One Month of Sitting Every Day
I had just got to my spot in the backyard, next to the garden, when I saw a dandelion leap into the air all by itself! It leapt up along with all the dirt around it in a neat mound and then settle back down into the ground looking as if nothing had happened. This seemed like unusual behavior for a dandelion, so I kept watching. This action repeated several times, and seemed to be moving underground across the garden bed, leaving a trail of slightly mounded dirt on the surface. A mole in the garden!
Or was it a gopher? It didn’t move any dirt to the surface, and I didn’t see any dirt hills nearby.
While it was fascinating to watch, I also don’t really want moles cavorting about in the garden, so I thought I might try a little test. I’ve seen those nature documentaries where the coyotes dig madly after some burrowing rodent and often come up empty-handed. But how fast can a mole really move? They don’t even really have legs to speak of, just big hands attached right to their bodies. So I thought I’d see if I could catch a mole, and also maybe give it a little scare to convince it that it would rather dig somewhere other than my garden.
I didn’t come anywhere close. The first time, I didn’t think strategically, and just started digging where I saw the motion. Of course, it had plenty of time to retreat before I got as deep as it’s tunnel (about 8 to 10 inches deep, but I didn’t measure so I’m just guessing). After uncovering its tunnel, and realizing it was long gone, I want back to sitting quietly. In only a few minutes I saw dirt being pushed into the exposed hole of the tunnel from the inside, blocking the entrance. And shortly after that, I saw the earth moving from further excavations in the same spot, only about 8 inches deeper. This time I waited for it to get a little ways further than where I expected the new tunnel to be and started digging behind the guy, thinking that I would collapse the escape tunnel and have him trapped. I’m not sure what went wrong with that plan, but there was definitely no mole or gopher or any other critter in the tunnel when I got to it.
I waited several minutes to see if he would come back again, but either he had moved his construction plans for the morning, or he simply outwaited me, and I eventually had to get up and go to work. I left the second tunnel uncovered, and I’m curious to see how the area looks when I get home this eve.
Also, I’m using this month as a kick in the pants to choose a new sit spot, since I haven’t done so after the last time I moved. I wonder if this is one vote against using the garden as a sit spot. Rather than just observing what’s going on, I have a vested interest in who resides in my garden and I am tempted to intervene.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Moles are just really big earthworms. It’s the raccoons you have to watch out for, they’ll bite your kneecaps off.
February 16th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
DeAnna, Tell us about the idea of sitting everyday for a month. How long? Meditating? or Observing? or? Thanks! –Kathy
February 16th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Amis, that’s funny, I forgot to mention an important detail. When I was first watching the ground move, the earthworms were all coming up out of the ground just ahead of the tunnelling activity. I wonder if moles eat earthworms…
Kathy, some of everything I think. It’s a core concept in the Wilderness Awareness School exercises I’ve done. It’s mostly just about getting outside and seeing what’s going on in the world. But I suspect that it’s a sneaky coyote way of getting folks to meditate also.
If anyone’s curious about this particular 30 days, there are a whole bunch of people sitting every day worldwide for the next 30 days. It’s kinda cool to be doing it en masse. You can read more about it here http://www.wildernessawareness.org/home_study/30day_challenge.html
and especially click on the link to the 30-day Challenge Map, which is super cool to see where everyone is sitting all over the world. (Last time I checked, I wasn’t on there yet). There’s also a forum where people can share what they see while they’re sitting and what the places are like from all over. It’s really fun, I think.
February 20th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I’ve had really good luck with putting mothballs in the tunnels of burrowing critters. They really don’t like them and move away. And only use one or two mothballs in each tunnel as they are really strong.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Mothballs: (from the Purdue University site)
“Mothballs contain 100% of either naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene. Both of these ingredients can produce harmful effects when they enter your system through inhalation. Irritation to nose, throat, and lungs, headache, confusion, excitement or depression, and liver and kidney damage can result from exposure to mothball vapors over a long period of time.”
“Poisonings have been reported following dressing infants in clothing that was stored with naphthalene mothballs, suggesting that absorption of naphthalene may occur through the skin.”
“The warning label on mothball products reads “avoid prolonged breathing of vapors.” This label is at odds with the normal use of mothballs.”
