all of this for fifteen dollars. There you go, There
Speaker 1: you go, fifteen bucks. That's a stocking stuff for my friend.
Speaker 1: There you go. All right, you know what. We're at
Speaker 1: least going to start a call and then we'll come
Speaker 1: back to it if we need to. During the break,
Speaker 1: I want to talk to Gloria. Hey, Gloria, welcome.
Speaker 4: Hi.
Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 4: Yes, I have problems with raccoons. You know, I have
Speaker 4: just a small portion of my backyard where I have
Speaker 4: different trees and bushes, no ground cover because they never
Speaker 4: grow because of the trees covering them. But I have
Speaker 4: a palm tree next shore. So the gardeners put a
Speaker 4: mesh netting and then covered it with mulch. Well, the
Speaker 4: raccoons like to dig, and I mean they dug to
Speaker 4: get those worms. They dug up an area where I
Speaker 4: had the candy apple groundcover. It had just been planted,
Speaker 4: and I no longer have it on my slope like
Speaker 4: I used to. So the what happens is they dig,
Speaker 4: they want to get clean, they jump in my pool
Speaker 4: and they leave the dirt in the pool. It's a
Speaker 4: constant problem. Now. I've been told to put a powder
Speaker 4: that has a garlic smell to it, and that works.
Speaker 4: But if I wanted to sprinkle, then it's gone, or
Speaker 4: if it rains, it's gone. So I'm was told by
Speaker 4: my gardeners they would put rocks, but that's not good
Speaker 4: because you need to have a flat surface when you
Speaker 4: put the ladder to top off, you know, to cut
Speaker 4: the limbs on the trees. So what can I do?
Speaker 1: Raccoons, Yeah, they're adorable, and unless you have them darling,
Speaker 1: I know they're I mean raccoons. They're one of those things.
Speaker 1: I just always say they're Raccoons are adorable at a distance.
Speaker 1: They're adorable if they're not in your yard. But you know,
Speaker 1: and they're hard to deal with, absolutely no question. Because
Speaker 1: if you've ever looked at their hands, there's paws. I
Speaker 1: call them hands because you look at their pause. They
Speaker 1: have opposable thumbs. They have five fingered paws that can literally.
Speaker 1: I mean they they're wearing a bandit's mask, you know,
Speaker 1: for a purpose, right, those guys could crack saves if
Speaker 1: they wanted to. So yeah, I feel you. Okay, So
Speaker 1: a few things. The big question is always this, how
Speaker 1: are they getting into the yard? To start with? Okay,
Speaker 1: how are they?
Speaker 4: There are trees on my neighbor, you know, on my
Speaker 4: neighbor's side. On my they first crawled under a fence,
Speaker 4: so we put a rock there and that stopped them.
Speaker 4: But they have trees on my neighbor's side on the
Speaker 4: other side of the walls because we all have walls
Speaker 4: because there's a church built behind us, and they apparently
Speaker 4: go up the trees down over on the wall. My
Speaker 4: neighbors have seen them because they have they work late
Speaker 4: at night, so they have seen them. And I mean
Speaker 4: they saw them in their yard. But you know, they
Speaker 4: have the normal slope that I have. Nothing would affect it,
Speaker 4: but you know, I wanted to see some color on
Speaker 4: my slope. I don't like the round yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: the round dirt that's very uh impacted. So they apparently
Speaker 4: get on the tree and climb on the wall and
Speaker 4: then jump over and climb back up.
Speaker 1: You know you go, yeah, okay, all right, gotcha. All right, Gloria,
Speaker 1: I'm going to pop you on hold because we're at
Speaker 1: a break and when we come back, we're going to
Speaker 1: do our best to address this problem. Gloria can't deter
Speaker 1: raccoons from coming into her yard very easily because they've
Speaker 1: she's got natural bridges from the neighbors trees overhead. That's
Speaker 1: always the first question to ask. We'll see if there's
Speaker 1: anything else we can do along those lines, and how
Speaker 1: do we protect that backslope groundcover from the raccoons as well?
