For several days lately I’ve been hearing a squeaky ‘weeee’ sound coming from under the shed. Today I also heard wood being gnawed. There’s a groundhog that lives under the shed, and I think she has babies.
The old shed is about to collapse, but it’s still got a few years of standing upright (sort of) if nothing catastrophic happens to it. I’m afraid the groundhog might be in that catastrophe category, though. Once her babies are out of the burrow, we’ll have to find a way to make her move.
Groundhogs are cute, but I know why people don’t like them. They burrow everywhere and are problematic. She kept coming into the garden last year and I suspect she may be at it again this year. For the remainder of last year, the prickly pear cactus I put at her entry point was a great deterrent. But it didn’t survive the winter. So now I need to do something more permanent.
She’s not the only problem with wildlife in the garden. A squirrel has been rampaging and creating carnage every morning lately. It’s eating tomato plants down to the ground, digging up acorns and throwing plants in the way to the side to die. It turned over all of the pots I had turmeric tubers in and ate most of them. This one little squirrel has cause more havoc than the woodchuck ever did.
Do you remember the cartoon, I can’t remember which one maybe a Loony Toons, about a farmer fighting moles in his garden? And of course there’s the whole Peter Rabbit story about the battle between the farmer and the rabbits. Well, my gardening life is beginning to feel like those cartoons. I have not yet outsmarted the wildlife that wants to eat or destroy my garden. It’s driving me mad!
Anyway, I managed to get a video of the woodchuck/groundhog that lives under the shed. I tried squealing like the noise I’d been hearing and it worked for a little while. The gig was up shortly, though:
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email: madison@wildozark.com
phone: (479) 409-3429
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I’m a nature-lover, real estate agent & artist. Sometimes, I also write things. I began using local pigments to paint scenes from nature in the Ozarks in 2018.
All of my artwork is available in prints, and where originals are available, they are for sale. You can find all of that over at shop.WildOzark.com.
If you’re interested in buying or selling in rural northwest AR, get in touch with me by phone, text, or email. I’m happy to help! I have a separate website for my real estate blogging and information at WildOzarkLand.com.
Call me “Roxann” or “Madison”, either one works.
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