RE: [CH] Groundhawgs is ARROGANT peoples...
Bloechl, Sharen Rund (sharen.rund.bloechl@lmco.com)
Wed, 11 Aug 1999 06:55:20 -0700
I found something similar in my irises the other day - dug out the hole and
use water hose to try to flush out the bugger - suddenly something ran
across my foot - little bugger never saw my shovel coming down on it -
before I could turn around, my kittens dragged it away & had fun with the
remains - I found a whole tunnelling route which I flushed out - they kept
filling in my digging, so the last time [about a week ago now] I thought why
not my kittens feces (they've been using an area by the side of the house as
a litter area) I shoveled some down each hole - so far no rodents. . . .!!
Sharen Rund Bloechl
Lockheed Martin Enterprise Information Systems
Sunnyvale Data Center
sharen.rund.bloechl@lmco.com Phone: 408-756-5432
[or] Fax: 408-756-0912
srund@svl.ems.lmco.com LMnet: 8-326-5432
Pager: 408-539-5146 web: http://webpager.lmms.lmco.com/perl/mtrocall.cgi
[or] Operator Assist: 1-800-725-5079, pin 408-539-5146
> ----------
> From: danceswithcarp[SMTP:dcombs@bloomington.in.us]
> Reply To: danceswithcarp
> Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 1999 5:55 PM
> To: chile-people dot com
> Subject: [CH] Groundhawgs is ARROGANT peoples...
>
>
> [insert curses, mutters, maniacal laughs]
>
> GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
>
> The g*wd d*mn groundhawgs are getting to me. I've only been going up to
> the garden every couple of days because we still ain't had enough rain to
> wet under the chile plants so they're still stressed and hoping for enough
> tomatoes to put up is basically a lost cause.
>
> But the bamboo stake/mousetrap Rube Goldberg contraption I had rigged up
> where I put out over 50 mousetraps and then laid bamboo stakes from
> trigger to trigger to defend the tomatoes from squirrels and groundhawgs
> had been functioning fairly well and I was only losing one or two eating
> tomatoes a day to the creatures. I mean those mousetraps are on such a
> hair-trigger that when I accidently hit a stake there's this domino effect
> that sets traps to snapping all over the garden, so I know they were
> smashing groundhawg toes and scaring squirrels.
>
> But the Achilles Heel of all of this is the tomatoes are only surrounded
> on three sides by the jury-rigged booby traps. The side of the tomatoes
> that fronted on the chiles doesn't have any bamboo and I just have an
> isolated trap or two on that front. This is mainly because that's a big
> stand of chiles and I never noticed any access paths running through the
> rown of zinnias that seperates the tomatoes from the peppers. The broad
> leaf peppers are the ones closest to the tomatoes; big lush deep green
> leaves on plants maybe four or five feet tall. Really, it's quite a
> barrier.
>
> But on Sunday when I was picking peppers and tomatoes to eat I noticed
> several half-eaten green tomatoes on the ground and I wondered who had
> eaten them as this was far more loss than normal and seemed to approach
> the carnage of last year when the GroundHawg left fewer than ten tomatoes
> for us for the whole season.
>
> So tonight I'm looking around and, like, whoa, there's half-eaten
> tomatoes everywhere, but none of the mousetraps are set off. So I wander
> up to the chiles and the open side of the patch. YIKES! There's a Great
> big Datil, down, down on the ground. And there's a hab horizontal. And
> LOOK, LOOK, THERE'S A MASSIVE EMPTY SPOT WHERE THE SERANNOS USED TO BE.
>
> Then I notice the ground around the downed serrano bushes is powdery, like
> it's just been roto-tilled to near-dust levels.
>
> Whut? WHUT'S THAT?
>
> It's a *HOLE*; A Great Big Hole right where the serranos are laying.
> The g*wd d*mn Groundhawg has burrowed right into the garden, right in the
> pepper patch, right next to the tomatoes.
>
> This creature is either very lazy, or exter-eemlee arrogant.
>
> So I talked to the neighbors who let me plow up their back yard for
> my garden but who frown on my propensity to rely on firearms as a matter
> of first resort. We reached an understanding.
>
> I won't shoot when they are home.
>
> Groundhawgs is awfully arrogant peoples.
>
>
>
>
> carp
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>