I ended up catching 4 of those suckers last year. They wiped out 3 rounds of plantings of Beans, Cukes and Squashes before I got them all. They were living under my neighbors garage and moseying over at night for dinner. About the only fun we got out of them was watching their fat little behinds wobble when I lifted the gate on the trap to let them go. My wife insisted on taking the ride with me every time just so she could watch that.
Our version of retirement: Living a childhood dream
- Thread starter Gary O'
- Start date
I ended up catching 4 of those suckers last year. They wiped out 3 rounds of plantings of Beans, Cukes and Squashes before I got them all. They were living under my neighbors garage and moseying over at night for dinner. About the only fun we got out of them was watching their fat little behinds wobble when I lifted the gate on the trap to let them go. My wife insisted on taking the ride with me every time just so she could watch that.
Meanderer
Supreme Member
SifuPhil
R.I.P. With Us In Spirit Only
- Location
- Pennsylvania, USA
I'd prefer Grass Hoppers to Dennis Hopper - the man is wacko.
there's only one Dennis Hopper
there's quadrillions of grass hoppers
....yer right, I'll take the grasshoppers
SifuPhil
R.I.P. With Us In Spirit Only
- Location
- Pennsylvania, USA
Zap 'em with the siren, man ... zap 'em with the siren! 
Zap 'em with the siren, man ... zap 'em with the siren!
great
now apocalypse now, is gonna be apocalypse all day...in my mind
IKE
Well-known Member
- Location
- Oklahoma....U.S.A.
When I was around 12 or 13 I was sent on a Greyhound bus by my stepdad and mom from Wisconsin to live on my uncles farm in Kentucky for what I suppose would be called a disciplinary 'Time Out' for kids now days for about a year with them thinking that my uncle could work some of the meanness out of me on the farm (it didn't work
).......he was a sharecropper on a hog and tobacco farm.Anyway, he had a old rusty .22 single shot rifle and I used to hunt groundhogs and my aunt would boil them for 'X' period and then stuff the chest cavity with with sweet potatoes and then bake them for 'X' time.
We don't have them in Okla. but I remember the meat was rich and they were damn good eating !
When I was around 12 or 13 I was sent by my stepdad and mom from Wisconsin to live on my uncles farm in Kentucky for what I suppose would be called a disciplinary 'Time Out' for kids now days for about a year with them thinking that my uncle could work some of the meanness out of me on the farm (it didn't work
Anyway, he had a old rusty .22 single shot rifle and I used to hunt groundhogs and my aunt would boil them for 'X' period and then stuff the chest cavity with with sweet potatoes and then bake them for 'X' time.
We don't have them in Okla. but I remember the meat was rich and they were damn good eating !
View attachment 50424
Wouldn't be my first choice for a meal, but I bet just about anything could be made to taste good if prepared properly. The older generations had much more of a knack with that sort of thing than we do today.
Gonna get aggressive with the garden this year
We been pretty much just feeding the fauna
Deer, turns out, can sproing straight up and over a six foot fence
Chippies use the fence as some sorta exercise wall
The fence consists of ½ inch square wire mesh and T posts
I should say ‘consisted’
Took it all down yesterday
Container (metal feeding trough) gardening this year
Except the raspberries, sea berries, blue berries, Oregon grape berries.
They’ll be framed, with ¼ inch wire mesh and hinges, and removable framed tarps for evenings.
One early evening last summer, around august, we were strolling thru the garden.
Stopped at the bush beans
We were discussing their chances at actually bearing when I noticed one getting shorter
Then disappearing
Like in the cartoons
Ground squirrels
The Vietcong of the meadow
Miles of tunnels
In spring, they’ll line up, like meerkats, on their their haunches, surveying ‘their’ garden.
Spring picking has become spring plinking
Light load 22 shorts travel so slow it’s easy to follow the trajectory
Quite fun
Sometimes it's hard to think of these "cute" animals as an arch enemy, but when you put in the back breaking hours of labor it takes to plant and maintain a veggie garden until it's time to reap a harvest, they become just that. When I owned my house in NewHampshire I had a huge veggie garden with a lot of corn. I was walking through the cornstalks one day and noticed a noise coming from one of the stalks, when I looked closer their was a chippy straddling an ear of corn, munching away while just looking up at me as if to say, "this is really good, keep it coming". Lil buggers!
Chippies
They have wiggled their furry little bodies into my heart
I’ve been feeding them from a five gal pail of cracked corn
A sort of diversion
Placation
Thinking they’d keep outa our stuff
Didn’t think, however, they’d invite their friends
bastards
When my Shepherd Bella was younger she used to chase the chippy's and corner them in the woodpiles, she would then reach in and swat at the chippy until she knocked it senseless. Then she'd pull it out of the pile and finish it off. I had quite a few chippy's dropped at my feet with the "look what I did for you Dad" puppy dog look, lol.
This is Bella on the lookout for chippy's in NH.
Love the heartbeat of dawgs, all
The bigger the more visual their thoughts, seems
Thought many times of getting another when we moved here
Kinda happy I’m holding off
We get some pretty large wild life coming quite near the cabin
It’d be a bit of a conflict
Not sure how I could handle that
However
I have been flirting with getting a wolf pup
Not just yet, it wouldn’t be fair to man nor beast
But
When building comes to a lull
It just may happen
This is great Gary. I like your idea of enjoyable living.I dabble in poetry
steal pics off the web
add my verbiage
sometimes it comes together
I've had dogs for most of my adult life, I don't know what I'd do without them. It's amazing how they can help you through the hard times and give you smiles when you don't have any. They are happy just to be with you and their loyalty is never questioned. I'd surround myself with hundreds of them if I could.
Yes, that was me saying "Get yourself a dog Gary, maybe two".
weighing it out, pard
dogs go a bit nuts out here
I will never tie one up in these woods
so, training, intense training will be involved
still....
SifuPhil
R.I.P. With Us In Spirit Only
- Location
- Pennsylvania, USA
SifuPhil
R.I.P. With Us In Spirit Only
- Location
- Pennsylvania, USA
Awoo.
Aunt Bea
SF VIP
- Location
- Near Mount Pilot
IKE
Well-known Member
- Location
- Oklahoma....U.S.A.
Be careful Gary.......the chippy's have friends.
Fully understand the logistics of it, definitely won't be easy. The come and stay commands will be of utmost importance. A runner might be a good idea for training until the dog is able to control it's impulses, at least that will give a range of movement rather than tied to a tree.