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A New Varmint Hole

Cindy has been waging a fierce battle with gophers in the raised beds out behind the garage, so when she found this new hole in the planter beside the garage, her first conclusion was that the gophers had moved around to the side of the garage.

However, I'm thinking it's probably not gophers; the one we saw filching blades of grass up at Temecula a couple of weeks ago (see Black Friday, No Thanks) was very careful to fill the hole up behind him when he had enough vegetation, whereas this varmint has brazenly left the doorway wide open.

Also, the gophers left neat mounds along the course of their tunnels, while this critter just scattered the dirt from the hole all over the planter, burying several other plants.

So this varmint is probably our old nemesis, the California Ground Squirrel.

I'm just hoping they haven't completely undermined the garage by now.