A Stinking Day

I started my day about 9, going outside and heading over to the hay shed to get the big tractor. As I got closer to the shed I noticed a strong smell of skunk. I looked around to see if one was actually in the hay shed with me, the odor was that strong. Thankfully, there wasn't a skunk in there. I started the tractor and went across the creek to use the scoop to push the debris at the edge of the hay field back into the creek from where it had came. We had 3 inches of rain Saturday night and this was the first time I had been able to push the sticks and limbs out of the hay. I finished that, and took the tractor back to the shed. I started the little tractor and went over the debris area with the bush hog to chop up the stuff the scoop had missed.
After finishing with the bush hogging, I went to the shed and began to mow the yard at the little house. Once again, I noticed the strong smell of skunk, but all the time I was mowing I never saw one, but the smell was all around the little house and hay shed.
After lunch and more toward evening I told Linda I was going down and bush hog around Regina's old place. Linda came down when I was almost done, and she wanted to go back in the holler and dig some wild flowers, so I went back there and bush hogged on the way back and made the trail wider by also bush hogging while coming back out. We headed back to the house, and I put the tractor in the lower barn. I started the 4-wheeler and headed up to the house. As I was crossing the road into the drive, I noticed something moving in the hallway of the upper barn. At first, I thought it was a snake, I could only see a little bit of black, but as I got close, it became apparent it was a skunk. It was headed into the barn, so I gave it a wide berth and went up the side of driveway making sure to not get too close to the barn. I went inside the house and got Brent's rifle with a scope on it, I came back out and the skunk was outside the barn. I waited until it moved far enough away from our truck so it wouldn't spray the truck. Then I shot the skunk. One shot had dropped the skunk, but I took another to make sure it died quickly. Of course the skunk sprayed one last time and the odor was extremely strong, worse than earlier in the day. I left it lay and will remove it tomorrow if something doesn't carry the carcass off tonight.