Subterranea

There is something disquieting about creatures that burrow in the earth.  What are they hiding?  What plans are they making in their underground bunkers?

I have experience with the gopher.  I admit, this little rodent is an exception to the rule.  I don't find him the least bit frightening.  He is, also, so darn pathetic.  Sticking his head out of the ground, making those sweet peeping noises.  Frolicking about with his buddies out in the wide open where they turn into meals for the local hawk population.  When it comes to our road network and the practice of safety procedures, they are absolutely clueless.  We see scores of these poor little blighters offering up their crushed entrails to crows and magpies.  So sad.

I'm not afraid of the Richardson's Ground Squirrel.  He is cute and inept.

Lurking beneath the property here, however, is a beast of a different colour.  I think.  I can only posit what the local underground denizens look like and are up to.  They won't show themselves.  They continue to expand their subterranean city.  That, is obvious from the heaps of sand appearing around the entrances to their lairs.

If there were just a few holes in the ground I'd have little to worry about.  If the holes were widely dispersed that would make me feel more settled.  If the inhabitants of terra not so firma would reveal themselves as cute, cuddly little leaf eating rodents I could sleep better at night.  Not these creatures.  They hide in their ever expanding network of tunnels.

I once had a gopher situation at home.  One little fellow decided our deck was interesting.  Rather than just politely crossing the deck as you or I would, he completed a tunnel under the deck, burrowing up next to the house.  I easily put an end to his explorations by stuffing a large pointed boulder down his hole.  Hmmm.  I'm wondering what googling visitors I will be getting on this blog after that last sentence.  As they say, any publicity is good publicity.  Regardless, the gopher situation was resolved.

I will be preparing my pointed boulders this afternoon.  I'm thinking something in the range of 2,000 should be sufficient.