Groundhog report

David, the neighbor boy stopped by to reset his groundhog trap and to visit a bit. Besides Dale, David and his father are the only people we've given permission to hunt at the farm. David is just the greatest kid--I'll be sad to see him go off to college next fall. He posted our whole perimeter for us--a hundred signs--and he's been helping us with groundhog extermination. We have underground cities of groundhogs. There are elaborate networks of holes that provide entry into every outbuilding and are actually compromising the foundation of the barn. Dale came up last spring with his father and shot some for us, and Keith and Aaron have shot maybe 5 or so. David brought his trap over and has caught 3 so far, but that's hardly made a dent in the problem. And now they are not as active since it's colder out and they're preparing for hibernation. Still, each one we get is one less that can procreate over the winter. Next year we're going to have to get serious about eliminating this menace.

David mentioned that the fence along the back woods has been cut in two places. This is a different location from where Aaron and Arden repaired the cut fence a couple months ago. At that time, one of the neighbors who was using the field as though it's a public park for ATVs challenged Keith about closing it off, but Keith made it clear we don't want them riding on our farm. We don't want to alienate our neighbors, but it does take a lot of nerve for them to use our property without permission. Most of the neighbors we've met are really nice, but I think we have to establish boundaries with the interlopers. It seems that the vast expanse of open space is too inviting when the rest of the neighborhood is densely populated and provides no accommodation for motorized recreation. So I guess this weekend we'll be repairing fences again!