Raccoon Problem Solved?

OK, back to nature. Need to seriously recover from all that "socialness" yesterday. :-) and get prepared to head back to Seattle by myself for 5 days tomorrow-(opera, art tour, party, apple store, etc etc)......bringing the three older grandkids back up with me... It will not be quiet.

I've mentioned before that the raccoons have been stealing the sunflower seeds and the suet and I was about to give up on those. Heres the proof. Then a friend told me to try red pepper suet and "squirrel away?"red pepper powder for the seeds and voila! the raccoons are leaving it alone!! Apparently the birds don't have this kind of taste bud so don't notice. (anyone have any long term experience using this?) This suet has been up 6 days so it's not going all that fast but I've seen a purple finch there (was holding out for that color, but decided this Rufus Sided Towhee looked pretty good with the red pepper!) and the sparrows and the nuthatches love it, the goldfinches don't. Have yet to see a pileated woodpecker on it. But those goldfinches have their sunflower seeds back now too. I have some pictures of them eating red tinged oilers but kind of liked the coloring in this one of the suet with the fir tree in the background. (I know, one is "supposed" to simplify the background for a birdshot like this, but the texture and the colors overall appealed to me.) And I wanted to document this happy event!
Sometimes I walk out the back door and think I must be in an aviary there is so much birdsong.