Well, I managed to reach the 100-post mark here at Blogger. Go me. The picture is representative of the fame I’ve achieved by posting here 100 times. No, please don’t take my picture. 🙂 I know that the two people who read this somewhat frequently are just overjoyed with the fact they’ve wasted enough time reading my daily ramblings about pretty much nothing. I appreciate that. 🙂

I called the county highway garage today and confirmed my order for the chloride application for this year. I changed it from last year’s some in that I increased the length to 300′ from 150′. 150 feet did the job relatively well, but it’d be good to have as little road dust as possible. It’ll be a little over $250 that I don’t really want to part with, but to not have to deal with the dust issue is worth that investment. Last year’s application lasted into the fall before it really stopped working well.

Today’s day at work was strange. I was only there for a half day, namely because I stayed at home to watch Kirstin in the morning. But you’d have thought there was a full moon out in the afternoon, because it seemed like everyone was crawling out of the woodwork. I must be that popular, I guess. I’d have to attribute that to the blog readers. 🙂 But, it wasn’t a bad day, just busy.

When I got home I was talking to Beth (and I’d put Kirstin down for a bit of a nap) when I noticed what initially appeared to be a really large squirrel near the end of our driveway. Upon second glance (mostly because said critter was sitting upright on its hind end), I realized it was no squirrel, but rather a woodchuck. So, it was time to eradicate this varmint problem. I don’t need any woodchuck living near the house.

So, I went to the basement to procure and load the shotgun. I’d not fired said weapon in at least three years (since we bought the house) — in fact it’s probably been closer to four years. So I went out the back door and headed towards my prey. Well, the damn thing saw me come around the corner of the house and ran into the culvert beneath our driveway approach. So, I inspected both ends of the culvert from a distance, but was unable to verify the presence of the little bastard. This is mostly due to the grade of the ditches (it’s really hard to see through the culvert). So, fairly convinced that he was in there, I fired two shots (one from each end at a distance of about 30 feet with pheasant load). No critter came out. So I either got him or he was trapped in there and afraid to come out. Long story short, after I got Beth a really long stick (it’s my depth measurer for the septic tanks made from copper pipe and 1″ conduit) and had her root around on one side of the culvert (hoping to chase said critter out the other side where I was waiting with the gun), we still didn’t see any creature.

So, it was time to go one step further and actually fire the gun directly into the culvert. Again, long story short, by the time I got a board down (so I could lay on it while firing the gun without getting wet) and rooted around with my stick a bit, I discovered that I had indeed killed said woodchuck in the first shot fired. I discovered the body about three feet into the culvert. So there was no need to shoot again…and my target had been eliminated.

I have to say that it was actually a bit fun to fire off the shotgun again. I’m not a big gun fan, but it’s a good time once in a while.

After all that excitement (once I got everything put away), I decided to sharpen my old set of lawnmower blades so that they’re ready to go once I finish mowing the remainder of the lawn for the first time. I don’t like to use new or sharp blades for the first cutting (because of all the random things that are sometimes strewn about and/or hidden until the first mowing), but I will be able to change them out without much trouble early next week and go from there. So good times with the grinder were had. That’s cheaper than buying a new set of blades (at about $24 for the set). Hell, if they hold a relative edge for a few months it’s worth it. And there’s a lot of blade left to grind away before I’d have to replace it anyway.

So, when that was all said and done I came inside for the evening and I’ve just been hanging out since. Until now, though, because I’m heading for bed.

For the curious, I would encourage checking out the following links:

For humor: If Dogs Could Speak…

For boredom: Cavemen

Until next time…when I start the next 100 posts of my life ramblings…

–MZ