Groundhogs, and a Rant

I have a long-standing relationship with groundhogs.  Most people have never seen one.  I've seen too many.

I may have mentioned some of this before, but it started when my Dad was teaching my younger brother and I how to hunt.  We had been to "marksman classes" at a local shooting range and shown that we could handle guns safely and hit a target with some skill.  Visiting my paternal grandparents in NH when I was 13 (14?) Dad brought us to a field where groundhogs lived.  We sat around for a few hours waiting to see one to shoot at.

This was before I was old enough to stop killing animals for sport.  We saw none.  But just before we left, Dad whistled in a way he had learned to attract attention from groundhogs.  And one stood up a long way away.  I aimed carefully and shot my .22 rifle.  It dropped.  Dad said I missed it,  But I insisted we go find out.  I WAS a good shot.  But Dad never thought I could do anything well, s he laughed and said I missed it.

To his complete surprise, I nailed the groundhog right between the eyes.  To my comfort these days, it probably never knew what happened.  But I remember it mostly because Dad never even said "good shot".  I expect he assumed it was luck.  And besides, he thought I would miss it, so he SHOULDN'T be wrong.  Had to be luck, then.  No children were ever "competent" in Dad's eyes.  He always made it quite clear.

A sad metaphor for our relationship the rest of our lives.  His message to me was always "you are not as good at anything as I am".  I could defend his attitude as challenging me to be as good at everything as I could possibly be.  But I won't.  He was just a mean son of a bitch!

Golf was another problem.  He made me play it.  At 5'6", I am not a natural golfer.  I lettered in golf twice and soccer once in high school through sheer force of will (barely).  Soccer was more natural for me, but I got no support for that.  I was good enough at golf.  But I didn't have the same swing as Dad and he was always on me about it.  He had a classic swing, and I had a baseball bat-grip swing.  It worked for me.  In high school, I broke 90 often.  Not impressive, but good enough for the last slot on the team.  Dad kept messing with my swing.  When I went to college, I got down to 85.

Now, I have to say, Dad was a really good golfer.  When I was young and only caddying, I admired the way his tee drives started out low and rose to land straight down the fairway.  He had a handicap of "0" at one point.  He what what he was doing!  But I couldn't do that with my proper swing on the best day.  So I developed my own.

It worked for me.  A good swing is whatever works for you.  I once got an "eagle"  on the hardest hole on the army base course.  And Dad started messing with my swing again.  I should have ignored him, but, hey, he was my DAD!

I started driving up to NH to participate in the Member/Guest tourneys in the early 1980s.  It had a quota system.  Something about every score below your handicap per hole, you gained a point.  We lost every year.  Dad had me using nothing but 5 irons on every shot through some idea he had.  It was horrible!  His game was about consistency; mine was "go for broke".

It ended when I was facing a pond out in the fairway and pulled out my 4 iron.  Dad said to use the driver because I couldn't possibly reach the edge of the pond.  I stayed with the 4 iron.  And landed in the pond on the fly.  He gaped.  The pond was 250 yards away.  When I hit the ball right, it is awesome, and I knew that.

From that moment on, I ignored everything he told me.  I was pissed!  And guess what?  We won.  He played his exact usual good game precisely meeting his quota, but I obliterated my quota by like 10 strokes.

That was the last time I played golf with him and the last time I played golf period!  I was so tired of all the demanding pressurring crap that I had no interest in the game afterwards.  I proved my point.  I could play the game NOT his way.

End of angry rant.

Time is Relative

What do you do when you don't fit a 24 hour clock?  I was an early bird as a child, a reluctant waker as a college student.  I managed to keep a schedule that got me up at 5 a.m., home at 6 p.m. and to bed by 9 p.m. for 35 years in a successful career.  But now that I am retired and have no requirements or obligations, I can't keep a 24 hour waking/sleeping schedule.  I mentioned recently that I was on a 25 hour clock.  I understated it.  Its worse than that.

Its more like a 28 hour clock.  I go to bed and can't sleep for hours, then finally sleep for  8 hours on and off.  I end up in bed for 12 hours.  And then I don't feel tired for at least 16 hours.  That's just not normal!

I have, at times, engaged in computer games or discussion boards way too late at night.  I used to think it was because I loved the games or discussion.  But I am realizing that I just wasn't tired.  And who can go to bed when they aren't tired?  What's the point of going to bed when you aren't tired?  You can't sleep.  You just lay there aware and awake.

Its nice to have the cats there to scratch.  They aren't keeping me awake, but they are nice to have something to give attention to while I lay in bed frustrated that I can't sleep. 

