Foot

The corn I have planted seems to be doing well. I built a make-shift fence to keep the larger mammals away, though the lesser ones seem to find any way in to attack the stalks. I have been dealing pretty hard with the mosquitos on myself. The heat is hard to deal with, I have to stay covered to keep the biters away, not working well with my profuse sweating. I have an infection in my left big toe, somehow it took a cut, I must have picked something up in the river. Cleaning the wound is hard enough but the swelling and pain is getting worse each hour. Some black willow bark helps the pain but I have yet to find some sort of antiseptic besides the vodka, which is not working. I'm sure I need an antibiotic of some sort. Worse may come to worse, but I'll have to wait until I'm sure I can do the surgery without risking more. I'm expecting my brother anyday now, I'll see what he says.

Trap

The trap worked! I went out this morning with a canvas bag and carefully pulled the stiff frightened body from inside the box. His heart was beating a mile a minute and he did not make a single move. I put him in a cage that I built last night. It is a similar sized box with rods that I made from stretching out the springs of my box spring matress. I kept him there in the cage on top of my table and watched him for several hours. He looked as if he were praying, maybe repenting, his little fore feet were cupped under his mouth and his little nose twitched, sometimes he would close his eyes for a long time, then open them suddenly.