Groundhog Day

My neighbor has informed me that there seems to be a groundhog living in my yard and, lo and behold, as I stepped out into the yard last night, I caught a glimpse of his fat and furry little butt scrambling under the shed. A groundhog! Living in my tiny backyard! By my tiny vegetable garden! And he's HUGE! Actually, he looked more like this than the above pic:

Or maybe this...

This might explain the assault that's been happening to my lettuce and beans lately. Or, that might be the evil albino squirrel or his birdie henchmen. 

Anyway, since he's so fluffy and muppety looking, I couldn't very well get behind Alex's idea of scaring him off with the bb gun or smoking him out from below the shed (the dear vegan husband is so brutally territorial when it comes to his food!) so instead we took a bunch of chicken wire and caged in the raised bed that's been getting the most abuse, and put some bird netting over everything else. We also caged in the baby paw paw tree that has been having quite a few leaves nibbled lately. So now my yard looks like a prison yard for rogue vegetable plants. 

Hopefully Mr. Woodchuck and I can find a happy coexistence. But if he won't accept my boundaries, I'm not sure what will happen next. I'm open to suggestions...