So I finally get tired of layin in bed and get up at 4 p.m. one day and 8 p.m. the next and dress to get the mail and the newspaper.  I check the email.  I check the cat blogs.  I would say "depression", but I don't feel depressed.  I enjoy doing things in the yard/garden and playing with the cats.  I enjoy preparing meals.  I enjoy listening to political and news TV.  I feel fine physically.  I'm just OFF the clock and not sleeping well!

There is a reason I am writing this at 4:30 a.m.  I'm fully awake and not tired.  I can't blame the cats.  Iza sleeps peacefully in the corner of the bed.  Ayla sleeps quietly on the top of the shoe shelf or on a pillow on a chair.  Marley doesn't even sleep in the room.  He likes the computer chair or a platform on the kitty condo.  My personal clock is just all wrong....

It is really messing things up.  I am NOT going to try and then get stuck on sleeping pills.  That is not a road I want to travel.  Well, thanks for just letting me complain...  My Mom always said that "getting old isn't for sissies" and maybe all this is normal.  But all the old people in my life just got up EARLY each day.  I don't know what is going on. 

An Idea

Hey, I'm over 60, living alone..  And it occurred to me that it would be a great idea to have some telephone or USB device that ya could just plug in and punch a button every day to say "I'm Still Alive" to some company who would visit if you didn't punch the button for 2 days.. 

I can't find one.  Does anyone know of one?

Well, Sadly, NOT The Finale!

It seems the groundhog wars are not over.  I looked out in the yard today to see TWO mid-size groundhogs at my flowers.  I'M INFESTED by them!  Granted, my backyard is semi-wild and rather wildlife-friendly and organic, but I didn't expect an invasion of groundhogs as a result.  And being surrounded by nice suburban expanses of lawns on 3 sides and a swamp on the other, I would have guessed any problem but groundhogs.  Where are they coming from???

But it does mean war.  And I won't feel bad when I kill them in the future.  One small family of them errantly finding a place in my yard is "touching", but waves of them is TOO MUCH!  Even with a dead groundhog on their doorstep, they won't leave!  How stupid are they?

I will be calling a trapper tomorrow to see what they offer, but in truth, I am a person not inclined to ask another to do what I won't do myself.  My only question is legality.  I'll have to call the county animal control office to see what I am allowed to do.  And decide which rules I will ignore.  I'll be damned if I will pay someone $200 to do what I can do for free..

If I have to kill more of them, I won't be as sorry as I was before.  I'M PISSED!!!  This isn't like squirrels in the attic, the groundhogs are eating my food!  It is time to fill the pond and mete out watery doom.


That doesn't mean I will enjoy it.  I won't.  I wish they would just find a better home in an empty field somewhere.  But I will be rid of them, one way or another!

Groundhog Wars, Finale

A tale of regret and sadness...  And don't read this if you are squeamish.  Groundhogs were killed.

Some of you may know that I have been fighting with a groundhog this year.  It burrowed in under my shed last Fall.  I saw it several times running back to the shed when I went out to the garden.  I got pictures of it with my GameSpy camera a few ties. 

I used to hunt.  I was good enough at it to get a deer several years in a row with bow&arrow.  I stopped when I had to field-dress a lactating doe I killed.  Milk ran out of her.  My heart wasn't in it after that.  I have generally tried to live and let live.  When deer ate all the leaves from the pole beans one year and some neighbors sicced a dog after my cat a week later, I built a 6' fence around the entire back yard.  Prevention is better than cure.

If I see an occasional possum or raccoon on the deck or in the yard, I live with it.  Just yesterday, some raccoon or snake ate all the baby robins in a nest I was watching daily.  And I don't mind what the cats catch and kill the occasional bird or mouse.  Nature is nature, and I can't stop it.  That doesn't mean I have to participate in it.  BTW, I eat meat, so I am aware of my part in killing animals for food.  They are raised to be food, and I support systems that kill them as gently as possible.

But I raise some of my own vegetable food, and I am protective about it.  Groundhogs are a problem here.  In the past, I have trapped them and released them in unoccupied fields.  I read that was illegal. So I had to resort to other means. 

I had a pond and have a Have-A-Hart trap I have used before.  A dip into the pond, a minute of confusion, a few bubbles, and they are dead.  Short of a .22 to the head (which I cannot do in a suburban neighborhood nor safely from a few inches away because of blood-spray), it is the least-sufferring way I can thing of.  They don't seem frightened, just confused,   Then "blurp" and dead.

