Re: OT: Moles, voles, gophers and groundhogs

J. Griffin Crump wrote:
> 
> The question was raised by someone -- Rima? -- what does a vole look
> like? A vole (based on direct observation as I cleared away my woodpile)
> looks like a stubby-tailed mouse with small ears. It is grayish. It
> leaves a raised trail about an inch wide in the ground as it burrows
> toward your most treasured bulbous plant. A mole, on the other hand,
> leaves a raised trail about 2 1/2 - 3 inches wide. It cares nothing
> about your plants, unless they happen to be in the way as it bulldozes
> through the ground in search of insects, grubs, etc. The mole is a
> generally harmless creature, unless you insist that your lawn resemble
> the surface of a pool table. It is marvelous to cup a velvety, captured
> mole in your hands and feel the strength of its forelegs as it tries to
> escape. A mole cannot hurt you. Gophers (distinguishable by their
> lateral stripes) and groundhogs (both of whose bites CAN hurt you) are
> very good for sharpening the skills of budding archers. I have (in my
> youth) spent considerable time crouched in tall grass waiting for a
> groundhog to peer out from his den, so I could skewer him with a shaft
> from my bow. Gophers, on the other hand, were targets of opportunity,
> prone to pop up intermittently as one traversed the golf course with the
> greenskeeper's best wishes. In either case, the results were the lips of
> groundhog and gopher holes neatly transected by arrows with no harm to
> the denizens -- their hearing being so acute that the snap of the bow
> reached them before the deadly missile launched therefrom.
> 
Hi Robin Hoo....er.....Griff--

In addition to raising irises, are you sure you don't write adventure
stories.  I like your style.
Rima  terra@catskill.net
upstate ny zone 4
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index