Prairie YO-YO (the odd childhood pasttimes of a kid in Saskatchewan)

[MouseKilla]

All this talk about different ways you can kill a rodent has brought a nostalgic grin to my face. I live in Ontario now but I grew up in Saskatchewan. When I was a kid gophers (or prairie dogs if you like) were considered a pestilence on the prairies. Farm kids were paid by the pelt for killing the things. The reason for this, as some of you may know, is that a farmer could lose a very valuable grazing cow should it's hoof get caught in a gopher hole and break it's leg. People killed these things out there the way we kill mosquitos around here, every one killed was a step in the right direction. I understand times have changed and this isn't the case now. Anyway, I recall having these same best-way-to-kill-the-buggers conversations as a ten year old kid on the playground. We threw rocks at them at recess time but that never worked, they have remarkably hard little heads. The method of choice at school, since rifles weren't allowed, was snaring. We would put 4 flimsy twigs around a gopher hole and make a slip knot with some fishing line and run the line 10 or 15 ft away with the loop over the twigs and wait. If we were lucky a head would pop up before the bell went and we would have our prize. That's how you make a prairie yo yo. It would probably work with rats too but it wouldn't be as sporting. I have seen prairie dogs for sale in pet shops around here for hundreds of dollars and just shake my head.

[J-Man]

hahaha