But the pond is dry from a leak I cannot find, and with all the heavy rocks on the liner, I just haven't replaced it.  I regret that very much today...   I very much wish I had had a pond to drop her into.  It would have been very much easier on us both.

It started when I heard a noise behind the shed while I was weeding the garden.  I ran over to find 3 groundhog pups in a pile.  I had a garden fork in hand, and I used it to kill them.  In spite of her fear, Mrs Groundhog came out of her den to yell at me.  I used the garden fork to set one dead pup in the burrow hole and one in the side of the shed.

I did not enjoy it.  It was far more than slapping a mosquito or stepping on a cockroach.  It was almost like killing a fawn.  They cried.  And I cried.  I did not do physically hard work, but I was sweating terribly afterwards.  It was very upsetting.

I caught Mrs Groundhog in the Have-A-Hart trap after, and tried to release her outside the fence.  I expected her to run straight away from the house, but she ran straight around the fence back towards her den.

I hoped she would leave for a safer den after that, but she didn't.  I caught her eating my lettuce the other afternoon.  So I set the trap back up, unbaited, right in her most-observed exit point.  She was in it today.

I could have spread plastic sheeting and filled up the dry pond temorarily.  I wish I had.  But wasting that much water didn't seem good either.  People are dying from lack of water in places.  I finally decided to "shoot" her with arrows.  A small animal ought to die quickly from that. 

I held an arrow just above her and slammed down a piece of 2x4 on it as a wide hammer.  It didn't even penetrate her body.  All it did was break the nock off the back.  It took several other tries to actually stab through her.  I felt sick.  But badly wounded, she could not be released to die of infection after days.

There are some things you start that you can't stop.  When you injure an animal badly enough, you have to follow through and end it.  My Father was good enough to teach me that.  When you injure a deer fatally with an arrow, you are obligated to spend all the time needed to follow the blood trail and finish it off to stop the pain. 

I was good at that.  One drop of blood in ten feet of woodland leaves, I could find them.  Because it was only fair.  You injure it, you kill it as quickly as possible for their sake.  You kill it, you claim it and end your hunting season. Even if it is found days later and the meat is wasted.  Because it is the right thing to do IF you are going to hunt animals.

I am very sorry that Mrs Groundhog lived an hour after being stabbed with arrows.  If I could have thought of some less inhumane way of eliminating her from my garden, I would have.  I wish I had refilled the pond temporarily.  And it occurs to me now that my bathtub is bigger and deeper than the trap.  I could have drowned her quickly in there.

But I don't want to kill any more groundhogs.  Its the shed that attracts them.  So I have decided to spray herbicides all around the edges, dig up the soil after a few weeks, and install mesh wire all around it.

I don't want to have to hurt another poor wild animal for just trying to live as best it can.  Life is hard enough.  Tangling with humans shouldn't be part of that.  I don't want to have to kill another Mrs Groundhog again. 

I an feeling rather horrible tonight.  I don't want to feel that way again ever...

Cavebear

Gardening Day

I had a great day out yesterday!  I finally got all those annuals planted.  Yeah, kinda late, but better late than never, right?  I had carnations, salvias, wave petunias, marigolds, forget-me-nots etc in cell packs I grew from seeds earlier.   And I finally found those basil herbs I thought I had lost. 

I had a large spot that needed soil improvement, so I decided to plant all the annuals there. That way I can improve the soil in the Fall after they die.  I got SO used to the County providing mulch for years that it was getting hard NOT to get it the past few years.  I guess it became too costly to run the loading equipment,  So without mulch to dig into the soil (after aging it 2 years), the soil was rather hard.

First, I spent 2 hours digging it loose with the leverage fork.  That's a great tool.  A spading fork with a bar on the back for leverage.  All steel!  It can REALLY pull the soil up.  It is the best thing to dig up all the grass weeds, too.  I have that nasty grass that sends shoots underground about 12" before sending up another grass plant.  I've been fighting it for several years and I think I finally have it beaten to extinction.  But that's why I wanted to fill the space with annual plants this year.  So I can do a final dig this next Fall after the annuals die.

And they will give great color this year.  Its a good idea to always leave some space for annuals, season-long color is a good thing.

It was actually awful outside today.  Not the temperature, the mosquitoes.  They were there in desperate swarms.  The child strength DEET works fine for a couple hours.  But they were at my face and ears all the time.  Thank goodness the stuff works!  2 hours out there in swarms and I only got 3 bites.

Here is the space before I started.   I had some sadly planted Knautia there.  An utterly unruly plant.  

