I want to fill this new Plaid Shirt page with real-life stories about experiences we have had as Olde Goats. Perhapes they made us laugh or shed a tear. Or affected our heart. Or startled our common senses. Or added something new to what we know.
I will share them as I find them, but please feel free to contribute.
Dan
Michael Koppa - Book artist, letterpress printer, collage artist, graphic designer, and stonecutter - contributed this true story.
There has always been something burrowing under the Klubhaus for as long as I can remember. I have always assumed it was a groundhog, or groundhogs, until it or they left and the rabbits took it over until springtime. A few years ago, I took the time to add treated plywood to the foundation, extending as much as 18” below a packed gravel perimeter about 2’ wide. The hole reappeared last year, I ignored it, and this year there have been groundhog sightings almost every time I go out there. Groundhogs can be problematic to a wooden foundation, and I don’t want them gnawing at the insulated base the Klubhaus sits upon, so I decided to borrow a live trap to catch and release however many of them are living on the property.
I set the first trap yesterday morning, with cantaloupe as bait (recommended by the lender), and picked up a second trap from the rental department at the hardware store in the afternoon before going back out to check on the first one. Sure enough, trap tripped. It was fairly small for a groundhog, as far as I could tell, so I think it was a pup. I’ve read that before the babies are born, the male leaves the den and the mama groundhog raises a litter of 3-5 pups in it. Took the trap to the van and hauled it about 5 miles north and on the other side of the West Fork of the Kickapoo River to let it go. When I went back to Holy Hollow, I set both traps for the night to see if I could catch some more.
When I arrived this morning, I was happy to see one of the traps tripped, but less happy when I found it was not a groundhog, but a skunk. And so began an entire morning blown trying to figure out what to do when you trap a live skunk.
It’s the 21st century so I started texting friends. Almost everyone I asked gave the same advice: cover the trap with a blanket. Apparently, skunks become pretty deactivated in the dark, and the blanket not only subdues them, but protects you somewhat if it decides to spray. I did not have a blanket, but plenty of sheets of black plastic, and that did the job.
Once the cage was propped open, we waited patiently. No movement inside the cage as far as anyone could tell. It seemed like the skunk was just going to sit in there huddled up in the corner until we were gone. The black sheet over the cage made it impossible to see inside it, and neither of the gunmen wanted to shoot unless they knew it would be a clean shot at the heart. We didn’t want to take a chance of it soaking the Klubhaus with its spray. After about twenty minutes of
waiting patiently, and me agitating the cage with a pole to coax it out, Glenn had to leave.
Shortly after he left, Terry and I got a little tired of waiting, and I suggested maybe my Bluetooth speaker near the cage would make him want to leave. It worked. Not more than 30 seconds of Henry Mancini and the USC Marching Band (I think) playing The Theme from “Rocky” and he decided make a lope for it. While the whole scene was slightly amusing, Terry gained his composure and kept a bead drawn on it as it went directly for the hole, just as Glenn had supposed it might. Next thing I know Terry, with composure and the gun aimed right at it, is in a backpedal as the skunk is moving towards him. I, of course, moved further away and sorry but this was no time for photographs. Gratefully, it turned away from Terry towards the west and lumbered its way to the path into the woods. It looked big, but never stopped long enough for Terry to get a good shot at it. Game over.
Skunk on the run.
I I set three traps before leaving, this time thinking about placement, as in having a clean shot at another (or the same) skunk if necessary: away from the building with no obstructing vegetation. If rodents are anything like my dog, they can smell that cantaloupe from 20’ away, and they’ll go get it no matter where it is.
And that’s the end of the story, for now. As soon as I drop the photos in this newsletter, I’m heading back out there to check the traps. Maybe I’ll let you know how it ends, if it ends, if I don’t have anything more interesting to report next month.
Credit to The New Moon Monitor, July 2024
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