12 October 2014 - Caddyshack, Sports and a Baby

When Aunt Amy came to visit over Labor Day weekend, I looked out the back window and saw a large mound of dirt pushed up in the backyard.  Over the past month, I have tried poisoning, flooding, trapping and whacking the responsible gopher with no success as he dug a network of tunnels, tearing up the yard I spent the whole summer trying to fix up and improve.  Finally I'd had enough.  I poured gasoline down his hole, stuffed a bunch of newspaper down there, and struck a match.

The fire burned for nearly 30 minutes.  When it went out, I backed the motorcycle up and ran a hose from the exhaust into the tunnel.

I stuffed rags into cracks and revved the engine for 8 minutes.

After all that, I buried his hole to trap the carbon monoxide down there.  There was no activity for a couple of days, so I started to hope that I got him.  Then I came home from work one day and found a new mound.  I was ready to give up and hire an exterminator (he wanted $250 and I was about ready to pay it), but I figured I'd give the trap one last try.  I put the trap in the hole, and when I came home from work the next day....TRIUMPH!!!!

When the weekend came, the girls and I went to a C of I volleyball game.  I got this action shot of one of my students, Abbey, putting the hammer down.  C of I won in three games.

The next day was homecoming.  We tailgated with my colleagues, and one of them gave Madeline purple and gold pom-poms.  C of I beat Montana-Northern 35-31 with a game-saving goal line tackle as time expired.  It was a really exciting game.

We actually missed the third quarter of the game.  The girls wanted to run in a one mile kids race at the YMCA that took place during the game.  There were several hundred kids in the race.

Here's Emily after she crossed the finish line in just over seven minutes.

Madeline found a friend, and they walked part of it, so their mile took a good 20 minutes.

Here are the girls together at the finish line.  Jessica helped with traffic control because she was too old to run the race.  Afterward, we returned to the C of I game and watched the end.

Emily has been dutifully working on this elephant blanket for our new niece (Tiffany's baby Natalie). Emily used it as a Personal Progress project.

Joanne already had a trip planned to Utah to see her mom and sisters, so she took the opportunity to personally deliver the blanket and get to know Natalie Chloe.