Speaker 1: And then they get dirty and then they take a
Speaker 1: bath in her pool. All right, we're gonna deal with
Speaker 1: it the best we can. Gloria, you hang tight and
Speaker 1: we'll pick this one up. Dam I Fie Dean Sharp
Speaker 1: the House Whisper Welcome home. We are taking calls and
Speaker 1: also sharing with you this year's House Whisper Holiday gift guide.
Speaker 1: We're going to get back to that in just a bit,
Speaker 1: but I've got some calls on the board, and I
Speaker 1: want to give you first priority. We've been talking to Gloria.
Speaker 1: I've got her back. I think Gloria's still with me.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, yes, So Gloria.
Speaker 1: Is fighting with raccoons coming into her backyard, and so
Speaker 1: here here is the thing. So they're they're coming in
Speaker 1: the backyard via the neighbors trees and her trees hooking
Speaker 1: up and so it's a bridge. So there's no stopping that. Right,
Speaker 1: You have a backslope that you're trying to plant and
Speaker 1: they're tearing it up. And then they the audacity of
Speaker 1: getting dirty digging for worms in your in your groundcover,
Speaker 1: and then taking a bath in your swimming pool.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm not concerned about the slope. I'm concerned about
Speaker 4: the flat part next to it. It's a smaller portion
Speaker 4: and it's flat, and that's where the trees are that
Speaker 4: need to be I have a lemon tree, and I
Speaker 4: have bushes and they create myrtle, So those would need
Speaker 4: to be trimmed by a gardener, and they need to
Speaker 4: put their ladder on a flat surface. So I don't
Speaker 4: think rocks will do it. You know, the geraniums will
Speaker 4: grow on the slope. The cherry apple thing was another
Speaker 4: gardener's idea. It didn't work with the raccoons. It would
Speaker 4: have worked without them, but it didn't work with them.
Speaker 4: So I just throw geraniums, cut geraniums up on the
Speaker 4: slope and they start growing.
Speaker 1: Okay, and there and they're and the problem is they're digging.
Speaker 4: Right right right, and they've they've pulled up the whatever
Speaker 4: that netting was, and you know, there it just looks horrible.
Speaker 4: But I was I don't want rocks. I thought about
Speaker 4: those flat cement walking stones, but leaving space so that
Speaker 4: water can go through, you know, because I think it's
Speaker 4: important to have water into putting a new sprinkler system
Speaker 4: for the tree so that I could drip irrigation for
Speaker 4: each tree.
Speaker 1: Okay, so I've got I've got some suggestions for you.
Speaker 1: We'll see how these play out. You could use some
Speaker 1: of them, all of them, none of them. You know,
Speaker 1: you're free to evaluate them. But here's the thing. One.
Speaker 1: I think you were on the right track with the netting.
Speaker 1: But here's the problem with the netting is it's just
Speaker 1: not ano raccoon. It's just not okay. So this is
Speaker 1: what we do. This is like the miracle cure when
Speaker 1: it comes to gophers in a yard. You may have
Speaker 1: heard me recommend this before, but I like to actually
Speaker 1: put hardware cloth down. And when I say cloth, what
Speaker 1: we're talking about is metal mesh. Metal mesh. We stake
Speaker 1: down and cover metal mesh down on the area. In fact,
Speaker 1: the ultimate answer to like how do I keep gophers
Speaker 1: out out of my lawn is that you stop them
Speaker 1: from being able to come up from underneath, which means
Speaker 1: we've done this with clients before. We will sod cut
Speaker 1: the entire lawn, remove it temporarily, and we will lay
Speaker 1: down overlapping rows of this metal mesh galvanized hardware cloth.
Speaker 1: It's metal, okay, It's like a chain link fence basically
Speaker 1: underneath the lawn. And then we'll lay the lawn back
Speaker 1: down and plants will grow through it. Water passes through it.
Speaker 1: But any like a gopher coming up from underneath, or
Speaker 1: a raccoon trying to dig down from up above, just
Speaker 1: under the surface, they soon figure out. And here's the
Speaker 1: nice thing about raccoons. The bad thing about raccoons is
Speaker 1: that they're smart. And the great thing about raccoons is
Speaker 1: that they're smart. And so once they realize there's no
Speaker 1: access that every time I go in that yard and
Speaker 1: I start to dig on that flat portion for worms,
Speaker 1: I just come up with this. You know, my paws
Speaker 1: just hit this mesh, and I can't get anywhere. They
Speaker 1: just literally give up and stop coming over. So a
Speaker 1: metal mesh staked down properly just underneath the soil level.
