Beth with a nice Sunday groundhog.
Beth K. and I had a lot of fun on Sunday, hiting a hedgerow on a cool morning. About half way down the hedgerow all of the dogs pinged on a sette, but no one bayed and no one stayed under very long. We gave them a while to find, but no one opened up, so we moved down the hedgerow a bit farther. We hadn't gone very far, however, before I noticed that Sailor was not to be found, so I went back and boxed and there she was -- still silent, but down there working something without a doubt.
We boxed and she was not deep, and when we opened it up, she was able to get past the obstruction and she was soon up against a very nice groundhog. I snared this one as it bolted, and we let it go before repairing the den. A nice quick start to the day!
The next sette was on the turn in the same hedgerow, and this time Mountain got there first. This sette was under a large felled tree in a thickly overgrown part of the hedge. Beth went back to the car to check the dogs for heat while Mountain settled in to locate and I boxed. While clearing away the deadfall above ground, I found a nice three-tined deer antler shed in one of the holes -- a bit of a bonus which lifted my spirits as such small unexpected finds often do.
Mountain was making sounds underground close by, but Pip liked the pipe that had the antler in it. I let her off the lead and she stuck her head down that hole, and it soon became clear she had the butt of the groundhog while Mountain was up at the head. I let them work it a while until Beth came back. When Pip finally let go of her end I began to cut into the top of the pipe, which only served to split Mountain off from the groundhog. The good news is that this one did not get very far -- it buried itself in the dirt in the floor of the pipe. Pip quickly located it again and took most of the fur off the tail before I could figure out what end was which. I tailed this one out for a quick and humane dispatch, and Beth and I repaired the den.
We headed off to another farm. After checking a few blank holes on a small rise, we walked to the back side of the farm where there are some nice settes, but before we got there we stumbled across an enormous field sette on a shallow hill. Lots of holes and lots of dirt moved!
Pip went in and bayed up a storm. We set down the tools and Beth boxed the dog at 10 feet. After a bit Pip managed to move this groundhog up to the 5-foot mark and we began to dig. At two feet we unexpectedly broke through to an enormous cavern that was at least two feet tall. At the bottom was Pip, working a whistle-pig at an exit pipe at the very bottom of this palatial "room".
We pulled the dog and cleared out some of the dirt, but could not find the groundhog. We put the dog back in.
Pip was confused for a while, but she finally managed to get her mark and she began to dig downwards and to the side. In short order the groundhog was located and it began to whistle at the dog.
A little exploration with the bar revealed that this was a tripple-decker hole, with another big pipe underneath the pipe we were digging in. Thank goodness the groundhog was bunkered off to the side in an overlay of tough rock and hard dirt! We earth-stopped the side pipes to make sure the groundhog could not slip past if we had to pull Pip again.
It soon became clear that Pip could not get the groundhog unless we opened up the pipe some more, so we pulled her, and I barred into the rock and dirt. That did the trick! Pip was a little worse for the wear at this point, so we let Beth's big dog, Rock, go in and do his thing.
Rock went in and worked like a pile driver, but this groundhog was still very well protected. Rock eventually pushed it hard enough that the groundhog decided that bolting was the better part of valor and I managed to tail it out as it wobbled out to look for a side pipe.
This was pretty big groundhog -- about 14 pounds (a guess) with a 14.5 inch chest (field-measured).
Pip got a small cut on her lower lip, and Rock lost a few of his longer eyebrow hairs banging on the rock, but otherwise the dogs were in fine shape, and it was a grand day out digging. Pip and Rock did great, and Beth, as always, was great fun and a lot of laughs.
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