Dratted rodents!

With temperatures reaching the mid-teens during the day, the snow is going fast now. We pruned the black currants the other day, and this afternoon I cut up some spruce trees that had blown down.

The melting snow revealed one of our other spring irritants: muskrat damage! This year the little beasts had been really busy making under-snow burrows that have really messed up the lawn near the garden. They usually tunnel into the higher banks on the east side so they can stay above the water level, but this year they have come up in the lawn on the west side.

Time to set the trap! Muskrats are rodents, and if I don’t get rid of them, the pond will be full of them—and they will spread to the fields and watercourses nearby. Many of our farmer neighbours have tile-drained fields, and muskrats can do a lot of damage to the drains, so they need to be kept in check.

Just one of the very few “less pleasant” things to have to do.