Now its Istanbul, not Constantinople

Today, G-man was laying on the trampoline and our neighbor's dog Lacie was harassing the chicken so she jumped up with him to get away from the dog. Lacie is a Border Collie. She tries to herd everything she sees. She has helped me a few times with the cows, once I figured out what she was doing. I have to stand in the gate to the corral with my back to her and she will bring them to me. If I turn the other way she will take them out of the corral. It took me a while to get on the same page with her.

I have mentioned various critters I have encountered since moving out here. Another varmint (actually rodent) I have battled since moving to the farm is the gopher. Sissy says I'm like Carl Spackler, the guy in Caddy Shack played by Bill Murray. Last year I trapped 32 gophers, probably almost enough for a fur coat. I couldn't believe there were that many, and that was just in my yard, there are many more in the pastures. Gophers are the ones that make the mounds. They are not to be confused with moles, that make the little tunnels just below the ground. When I had a couple of good cats, I never had a problem with moles. Every once in a while the dogs will dig up a gopher, but usually they dig up too much yard to be effective.

My grandfather on my dad's side was always fighting the gophers up in MP. Only he called them salamanders. When I would look them up in the World Book Encyclopedia, I would see that salamanders were slick little "lizard-looking" creatures. That always confused me. I never really believed that it was salamanders that were messing up the water well. It was years later before I learned of the alternate name,  gopher. 

I always loved the World Book. My parents got us a nice new set in the Seventies when I was in elementary school. I remember a door-to-door salesman came by and sold them to my parents. My kids would not believe how much time I spent looking at them in sheer fascination. It takes much more to entertain kids today. I won't even mention what my kids say about "Pong." I had to beg my parents to get this first generation video game; but I admit it wasn't as good as the World Book.