I was watching a nature show on cable the other day, it was all about the problems they're having in Africa with lions finding that sheep and cattle make for easy prey. The ranchers and villagers are between a rock and a hard place because they don't want to lose their herds, but they also don't want to lose the added income they get from tourists who come to see the lions. Well, someone came up with the idea that if you capture the lion and put him in a cage, and then have the whole village come out with sticks and bang on the cage bars that that might very well make that lion think twice next time he's out hunting and picks up the scent of humans. This way the people win because the lion will stay away from the herds, and the lions win because more drastic measures such as getting shot are avoided.

Now here in Washburn we don't have lions but we do have pesky groundhogs, I chase them out of the yard every summer trying to keep them from eating our vegetables and flowers, they love lupine by the way. The ritual usually goes like this, I look out the window see the groundhog in the yard, go out the front door, pick up a small stone in the driveway, chuck it at the groundhog, miss it by about 20 feet, but get its attention and watch it run off into the woods. I actually did hit one once...not sure who was most surprised the groundhog or me.

The other day I see one of the critters in the back of the house so I go out the door and somehow manage to sneak up on it, it was maybe 10 to 15 feet from me when it realized I was there. When it realized this wasn't a good thing it dove under the fire pit which was between us...well I all of a sudden remembered that nature show with the lions...so I picked up a stick and started banging on the fire pit which is made of metal...after about 2 or 3 minutes of this the groundhog decided it was better off in the open than under that pit and made a dash for the tree line.

I felt pretty pleased with myself, thinking it was the last time he'd be in the yard, but it could go on living it's groundhog life somewhere else. Apparently groundhogs don't think like lions, because 3 or 4 days later I noticed fresh dirt had been dug out around the door of our storage shed, yup, the groundhog has moved in under the shed. It's now living with us.