The Great Varmint Chase

Emily, Libby and I flew from LAX to DFW on Thursday, were picked up by Mom and then drove another 4 hours to Colorado City, Texas, home of my Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Donna. Colorado City is classic "small-town Texas" where things are just a little different. I really wanted to share a bit of rural life with you so to everyone who has never lived anywhere without a sidewalk or a Walmart within 50 miles.


On Thursday night upon arrival at 11 pm (Central Time) it was casually mentioned that a badger had taken up residence in their long gravel driveway. My cousin Jody had been trying to relocate the badger all week without much luck. I didn't think much about it until the next afternoon when one of the boys came running into the house, grabbed a gun and ran back out. Of course all of the little boys were skipping with excitement and went out to watch. We soon heard a shot and the boys came back in to tell us the good news, "Jody killed it!" Well that's just about as exciting as it gets in Colorado City so we grabbed to babies and headed out to see.Apparently badgers are pretty mean and could really hurt the kids so this was quite an accomplishment. Look at the claws on this thing.
Upon closer examination we learned that it was a mommy badger so naturally the boys needed to try and dig out the baby(ies).
They dug quite a hole with shovels and pick axes and climbed down in the hole to look down the tunnel. Before long it was too deep to continue and the kids lost interest and went off to swim. Jody decided that a dead animal should not be wasted so he bagged the carcass and put it in the freezer with the frozen meats so that he could take it to the taxidermy shop later. A couple hours later there were little boy screams yet again, the baby had appeared. There was another scramble for guns and after a few more minutes my cousin Monty had taken care of the baby badger (a badglet?). Jody packed that one up as well and it was reunited with its mother in the freezer. Well now the dilemma, could there be more babies? Just how far down did the badger's tunnel go? Well, anyone that knows little boys knows that these questions must be answered at all costs. So after work on Saturday Jody brought home some help.
Unfortunately the hole went down even further than the backhoe could assist with and the search had to be abandoned. Overall it was quite a weekend but all the shenanigans were actually refreshing. I think sometimes indulging in seemingly pointless endeavors is the best way to create lasting childhood memories, I wish Jacob and Daniel had been with us!