Picking pumpkins and groundhogs at the patch

[woolbr8stl 0]

We headed down to the pumpkin patch today for some digging. 20 minutes into our trip, we find ourselves looking for one dog, Charlie. Backtracking, we find him in a new one hole spot trying to squeeze and dig his way in. We wait a bit to make sure he reaches his quarry, then begin to dig.

 

 

 

 

 

We hear plenty of scrapulation, including Charlie getting nailed pretty good. We dig less than two feet to Charlie’s new friend

 

 

 

 

 

Stick a shovel in between them and a piece of lead finishes her off

 

Then we are going to open up to take Charlie out to school the young dogs, but he can’t wait for us and pulls it out to the creek.

 

 

 

 

 

Nice 13 pound hog

 

 

 

Charlie has a good rip and puncture in his lower lip, a hole in the top of his muzzle and has scraped the skin and hair off some of his face. What a sweet boy. He’ll be ready to go again in a week or so, LOL

 

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The pumpkin patch was busy with visiting families today picking their Halloween pumpkins. We were digging right by the road that the tractors loaded with visitors take to drop off in the pumpkin patch. Found ourselves not using the pistol until the next tractor went by, hiding the blood on our hands from Charlie’s wounds, hiding the dead hog from view, etc etc. Supposed to be a nice family outing to the pumpkin patch, not a blood and guts kind of show, LOL

 

 

 

 

 

Switching dogs and leaving tattered Charlie behind, we move along the creek and Tyke soon enters a multi hole sette at the top of the creek bank. We’ve dug here before, repairing the digs when we were done. He quickly opens up, moves a little, then I get a mark. Not quite ready to dig yet making sure he settles, I get the dreaded whiff of SKUNK. I marked him at 5 ft right after I smelled it but don’t believe it’s that deep since we have dug here twice before at only 3 ft depths. As I go to the entrance to call him out, the others start to dig. Out of desperation I start to dig in from the creek bank with the hopes it will be shorter. Then he’s located at only 2 feet, moving forward from the 5 ft mark. By now it seemed 10-15 min has gone by and I go from thinking I’ll dig to a dead dog to knowing he’s moved and we still have a chance.

 

The new 2 ft mark is in right where we dug before, so the tunnel was previously repaired with branches. We open it up and start to remove the wood holding it together. We can see Tyke’s body but no movement. The branches from the zipper are wedged in and we carefully but quickly dig them out. By now I think Tyke is near death or dead from the skunk fumes. Removed the biggest piece of wood and miraculously his head pops up, and I scoop him up and gave him the biggest squeeze, so relieved he was alive. He was really wedged in and could not move at all. Apparently the previous repair collapsed on top of him as he tried to come back out. He was dazed but luckily alive and well, back to normal in about 20 minutes. We used a gas bomb in the hole in hopes of dispatching the skunk if he wasn’t already dead.

 

 

 

 

We packed up and moved to another farm, coming up empty so we called it a day, and a pretty good one at that, considering all dogs came home a little banged up, but alive and well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wooly

Edited October 22, 2006 by woolbr8stl

[thurso jack 3]

great read there!

[Guest Dillon]

Thought the pictures were a geezer until the bottom one, I'd walk down the woods with you Wooly :kiss:

[wilba1985 0]

excellent read

[tom_patterdale 0]

brilliant read there keep up the good work!

[finsons 0]

good read keep up the good work

[DUCKWING 302]

CRACKING READ ,

 

KEEP DIGGING

 

DUCKWING

[Guest G.Mac]

Good day out there.Nice to see how others do it.

[Guest MOLLY]

Brilliant post again Wooly. Charlie is a gorgeous lad

MOLL.

[Simoman 110]

Excellent read, those groundhogs have a good set of gnashers

[lakey 1]

great stuff all round.

[pointer28 1]

Great read, love some good hunting stories. Pity there weren't some more, I suppose some people just aren't as good at waxing lyrical as yourself.

[Nipper 0]

Great read. Get them hogs established over here!!

[JODYFOXHUNTER 0]

Obviously realised skunks don't spray channel #5 but didn't know it was potent enough to finish your dog off.... !!

[woolbr8stl 0]

Obviously realised skunks don't spray channel #5 but didn't know it was potent enough to finish your dog off.... !!

 

The danger comes when they are skunked underground and there is no fresh air. They are overcome by fumes from the spray. It is an awful thing. The spray also causes burning to the skin and eyes. In cases where the dog dies, it is usually because it goes into shock and it takes us too long to dig the dog out to help it recover. It also depends on if the dog is sprayed directly in the face and how quickly they come out. there really are many factors involved, mostly involving the confined area the have to work in.

 

Many dogs turn out fine if they leave the ground immediately. They seem to recover with fresh air within 20-30 minutes. In many cases the dogs come out, vomit a couple of times, seem disoriented/shocky. We water them, clear away the spray from their body and face and watch them for signs of shock. We tie them out immediately to prevent them from running off and to be able to treat them. It can be a terrible thing, and one of the chances we take. Where I live we encounter skunks all year round. Some areas of the country seem to find them in the ground more often in the fall and winter.

Edited October 26, 2006 by woolbr8stl