Groundhog Day!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Last Wednesday evening, we had a terrible rain storm and our power went out for five hours. During this blackout, we noticed water pouring in from our basement window and the window well filling with water. We actually had about 12 inches of water that we could see, almost like a porthole in a ship, just rising and rising in that window well and several frogs swimming on top. My husband was out in the storm bailing frogs and water most of the evening. He said he would fix everything this week.

Jump to this week...we woke up to another bad storm and I asked my daughter to go check the window. She came upstairs and said there wasn't any water in the window area, but there appeared to be a BEAVER trapped in the window well. At 6:30 am, these are not the words you want to hear. Sure enough, I go downstairs and there is an animal staring back at me through the window, that does have four front buck teeth, but a furry tail. Of course, I got on the phone to my husband (who is never home when these things happen) and told him (ok, I yelled) that I really wished he had covered that area like he said he was going to do. He said it was not a beaver, but a ground hog, and just kept laughing that we thought it was a beaver.

All day, I tried to get the ground hog out. I put two large branches down there thinking he would just crawl up and be on his way. Nope. Next, I tried a board with a peanut butter path and again no luck. Meanwhile, the ground hog is chewing all three things like he is building a dam in that well and relaxing in between all the chewing. Chewing, pooping, and relaxing....he seemed like he was starting to like the accommodations. I had to leave to volunteer and called my husband again to tell him our friend was still there, could he think of something, and hopefully, get him to leave by the time I came back. Do you know what he said then...."I don't think you should let the dogs near the groundhog" and seemed surprised when I said, "Well, then in that case I have to cancel the play date I scheduled at 3. Hold on, while I go tell the ground hog." Hey, sarcasm gets me through sometimes, what can I say.

Anyway, I came home at 8:00 pm and you got it, the ground hog was still there. Apparently, what my husband thought would be a good plan to rid our house of the ground hog included him working out, reading his Bike magazine, and having a snack. Oddly, none of those things made the ground hog leave. He did say he tapped on the window a couple of times. Next, he said he would deal with it when he got off work today and I quickly explained that the poor ground hog was getting out of that hole asap. So, Plan B was concocted in the garage by him as he looked around to see what could be used for ground hog removal. Did I mention he is an engineer? Out he comes with a cross country ski and tried to place it under the ground hog and expected the animal to balance on it while he lifted it up and out. I was dumbfounded that it didn't work...it seemed like such a sure thing. Finally, he got a bucket, managed to push it into the bucket and was able to hoist that up and now our friend is free. The last words I told him last night were, "somewhere out there is a little ground hog that thinks you are a hero!" Oh, and the cover is now soundly in place.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The window well is also an escape route from the basement, besides letting in light. It's a half moon shaped hole in the ground, next to the foundation, nd the window opens into it. There are covers you can put over the grate on top of them, which might discourage any more gopherdoodles, lol.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I told my DH about this post and he wants it clarified that his plan with the ski would have worked, if I had not been watching. I was very protective of Mr. Gopherdoodle. I am not sure how to describe a window well, but basically it is a hole below the ground (ours is like a half moon) and our basement window looks directly into it. It just helps to get light into the basement. If someone else has a better way to describe this, please do.

[Anna and Achilles]

LOL, That sounds like something that would happen to me.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Thanks for the laugh! I hear that gopherdoodles can be pretty mean, good thing this one wasn't invited to the play date!

[Linda and Murphy]

This is hysterical even if I don't know what a basement window well is. Where I live we don't have basements...heck we don't even bury people here. I'm not even sure we have groundhogs. But I know first hand about engineers! LOL

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

maybe DH could have his own show, the gopher whisper:) lol

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

It did cross my mind that if that would have been a skunk looking me in the eye, I would have had to call for real help. By real help, I mean someone armed with more than an old cross country ski and an orange bucket. It took the DH 2 seconds to put a cover over the well and it cost $17.00. Actually, it took him one week and 2 seconds, but who is counting.

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

This post had me chuckling so much. I love your sarcasm. Last summer we have had more than our fair share of Opossum encounters in the fenced backyard. None this year thank heavens.

[F, Calla & Luca]

We had a little rain yesterday but the skunk was a couple of years ago at least. This living in NJ is not cheap--to be continued in the bath saga later.