On the depth of ratholes

I decided I had been lethargic enough for long enough about rats down in the onion patch - I've been reluctant to use poison because apparently it will affect my cats and dogs if they eat it or the rats. I'm not big on poison anyway. Traps I am similarly not fond of unless they're the dispatch immediately or catch live kind, and I should have got some of those. The ones I've got are fine for mice, but too small for rats. The soil isn't fertile there, and I have enough other area, so I'd sort of ignored it. The snake issue decided that it was no longer an option, so I decided to fully dig up the rat burrow. The snake I was sure would be long gone, but I had a bucket with lid on standby and a long aluminum pole, and boots and jeans, just in case. I had dug up part of the hole anyway, and surely it couldn't be much longer.

Yeah. Three meters and 45 cm down I knew this was just the doorway to ratdom-under- Nangetty. The tunnel was basically a spade wide, 3 inches high. (the entrance about 2 inches by 2 - and just getting deeper. It was hard digging under gum roots. So I put the hose in, and turned it on. It's water from the well - which is groundwater taken from 40 yards away, so it is just returning it to source... And I waited. It just kept running in. and in. 40 minutes and it never filled.

Traps I guess.

We're getting a reasonable amount of tomatoes at last - not quite enough to freeze, or dry but too much for salad. The birds are a nuisance, but the netted tank is doing well.

I went out on foot last night with a torch and the .22 and shot enough wallaby - 1 - for a month of dog-tucker. It's wonderful to be able to do this. The dogs think so too, as they had fresh roo tail. I do miss my Old English terribly still, and these pictures in my morning newspaper trawl had me sniffling on my keyboard.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/pets/9852428/The-everyday-adventures-of-a-couple-of-shaggy-old-English-sheepdogs.html?frame=2472544