Good morning gardeners. Sounds like you are feeling a bit better @penny1960. I watered the garden yesterday (only the part that still has vegetables growing). It hasn't rained for about a week now and despite the low temps last week it was in the mid 80's yesterday. They're calling for more warmth today and tomorrow. I picked a few more green beans and two cucumbers this morning. Yesterday while the chickens were in my backyard I grabbed a handful of cherry tomatoes from the garden and tossed it to them. They went crazy over them. I made the trip to my favorite orchard yesterday and picked up 10 lbs. of apples and some fresh apple cider. I will likely make the apple and cranberry jam tomorrow. Groundhogs - OMG! We have some wicked big ones around here, like around the size of a beagle or small cocker spaniel. I pretty much leave them alone @igorsMistress unless like on the occasion they tunnel up into the vegetable garden. Then I fill in the entrance to the hole with sticks and rocks then run some water into the hole. They have a very large wooded area to roam so the water down the hole convinces them to go in a different direction. I don't want to harm them as there is plenty of habitat for us to coexist. Although it attacked and munched on my garden in early Spring, everything pretty much bounced back. So no real harm done. The local Alpaca farm is having an open house at the end of this month @WthrLady, so weather permitting I'm thinking about checking it out. Have a great day everyone and keep on canning.
I understand not killing them if you have the space, I try to avoid killing anything but rats if I can.
We were overrun with gophers one year when the field behind our house was tilled and they left dirt mounds all over my yard and destroyed the garden along with our neighbors garden. The dogs hunted them but they just inundated us really badly.