Gopher Broke!

Got gophers?  We do. Hate them little suckers, rather diggers.  They are digging up our entire yard at the farm.  They are in the hay pastures and I guess that's alright, but I don't want 'em in the yard.  When you have sandy soil it's perfect for digging and burrowing.  It's a little scary to walk in the yard because you might step in a hole, or at least a soft spot and twist your ankle. Don't need to do that.

I bought me 4 traps. I've caught about 5 gophers in the last week so far and am working on the others.  Yesterday afternoon, it was a battle of wills with this one particular gopher. I knew he was purty big cuz he had huge dirt mounds and large holes in the ground.  I'm gettin' pretty good at finding the main tunnel. I poke around the mound with a long sharp stick and feel for a soft spot, dig straight down in a single motion and lift out the dirt. There you can see the run. There's kind of a talent to finding the main run and I guess I've acquired that talent.  Something extremely valuable I can use in the future.

Then you tie a string or a piece of wire on the back of the trap so's the gopher won't pull it down in the hole, set the trap and stick it way down in the hole - check.  Then you wanna make it a little dark in there so they won't see the trap. I shove some leaves or some loose grass and dirt down in there - check. Sometimes I put a little peanut butter on the square metal piece on the end for bait - check. (Hey they make poison peanuts to kill them so I figure what the heck)  Now, the trap's in the hole, the hole's covered up, and the other end of the string or wire you stake it in the ground outside the mound - check.  Now sit back and wait.

Sometimes you have to wait just a little bit, sometimes it may take a day or two.  If you haven't caught anything after a couple of days, it's probably a dry run and you need to try another mound.

ANYWAY, yesterday, I was going after this particular gopher, dug out a hole, found the run, set the trap, staked my string, and went to set a trap elsewhere.  Ok, I go back about 10 minutes later, move some of the leaves and dirt away and lo and behold, MY STRING HAS BEEN CHEWED IN HALF and the trap's gone!  I had to dig down and to the side another foot and finally found the trap - still unsprung and just a little piece of string still attached.  So I reset everything, put a new piece of string on the trap and waited.  Come back about 15 minutes later, SAME THING!  This time I had to dig even farther. Found my trap still unsprung.

OK, This is WAR!!!  (cue "Caddy Shack" music here)  I go to the garden shed and git me a piece of thin wire and attach it to the trap. He ain't gettin' away this time!  I'm talking and fussing out loud now - (cue Bill Murray)  Here we go again. I bring a spoonful of peanut butter outside and load up my trap, stake it out with wire and water my roses.

I pull on the wire, it's not wantin' to come out of the hole. It's stuck & I have to git my little shovel under it and bring it out.  There attached by a little piece of stomach skin was MR. GOPHER - nearly big as a rat, and he's jumpin' all around tryin to get loose.  First one I've caught alive. 

Now, I'm a big animal-lover & don't like killing animals no matter what kind - except snakes. But I can't let him loose to keep digging up the yard. I call my sister and ask her opinion. She's a big non-squeamish-do-it-yourselfer-cuz-you-don't-wanna-wait-around-on-your-husband type of girl like me. Wrong choice.  I thought she was going to tell me to take his head off with the shovel. No, she said I should let him go. WHAT?  Of course, it's not her yard and she doesn't have gophers.  So she shamed me into letting him go. BUT I let him go way down in the pasture by the pond. Hopefully he'll never make it back up to my yard.

I feel like a failure somehow. If I'm gonna be a farmgirl I've got to learn to do what has to be done. I wimped out yesterday.  I've always prided myself on being able to take care of business that has to be taken care of. It won't happen again - PROMISE!   ;o)

In the meantime, I've got Mr. Gopher by the tail and he's twistin all around trying to grab me and take a hunk out of my finger with those big ole gnawing teeth of his. Every time I tried to move him with my stick he's chompin on the stick, the trap and my gloved hands. Thank goodness for leather gloves! If he HAD of bitten me I guess I could have carried out my farmerly duties to cause his demise posthaste! So I carry him by the tail out to the pond and set him down in the dirt where he starts scurrying around looking for a place to hide.  I think he'll be alright.  I'll just let Mother Nature take care of him.

So that's what I did all afternoon yesterday.  Kathy B over at  Spot on Cedar Pond has been after moles at her place.  What'd you do fun and entertaining yesterday?