voles, plural
- A small, typically burrowing, mouselike rodent with a rounded muzzle, found in both Eurasia and North America (see a picture)
My day started out quite delightfully with a shift in the wool and fiber booth at the Northwest Washington Fair. I demo'd spinning for 4 hours. Then I spent an hour poking around all the fair booths, looking at the ginsu knives, stuffed animals and specialty pet leashes. I even tried the fair specialty of a Moowhich. Yum. It's nice to live in dairy country!
Since I felt like a played for a good 1/2 of the day I decided to devote my afternoon to assisting Peter in the ditch. It seems the county feels the ditch needs maintenance and if we don't maintain it, they will spray everything with round up. Round up is ugly stuff so ditch maintenance was our priority for the day. Fortunately it's summer and the water level is pretty low.
Peter weed whacked the grass while I raked and scooped the cut grass out of the ditch. I had just gotten into the ditch and begun my task when a vole hopped out of the grass and swam by my feet. I know that voles eat our grapes, bulbs and other assorted prized plants. We don't like voles. However, killing a vole is clearly not on my list of duties (I checked the duty assignments). I squealed loudly. Peter was weed whacking and had hearing protection on. He didn't hear me. I took my rake and scooped up the little thing and flipped it in the air like a pancake (don't criticize, I was in a minor panic) The little vermin did cartwheels through the air and then went ker-plop back into the water. I scooped it and flipped it again, while still calling for Peter who continued whacking weeds, oblivious to the rodent ballet going on behind him. This time the vole landed right in front of me and attached itself to my boot. I kicked my foot as hard as I could, water and the vole went flying. I spun the rake around and tried to scoop it again as it swam a lovely vole version of a dog paddle, but it was just out of my reach, I valiantly reached for it a couple times before it disappeared into a hole in the ground. Vole = 1, Sharon = 0.
About an hour later another vole made an appearance, I reached the rake out to do the classic "Vole flip" move that I had perfected only to be outsmarted again. It successfully stayed out of my reach and I didn't get a single flip in. Vole = 2, Sharon = 0.
Since I felt like a played for a good 1/2 of the day I decided to devote my afternoon to assisting Peter in the ditch. It seems the county feels the ditch needs maintenance and if we don't maintain it, they will spray everything with round up. Round up is ugly stuff so ditch maintenance was our priority for the day. Fortunately it's summer and the water level is pretty low.
Peter weed whacked the grass while I raked and scooped the cut grass out of the ditch. I had just gotten into the ditch and begun my task when a vole hopped out of the grass and swam by my feet. I know that voles eat our grapes, bulbs and other assorted prized plants. We don't like voles. However, killing a vole is clearly not on my list of duties (I checked the duty assignments). I squealed loudly. Peter was weed whacking and had hearing protection on. He didn't hear me. I took my rake and scooped up the little thing and flipped it in the air like a pancake (don't criticize, I was in a minor panic) The little vermin did cartwheels through the air and then went ker-plop back into the water. I scooped it and flipped it again, while still calling for Peter who continued whacking weeds, oblivious to the rodent ballet going on behind him. This time the vole landed right in front of me and attached itself to my boot. I kicked my foot as hard as I could, water and the vole went flying. I spun the rake around and tried to scoop it again as it swam a lovely vole version of a dog paddle, but it was just out of my reach, I valiantly reached for it a couple times before it disappeared into a hole in the ground. Vole = 1, Sharon = 0.
About an hour later another vole made an appearance, I reached the rake out to do the classic "Vole flip" move that I had perfected only to be outsmarted again. It successfully stayed out of my reach and I didn't get a single flip in. Vole = 2, Sharon = 0.
Stupid rodents.
Go Vole!
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