Hayfield cleared

Maybe "cleared" is a bold statement.  I have gone over the entire hayfield trapping pocket gophers as I trapped my final one Thursday.  This is the first time I have gone over the entire hayfield.  Why I say "cleared" is a bold word is that there may be some pocket gophers that I missed.  In fact the last few gophers I trapped were in areas I had gone over earlier and thought I had cleared until I saw what I thought were new dirt mounds.

With this last pocket gopher trapped in the hayfield I also pulled all but two of my traps from the south pasture. Even though the ground is freezing, and the temperature ranges from the single digits to near 20 above, I am still catching gophers as I trapped three on Thursday. And while I have cleared over half of the south pasture the quickly freezing ground is making it hard to dig to find more tunnels.  There is always next year.

I currently am at 249 pocket gophers trapped for the year.  I am confident I will make it to 250 as one of the traps I left in the south pasture had been filled with dirt the past day indicating activity.