Broken branches, pocket gophers, trivia

When I was out in the middle pasture I came across a tree that had broken branches from the snow this winter.  Also, the branches stacked at the base of the tree trunk are similarly broken branches from previous years.

Also I am up to four pocket gophers trapped this year.  And I still haven't made an effort to get out and set all my traps.  I run across some dirt mounds when working on something else; I quickly set a trap and the next day I have a dead pocket gopher.  Another sign that I have eradicated the regular gophers last year as today, for the very first time, I found and trapped pocket gophers in the very heart of the former domain of the regular gophers. 

Yesterday I won a $10 gift certificate to a local restaurant for knowing a trivia question on the radio.  In 1626 Peter Minuit bought what island using trinkets?   I seem to remember the trivia question as also indicating that he also discovered the island, but that is not true another European explorer discovered the island years earlier.  The answer?  Manhattan