“Vapor irritates skin, eyes and respiratory tract; large doses can cause injury to liver; suspected carcinogen”
“Damages liver; prolonged vapor exposure has led to cataract formation”
“Mothballs should be taken to a licensed hazardous waste handler”
“naphthalene can promote a breakdown of red blood cells resulting in hemolytic anemia”
“They are poisonous when eaten and seizures can develop in less than one hour”
I don’t think I would be comfortable using mothballs around our pets or other living animals. Most songbirds don’t have much of a sense of smell, and I bet mothballs look like good nesting material if left outside. Also, if you put them in the tunnels and cover the tunnel over, it essentially off-gasses poisonous vapors that cause death by suffocation. How long has it been since you read Watership Down?
I know your situation is different where gopher holes could result in injury or death to your horses. I don’t have a good enough justification for such extreme measures.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
No, no…the animals are not trapped. You just drop a mothball in the tunnel and they will vacate the area. It doesn’t kill them. When I had a serious problem with gophers I live-trapped them and relocated them. I didn’t kill them with mothballs. And I never covered up the holes - so nothing was trapped inside - animals or gasses.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
I did want to add though that this is another good example of something I would not enjoy doing this time of year because of the wind. There would be nowhere for me to get out of it if I was outside. And the wind makes it so I can’t hear anything and squinting against it means I can’t see anything either. I already full well know what it feels like to freeze to I don’t see that as a possibility for enlightenment. I would love to do this either somewhere else in the world or at another time of year.
February 21st, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Yes, Mom, that’s because humans were not intended to live where you live in the wintertime
Actually, do you know if the Native people in your area lived there through the winters, or did they migrate to warmer/less windy places? And it also makes me wonder about the animals that *do* live there through the winter. I suppose a lot of them hibernate, but not all of them. Like the raccoons, or even the coyotes that rely on their hearing so much for hunting…I wonder what sort of adaptive techniques they use to deal with the wind.
And there are people who sit near a picture window, so you could still join the 30-day challenge if you wanted to. It’s more about tuning in, in a really conscious way, to what’s going on outside, not about trying to prove anything about cold-tolerance or anything. And of course, you can do it any time of year you want
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:54 am
I could sit by the picture window overlooking the koi pond and birdfeeder but, honestly, my dog and 3 cats are so demanding that I don’t believe they would let me just sit there for 30 minutes without wanting to be petted, wanting to be let out, wanting to be let in, wanting food, trying to fight with each other…..they are a real pita. I would just about have to be in another room with the door closed so then they would just be meowing, whimpering, and scratching on the door……I think I would love to do it but would be better off doing it at a different time of year when I could actually be outside and hear something. Honestly, on the really windy days, I don’t see coyotes. Sometimes I see large raptors but they really struggle. The deer stay in groups way out in the open, presumably so when they can’t hear something sneak up on them, they have plenty of time to see something coming from all directions.
I’ve wondered about the Blackfeet and can’t imagine anyone in their right minds living on the prairie here in the winter. I’ll have to ask someone where they went in the winter before they were restricted to the Res.
Is the idea that you sit at the same time each day or can the time vary?
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I’ve been sitting at all different times. Some people do more or less the same time, but I think most people are pretty flexible about it. We all have busy lives, so you just fit it in where you can, you know? You can read people’s stories about what they do and see at their sit spots during the challenge here http://www.naturetalk.net/viewforum.php?f=30&sid=5baf430df8c0771d21b74262baa13fd4
Someone even started a thread where you can tell the story of your sit spot in a haiku
And I’m curious about the raptors now. I didn’t realize that any wintered over where you are. I wonder what they eat? It seems like all the small furry things are hibernating. Do you ever see them dive for things?
February 24th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Most Bald Eagles migrate but some stay put. There is a pair that winters here and raises a couple babies each year. There are some Golden’s too and it’s sometimes hard for me to tell them apart from the immature Bald’s unless I’m close enough to get a sense of their size. And there are several types of hawks that winter here as well. I don’t think mice and such hibernate - picture the foxes and coyotes springing into deep snow to pounce on one. And, yes, I see the raptors diving sometimes.