I moved then to an enclosed spot where they shouldn't cuse a problem.  Then I double dug the whole space.  It about killed me.  I filled the area with annuals I grew from seeds.  They dont looklike much nowm but they will grow fast. and produce good flowers.

And here is the space when I was done. 

Not much to see there yet, but they will grow fast finally put in the ground and given some sun.  With some regular weekly watering, they will grow gret.  I should have got then planted a month ago, but that's life...

I bet they will be stars of the Garden Tour in late July!  But we will have to wait to see.

The Plant Light Stand

I finally finished it.  The final steps were awful.  The 2-bulb fixtures had a metal strip that fitted into the center to hold the wires off the lights.  Fitting them back in place upside down drove me NUTS!!!  They just DIDN'T want to go in upside down.  They wanted gravity.  Or its opposite, levity...  There were slightly bent spots all along the strip and it made it nearly impossible to get them set back in place.


Getting the 1st one back in took 30 DAMNED minutes!  I was screaming in frustration.  Then I forced myself to calm down an examine the problem carefully.  There were some bent spots from removing them previously.    I have a parallel pliers, and used that to re-make the edges are straight as possible.  Eventually, I got the wire-holding metal strip back in place.

The 2nd one took only 15 minutes.  I was getting the trick of how it fit in.  Ans I did that 4 times.  The last time, I had to crawl onto the bottom shelf and stare 6" away from the fixture.  I can't see anything 6 inches away even WITH glasses.  I'm, farsighted.  I had to do it by touch.

Basically, you have to install the wire hold-up strips by squeezing them slowly along the entire length a little bit at  a time.  I was pleased when I finally completed that task!  Here is what the stand looks like now.

You can see it better from an angle.

 This shows the difference between the double 2 light fixtures and the single 4-light fixtures.

I have good storage on the top, and good storage on the shelves during the non-growing seasons, which is most of the year.

It was a longer project than I expected, but it will be great for many years to come.

You wouldn't believe how much my basement has been cramped out of place because of all this.  I'll sure be glad to get it back to order.  But that is for tomorrow!

But if I had it to do over again, I would have just made the whole thing 5' wide of 1/2" plywood 16" deep.  It would have been SO MUCH easier.  But, you go down a path and you are stuck on it sometimes. 

All in all, I am happy with it, and I am pretty sure it will outlast me.  Can't ask better than that, I suppose.  But I'll always think I could have done it both better and easier.

Cat Fence Enclosure Idea

Well, Ayla getting over the fence is difficult enough.  Today I saw Marley descending into the yard.  Unfortunately, I couldn't tell if he had tried and failed or was returning to the yard.  But it makes the requirement to keep them in the yard more urgent.

I've seen systems of nets attached to fences at angles, but the cost is high per foot and I have about 450 feet of 6' high backyard fence.  And I have seen where smooth hard plastic sheeting is attached to the upper 2' of fencing (which I suspect works well).  But that is also expensive.

So I have been pondering other, less expensive, designs.  I think I have one and want opinions on it.  It seems simple enough, but I haven't seen it on any "cat containment" sites.  I know I can construct it (it is uncomplicated but tedious).  My concerns are first, will it work, and second, is it safe.

I would provide a sketch, but my Mac doesn't seem to have a simple drawing program that can be saved in the formats demanded by Blogger.  I can't figure out how to do something so simple in Photoshop, and I can't save in the required formats from Word Art, Excel Draw, or Google Layout.  And Photoshop won't open those to change the format.

But it isn't complicated.  There is a 6' high alternate board wood fence.  I can buy vinyl coated wire mesh fence in 2'x50' rolls.  I will cut the rolls into 8' lengths and bend them 90 degrees the long way.  That gives an "L".  One part of the "L" gets attached to the fence, the other part makes a 1' wide "ceiling".  In case I'm describing it poorly, it would look something like this:

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I could bend the wire at 45 degrees upward if that improved anything.  The vinyl coated wire mesh costs only $27 for 2'x50' roll, is easy for a person to bend, but pretty stiff to a cat.  I've been using the stuff as plant supports and cages for years.  The vinyl couating makes it quite weatherproof.  I'm thinking 8' sections because that is the distance between fence posts, plus I have a couple of 8', 4"x4" posts I can use to bend it.  I can attach it with a heavy duty electric staple gun.

So, I'm looking for errors, and PLEASE don't hold back.  Tell me ANYTHING you think might cause a problem in construction, in safety for the cats, or safety of wildlife.  Or anything else.  I spent a career as a project manager where negative ideas where often the most important contributions from the team.

