Happy Ground Hogs Day!

I woke up to "gray" today which means this little ground hog will not be seeing his shadow here in my section of North Carolina. Across most of the south it is cold and rainy. Not cold enough for a repeat of last weekend, but cold enough. We were fortunate where I live not to get any snow. Just rain.

Today I thought I would share a ground hog story with you. The first farm my first husband an I bought had an old equipment type barn on it. This barn through the years had various uses probably because of its location - squank down in the middle of the pasture. The horses used it to stay dry in the rain and warm against the winter winds and snow. The ground hog used it to burrow its nest in the floor.

The first spring as I sat out on our deck watching the horses in the pasture one morning feeling like the world was my oyster I saw sudden movement. It was something large, brown and oh my goodness look at those teeth. I ran inside and got my binoculars, it couldn't be a beaver could it? It was way too far into the pasture away from the woods and stream for a beaver. No it was a groundhog!

That was my first groundhog. Soon I was introduced to a family of groundhogs. All living in the ground in our pasture barn.We eventually had to tear the barn down as the floor was riddled with holes and tunnels from the ground hogs. They actually undermined the whole structure. It was a hazard for the horses. We built other shelter for them and kept them in another pasture closer to their barn in winter. We filled in the holes and tunnels with dirt the spring after we tore it down. Every once in awhile I would catch a glimpse of a ground hog along the edge of the road as I was pulling in or out of our driveway. Never again was our pasture filled with groundhogs.