There I was just sitting at the table working on the computer and on the phone with my favorite technical consultant (my Dad) when I heard a knock at the door. It was one of my most helpful neighbors with two metal contraptions. I have to admit I was still in my PJ’s and putting off some farm chores. His visit got me moving, I threw on clothes and out the door the kids and I went so we could learn to set gopher traps! The first step is finding a fresh mound, poking the stake into the ground to find where the hole or tunnel is and then digging a hole to uncover the tunnel. The trap gets set and placed in the hole, then covered with some yummy grass. This clever neighbor welded a chain from the trap to the stake to make it more difficult for an animal to run off with the gopher and trap. So far we haven’t trapped a gopher, but we’ll see how things go tomorrow.
The gophers are out of control right now. It’s truly amazing how much area they can cover and how many holes and mounds they create in such a short time. Our dog Henry (the coonhound) will smell them underground, dig, catch them and swallow them whole. For obvious reasons, he’s limited to hunting in just the dog area and I have a feeling those little pests know it. They’ve got free range over the rest of the 5 acres and they seem to enjoy it. The winter certainly seems like their peak tunneling/digging time, but I could be wrong.
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Update: 1 gopher trapped and killed!