Speaker 1: It's not going to prevent you from doing anything you
Speaker 1: want up on the surface there at all. It's not
Speaker 1: going to cure the problem overnight, but it'll actually dispense
Speaker 1: them very very quickly. The other thing is that you
Speaker 1: could use cap Saysan. There are products out there that
Speaker 1: are literally named after raccoons, and let's see if I
Speaker 1: can find one here. Here's a product on Etsy right now.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's in other places called get Rid of Raccoons,
Speaker 1: and it's a deterrent paste. It does not wash away
Speaker 1: with the rain the way that the other stuff that
Speaker 1: you've used does. It's basically cap sasan based and that's
Speaker 1: a secret. Also with all sorts of rodents, rats, squirrels,
Speaker 1: they can't handle the heat, and so these granules are
Speaker 1: all over the place. Birds had no effect on birds
Speaker 1: because birds do not have these taste sensors for high heat.
Speaker 1: In fact, one of the ways to keep rodents out
Speaker 1: of your bird feeders is to use capsaicin filled birds
Speaker 1: feed because they just won't do it. They won't touch
Speaker 1: it because it burns their mouths. But not for birds.
Speaker 1: The birds don't care. They're oblivious to it. So that's
Speaker 1: another thing. Predator urine. Yet another thing that on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: Maybe this is something literally you could spray with a
Speaker 1: Hudson spray or in the low lying branches or on
Speaker 1: the trunk of the tree. You're not gonna smell it,
Speaker 1: but they'll smell it. So the idea of smelling a
Speaker 1: coyote or a cat as they're climbing down the trees
Speaker 1: to get into your yard will freak them out and
Speaker 1: will quite often keep them from coming into the yard.
Speaker 1: And again that will hold up for a long time
Speaker 1: in pluting after rains, especially if you spray it on
Speaker 1: tree trunks. And finally, and then I got to let
Speaker 1: you go here the final thing. If all else fails
Speaker 1: and you've got a clear shot to the area where
Speaker 1: they are spending their time, I've never seen this fail.
Speaker 1: We set up a motion sensor rain bird irrigation head,
Speaker 1: not a driphead, but one of the old fashioned rain
Speaker 1: birds and spray across the yard. You can buy these now.
Speaker 1: You can find them at a plumbing supply. You can
Speaker 1: also find them at the big box store with a
Speaker 1: motion sensor valve sitting on top of the rainbird, And
Speaker 1: basically it's security system for pets. We protect ponds that
Speaker 1: have koy fish in them from predators like raccoons and
Speaker 1: great herons that want to fly down and steal fish
Speaker 1: out of ponds. And basically you set it up so
Speaker 1: that any motion that's detected in this motion sensor, it
Speaker 1: sets the rainhead off and basically whoever is there in
Speaker 1: the area is gonna They're gonna hear the noise. They're
Speaker 1: gonna be freaked out, and if they stay, they're gonna
Speaker 1: get a face full of water, and nobody wants that.
Speaker 1: And they all run and they all clear out. And again,
Speaker 1: because they're smart, they will very very likely, very shortly
Speaker 1: thereafter stop doing that. So if all else fails, you
Speaker 1: bring out the artillery. And by artillery, I don't mean
Speaker 1: traps or I mean water and a little water cannon
Speaker 1: to frighten them away. And believe me when I tell
Speaker 1: you that it works, and it works amazingly well, and
Speaker 1: for a lot of people, it's actually the most convenient
Speaker 1: and easiest deterrent to put into play because it's just
Speaker 1: a little bit of tie into the existing sprinkler lines,
Speaker 1: get some water going there, and there you go. Gloria,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your and I hope though
Speaker 1: there at least are two or three things there that
Speaker 1: you can add to your arsenal to deal with the
Speaker 1: raccoons as they come in to the yard and just
Speaker 1: shut them down, shut them down, not the not an
Speaker 1: easy chore to do. All right. When we return, we've
Speaker 1: got more of your calls and more of the Holiday
Speaker 1: Gift Guide. You are listening to Dean Sharp, The House
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