Archie and the Varmint War
My old friend and regular deer camp attendee, Archie, came down for a Father's Day weekend visit. With all of our kids grown, we had time to spend a few days together at camp and still get home for a Sunday afternoon.
With the time that we had we put a lot on our camp calendar. There were some chores to be done, a little hunting, biking and boating. The only thing we'd scratched off the itinerary was fishing, which is not something I take lightly. However, the fishing has been poor around camp lately… not for everyone else… just me, so it was decided to give it a rest.
The top two things on our schedule were to take a boat ride and ride our hawgs. As I started packing it dawned on me, there were limitations to that plan. I could not tow a boat and carry guns and chainsaws on my bike. So, we settled for a definite boat ride then coming back for my bike. That never happened. Turned out we got hit with high winds and a boating advisory not to go out…so of course we spent a day on the lake.
Also, on the agenda was the initiation of the great ground hog war. The little rodents had done enough damage (read ate her bleedingheart plant) that my better half released the kraken on them.
They've encroached from the fields and have burrowed under the porch, eating the aforementioned bleeding heart and even gnawing on the porch itself! Fully surrounded with whistle pigs, now literally in the perimeter; it was time to push back. We conducted a Broken Arrow strike, if you will. Archie was the reinforcements. We had the perfect set up with the first cut of hay about off we were going to be able to raid the varmints home burrows out in the field and do a little coyote hunting, too. The ‘yotes had to pay for slipping on the job and not eating the varmints…I think they've made an uneasy alliance against camp.
Archie is a man of many talents. He's an architect who rebuilds tractors, does gun smithing, builds smokers and I think is pretty good at horseshoes among other things. While at camp he gives amazing money saving tips to help keep the place standing. Really, we have nothing in common. I'm only good at being a soldier of sorts and appreciating my friends' talents. However, Archie is as bad of a groundhog hunter as I am.
We waited on the hogs and failed to connect them to bullets. But in the process, I learned how to replace the clutch on a 57-ford tractor, timing shaft of an international ‘66 and build a pistol with nothing but rebar and a jig, the best welding techniques and how to save water damaged wood. I shared stories of how I did a lot of pushups in 1986. Apparently, among his talents, Arch is very good at tolerating unstimulating conversations.
Finally, we combined our talents to resort to pushing the ground hogs back with smoke grenades. Then we set about to raise havoc on the coyote population. Which ended up, basically, to be serenading them with wounded fawn calls. The coyotes seemed to enjoy that tremendously. They came in and spent hours, cheering and applauding our calls without coming into the field. We had the perfect set up, a fresh cut hay field, good wind and, apparently, great acoustics and comfortable seating.
In between our forays, we got some trails cleared, some trees opened up, set up cameras and scouted a little for fall. It appears the gypsy moths there are going to leave a dent but not devastate the trees. There were apples but it doesn't appear like it's going to be a heavy year. It's a little early to get a clue on how the acorns will be but with the conditions and number of apples still hanging, usually mast follows suit.
We left camp in better shape than we found it, though the ground hogs may not agree. I'm not sure they're all evicted yet.
See you along the stream.