Groundhog came for a visit....

[Peace]

I see him/her all the time in the field down in the bottom. ... Never up by the house. I was surprised; it is always cautious. This seemed out of character, then a car door shut next door and he took off like lightning. That seemed more normal. Beautiful coat, beautiful. Lucky for the groundhog, our Weim was fast asleep. ...come to think of it, that may have been lucky for all of us. Edited August 31, 2013 by Peace

[rugerla1]

I love seeing those fat lil suckers out in fields.

[Steelharp]

That's a sert.

[leroy]

I think "whistle pigs" are cool!!  I like to watch 'em too.   In the "old days" lots of 'em were killed because of diggin up the pastures.  Farmers didnt like 'em because of the possibility of livestock steppin in their burrows.   They are also "hell" on gardens... They like everything we like and will eat it in the garden.... Seems like the ones i see today are on the roadway slopes watchin the cars drive buy.  The more foolish ones venture down to the roadway and get run over crossin across the roadway... .

 

Thanks for postin the great picture.

leroy

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Put some tater chips out and watch them gobble them down. I think there are four in my back yard, now.

[frankmako]

i got several under one of my old farm houses and a shed area.  they sure can dig some big holes.  they are going to have to go when i start tearing down the house. 

[rugerla1]

Only saw one of these causing a LOT of damage and it was funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krVXRCcr2M4

[Peace]

Maybe I'll get a better pic nextime.  He was heads' up looking at me while I was trying to get my iPhone and binoculars to play nice.

[K191145]

I have one of those fat rats under my tool shed, he/she ate many of my cucumbers and small watermelons this year. At one time I set up a live trap and baited it with cucumber,carrot, and a piece of apple. I have a place to re-locate him/her near a creek but all I caught was ants. My cucumbers have already played out for the season so fat rat can stay for a while I guess. I just hope fat rat isn't a female full of little fat rats.

It's hard to get close and to get them to stay still for a good pic.

Edited September 1, 2013 by K191145

[rugerla1]

We used to have 3 of them, one was H U G E, that were always in this little corner lot beside a railroad track. May have been a wolverine according to Si Robertson  :rofl:  But anyway, we slowed down and looked at them everytime we went by there. Up until about 5 years ago when they disappeared and haven't been seen since. Not sure what happened but to this day, I still slow down to see if maybe they've returned. Kinda sad, it was really cool to see them out there, especially when the big hoss was standing up watching out while the others ate. Hope they are okay, and maybe just moved to the backside of the tracks.

[BigK]

believe it or not, they don't taste bad, if you parboil them, then bake them in the oven with some bbq sauce

[Oh Shoot]

believe it or not, they don't taste bad, if you parboil them, then bake them in the oven with some bbq sauce

 

I've eaten four or five, cooked different ways, all were fine.  They're actually very lean, all that fat comes off attached to the skin, it's like a hard spongy suet. Lots of viscera best I remember too,  to process all that quantity of veggie matter they consume. You wind up with a lot less hog than you start with. :)

 

Whistle pig was a staple in poor Appalachia, actually all over the South at least, especially during the Depression. I know my Dad grew up eating them in south Georgia.

 

I never killed them myself when I lived out in the boonies,  our dogs did -- I just didn't let some them go to waste if I got em fresh from the kill. I've always liked them, and didn't begrudge them the garden spoils;  matter of fact they didn't ever seem to hit it very hard, and we seemed to have a pretty good population of them for the rather limited cleared areas we had.

 

Then again, our master gardening plan was planting a large one, taking very little care of it, and harvesting whatever survived, which was always plenty enough.

 

- OS

Edited September 1, 2013 by Oh Shoot

[enfield]

I shot one once.  Stalked him over portions of 3 days, finally shot him from 15 feet with a .22.   He was a creature of habit.  :D

 

I enjoy watching them and, if they're not pests, I leave them alone.

[leroy]

RE:  OS great observation here:

 

 

....Whistle pig was a staple in poor Appalachia, actually all over the South at least, especially during the Depression. I know my Dad grew up eating them in south Georgia. .....

 

I've heard my graddad (...lived to be 93, died in 1963...) and my mom laughingly call possums "Hoover Hogs"... .  As big as a groundhog gets; i bet they were at least "Hoover Cattle" in the "Hoover" days!!! 

 

Sometimes we whine today about "problems" when the truth of the matter is that they are mostly "inconveniences".  We've made a bit of progress here, at least; we've went from eatin the great groundhog to admirin and watchin him...  

 

I wonder if Jackson, Sharpton, and Obama like "Hoover Hogs" and groundhogs??  I wonder if that thought is an indicator of a heinous racist stereotype???!

 

wonderin leroy

[BigK]

I trapped quite a few of them when I was growing up. My granny finally got sick of helping me clean em and made me do it myself, but her and grandpa didn't seem to get tired of helping me eat em.

[rugerla1]

I trapped quite a few of them when I was growing up. My granny finally got sick of helping me clean em and made me do it myself, but her and grandpa didn't seem to get tired of helping me eat em.

:up:

[JR2ATN]

 

I named this one Rupert, but I eventually relocated him, his sibling and their mother.  The dad I never could catch but he eventually moved on.