More Garden Chronicles

We thought we were done with the groundhogs...we were wrong. We caught that one on Friday. I looked at it closely and had to struggle not to throw-up. This one was old and nasty. It had sores on it's tail and backside and was missing a bunch of fur. I think this one was the "original" Phillipe. We took it up in the mountains and let it go. The stench was so bad, I made Brian roll all the windows down in the van. And sweet Adam really wanted to watch the beast go, so I held him while Brian let the pest run away. It seemed like he had been caught a few times before...he was much more calm and slow than the other one.

Sunday morning I'm getting ready for church. "I look out the window and what did I see? A groundhog on it's haunches starring back at me..." Aaahhh!!! I thought there were only two!! So I raced down to the garden (in my Sunday clothes and sandals, I might add) and reset the trap, with NO bait, just in case it tried to get in and eat what we just planted the day before, and our lettuce and carrots that are just coming up.

Sure enough! I get home from church and there, in the trap, is the groundhog! This one was "fresh." No scars, no missing hair, and big. It seemed rather unintelligent though. It kept ramming into the ends of the trap trying to get out...not to mention it got trapped without any bait. And it bent the trap. Since it was Sunday, I didn't want to shoot it...so we went for a drive and let it go in the mountains, with the windows down (of course).

My theory is that the groundhogs have left their scent on their "trail" to our garden and under the fence, leading to the trap. The other hogs smell that and think, "there must be food this way" and so they follow it and SNAP! They are trapped without bait. We haven't been able to mow our grass for over a week due to a broken mower, but I found it was a blessing. Now I can see the groundhog trail and we can get some more anti-groundhog pellets to put in their path. I just hope there aren't any more...at any rate, the trap is set, just in case.