{"id":436,"date":"2010-05-17T00:13:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-17T00:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/05\/nebraska-discoveries-6-herbie-the-thirteen-striped-ground-squirrel.html"},"modified":"2012-05-20T19:33:24","modified_gmt":"2012-05-21T00:33:24","slug":"nebraska-discoveries-6-herbie-the-thirteen-striped-ground-squirrel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/05\/nebraska-discoveries-6-herbie-the-thirteen-striped-ground-squirrel.html","title":{"rendered":"Nebraska Discoveries 15: Herbie the Thirteen-Striped Ground Squirrel"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those who didn’t know, living is Nebraska is the farthest west I’ve ever lived in the Continental U.S. \u00a0I lived in Hawaii as a child, and Seoul, Korea in the late 1990s, but this discussion is about experiences in the GREAT PLAINS<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Not long after we moved here, we started noticing the changes in flora and fauna compared to our many years east of the Mississippi. Of course, the first thing was the lack of trees. There are lots of trees in Bellevue, but once you come away from the Missouri River Valley, you are greeted with the flowing grasslands and enormous corn and soybean fields. I was definitely surprised at how hilly Nebraska still is. I always thought it was flat, like Indiana and Illinois. But it isn’t at all. And trust me, we drove through plenty of Nebraska<\/a> in our first weeks here.<\/p>\n

In our first couple months here, Howie was doing a lot of digging in our backyard. It turned out it was due to these little critters that were burrowing in the backyard, preparing to hibernate.<\/p>\n

Chipmunks? No.
\nPrairie dogs? No.
\nMarmots? No.<\/p>\n

After some research I figured out what the little rodents were: “Thirteen Striped Ground Squirrels”<\/a>. It’s more closely related to the gopher than a squirrel, so much so that apparently Goldy the Gopher of the University of Minnesota<\/a> is designed after one of these things, albeit due to the first artist’s misunderstanding about what a gopher actually looks like<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So…Howie has had his share of digging in certain locations in our backyard when the ground squirrels are breeding or preparing to hibernate. We just fill in the holes and re-seed the area.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, on Friday night Howie made an incredible mess out of our garden near the downspout on the southeast corner of our house. Howie had scared a ground squirrel into the downspout, and apparently with some sticky feet, the squirrel was able to suspend himself partway up the downspout. \u00a0That’s romaine lettuce on the right side of the picture, and that area you see was ALL romaine before Howie got to it Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2010 05 14 Ground Squirrel in Yard<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I think I’m going to call the squirrel “Herbie”, for simplicity’s sake. I’m tired of typing “the ground squirrel”.<\/p>\n

After attempting to bang Herbie out by knocking on the downspout, then by using the hose to blast him out with water, Dave suggested I use one of our wax firestarters shoved up into the downspout to “flame” him out. So we did it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2010 05 14 Ground Squirrel in Yard<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Herbie leaped out from the vertical part of the downspout, over the flames, and into the horizontal extender, which takes the water over my garden into the grass. Dave was then able to disassemble the horizontal piece:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2010 05 14 Ground Squirrel in Yard<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

…and try to poke him out with the handle of a rake.<\/p>\n

You’d think a normal rodent would freak from the rake handle and drop out. But I think Herbie knew that Howie and 2 young boys were waiting in the open for him. In this next picture, if you look very closely at the upper right of the bottom opening, you can see a foot sticking out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2010 05 14 Ground Squirrel in Yard<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

BOOM! Out he plopped — with Howie at the ready!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2010 05 14 Ground Squirrel in Yard<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Herbie came out of there in such shock — soaking wet, probably semi-burned from the flames, and definitely freaked from the dog and the kids hovering…Herbie just stood there and let me take all kinds of pictures of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2010 05 14 Ground Squirrel in Yard<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2010 05 14 Ground Squirrel in Yard<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2010 05 14 Ground Squirrel in Yard<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This is the last picture I took — Dave took Herbie to the front yard to get Howie away from him, and he sat there and shivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
From 2010 05 14 Ground Squirrel in Yard<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Our neighbor Jake from across the street came over and offered some advice — get a box for him and get him warmed up, so that’s what we did. Dave set him up in a printer cartridge box, wrapped him in a small towel and we put him under our apple tree<\/a>. By the following morning, Herbie was gone.<\/p>\n

Was he eaten? Did he recover well enough to go back to his burrowing life? We don’t know. The important thing was that we got him away from Howie somewhat humanely, and got Howie out of our garden…for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those who didn’t know, living is Nebraska is the farthest west I’ve ever lived in the Continental U.S. \u00a0I lived in Hawaii as a child, and Seoul, Korea in the late 1990s, but this discussion is about experiences in the GREAT PLAINS! Not long after we moved here, we started noticing the changes in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[98,68,249],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-72","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":425,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/04\/nebraska-discoveries-2-flowering-trees.html","url_meta":{"origin":436,"position":0},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 11: Flowering Trees","date":"17 April 10","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I went on a number of errands, including to our nearby model train store to pick up a boxcar Dave ordered, and to the local large children's consignment sale that's wrapping up this weekend. I decided to grab my camera and capture some of the pretty trees that are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"flowers\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1037,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/05\/nebraska-discoveries-10-the-keystone-trail-in-bellevue.html","url_meta":{"origin":436,"position":1},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 21*: The Keystone Trail in Bellevue","date":"20 May 12","format":false,"excerpt":"* I plan to renumber\/redesignate my Nebraska-sightseeing-related blog posts into something more mangeable for search engines. Stay tuned, if you subscribe via RSS you might get inundated with updates. I'm not changing the text of the posts, just the titles and tagging. On Friday I took a short run on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"fitness\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/IMG_3415.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2789,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/12\/nebraska-discoveries-22-last-trip-to-nebraska.html","url_meta":{"origin":436,"position":2},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 22: My last trip to Nebraska…for now.","date":"05 December 13","format":false,"excerpt":"Just before Thanksgiving I took one last trip to Offutt AFB in Nebraska. This time I was signing out of my unit at STRATCOM. The folks in my office took me out for a nice lunch at Sinful Burger, and I even caught one last Omaha-Offutt AMS chapter meeting to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force reserves\"","img":{"alt_text":"The Historic Fort Crook Suites are on \"General's Row\" on Offutt AFB.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_8067.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":230,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/09\/nebraska-state-fair.html","url_meta":{"origin":436,"position":3},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 4: The Nebraska State Fair","date":"02 September 08","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we paid a visit to the last day of the Nebraska State Fair in Lincoln. Unlike the North Carolina State Fair, this is somewhat smaller, mainly because most of the competitions are for youth, through their 4-H organizations. The highlight for me was the demolition derby. We never made\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"nebraska\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":471,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/10\/nebraska-discoveries-9-runza.html","url_meta":{"origin":436,"position":4},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 20: Runza","date":"07 October 10","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight for dinner, we went out. \u00a0It tends to be a necessity 1-2 times per week in the fall while the boys are in soccer 5-days per week (Jacob 3 days, Timmy 2). \u00a0I do what I can to cook but it's rather aggressive; when I do cook I try\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"food\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":234,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/09\/wild-sunflowers.html","url_meta":{"origin":436,"position":5},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 5: Wild Sunflowers","date":"05 September 08","format":false,"excerpt":"Wild sunflowers are in bloom in E. Nebraska and W. Iowa. They're just popped up all over the place, like how Queen Anne's Lace pops up in PA and WV, and how wild thistle grows on the sides of the highways in NC. So I pulled a Maryann and pulled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"flowers\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}