So, thoughts?

ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!

I love playing board games.  Last week, I stumbled across risk.com.  I LOVE that game.  I stayed up til dawn 3 nights last week playing it over and over.  Thankfully it's free.

What I love about games is figuring out a winning strategy.  Then I get bored and try something new.  But I haven't gotten around the computer programs in this yet.  So I need to keep trying.

The first few nights, I lost every game.  The second few nights, I won a few.  The last few night, I won half. 

Off I go to try again...  I DO enjoy it.  But it would be nice to get a whole regular night's sleep!

Ayla Out

I kept Ayla inside for a year.  It got so difficult that I decided to experiment letting her out as long as she wanted to be out.  It wasn't an easy decision.  The first time, she stayed out 3 nights.  But the next two times, she stayed out 2 nights.  Then one night.  After that, she came in the same day she was let out for several days.  I consider that a good arrangement.

She stays near the fence and has no desire to wander further to the street.

But Iza complicates things.  Iza and Ayla and Marley all cuddle up indoors.  They eat together,  They play together.  Iza likes Ayla indoors.

But outdoors, Iza considers Ayla an introoder.  I cannot understand this.

This afternoon, when I called Ayla inside, she came running happily.  But when I opened the door for her to come inside, Iza sprang out and attacked her.  As a stranger and in apparent anger.  Ayla fled over the fence.

Iza does not do this with Marley when he is out.

Iza only reacts badly to Ayla when she is outside.  And just as she goes outside.  Something about Iza says that Ayla is an introoder when outside.  It baffles me.

Iza is a bully, but only when Ayla is outside, and not when Marley is outside or Ayla is inside.

Driving me NUTS!!!  What is it about Iza that she reacts badly only when Ayla is OUTSIDE?  It cant be outside smells.  Iza has them, Marley has them.  Iza loves Marley inside and outside.  But Iza hates Ayla outside.

ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Groundhog Wars

If you are sqeamish, don't read further.  I don't mean that I am showing bad pictures (there are none).  But I am fighting with groundhogs that damage my garden.  I mean, they destroy my food. 

Today, while I was weeding the garden, I heard an odd thrashing noise nearby the fence and old toolshed where a groundhog had taken up residence.  I had let Ayla out and feared she had tangled with the groundhog.  She is, in some ways, stupidly fearless.The only tool I had on the way was a gardening spade.  I grabbed it and ran toward the noise. 

I may also be stupidly fearless.

When I got to the fence, I saw the groundhog run into the burrow under the old toolshed.  I have GOT to make that space inaccessible!  But I also sawsomethng else.  3 groundhog pups huddled together 20' away from the burrow.

2nd Warning:  Violence ahead...


There I was with a garden spade, expecting to protect my cat from an adult groundhog.  What I found was future garden-destroying varmint pups.  I had the garden fork in hand.  They had no flight instincts.  I dispatched them as quickly as possible.  I didn't like it, but I did it.  Nothing needs be said further about that.

I did not enjoy it.  But I thought it was necessary.  Every year when a groundhog lives under the toolshed, my crops are ruined.  That is my food.  Last year, they ate all my cukes and most of my bean plants.  I am determined to drive the adult away.

I scooped up one dead pup and put it in the entrance burrow.  I moved a barrier board out of the way enough to place a second dead pup in there.  If that doesn't make Mom Groundhog leave the property, I will take further measures.  I am growing crops for ME, not her.

If I had a 10 acre farm and lost 100 sq ft to a groundhog, I wouldn't worry too much.  But last year, I lost every cuke and bean.  Between my organic safe food and the groundhogs, they are going to lose every time.  I have been tolerant for years, but the tolerance has ended. 

Mrs. Groundhog will die next!  And I will bury mesh wire 18" deep all around the shed to prevent any new ones coming back in the future!

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When I was 14, my dad took my brother and I out to a huge field to "hunt" groundhogs.  He had a whistle that made them stand up to look around for danger.  Toward twilight, he whistled at them again.  One stood up a long distance away. 

I laid down for a careful shot.  Dad laughed and said I couldn't aim that well.  I pulled the trigger and the groundhog vanished.  He said I scared him with the shot.  I said I got him.  I was insistent enough to make him walk with me to the spot.

There was the dead groundhog.  I nailed him right between the eyes.  He brought the dead ground hog home an made a stew of it.  Trust me, it doesn't taste like chicken.  He did it because he was being mean.  I made him look wrong.

I hate groundhogs...