One thing you can count on around the Woodpile is some critter or another has some secret project going on. I noticed the past few weeks, that Merry, the wooden chipmunk, and Archie, the grasshopper, sneak off on their lunch break together everyday. I decided to follow them to see what they were up to. They wisely took a circuit route to their destination. I almost got lost twice along the way.
They end at the human’s community garden plot. They proceeded to systematically check out every garden plot. I hope they are not up to something illegal. I noticed a pattern to their search. They were checking out pumpkins patches. That seems really strange. They completely ignored all of the giant sunflower plants full of ripe seeds. They were taking pictures of various pumpkins and keeping meticulous notes. I carefully trailed them through the garden to try and figure what these two were up to?
Archie was really fascinated by this pumpkin. I supposed it was because green is his favorite color. I overheard the two of them sharing some joke “These humans can’t even manage to grow a ripe pumpkin.”
Merry seemed really concerned when he checked out this large pumpkin. Archie told him not to worry. It would be a pile of pulp in less than two weeks. Archie’s keen sense of smell allowed him to discover it was rotting from the inside out. Reassured they continued their “inspection” of pumpkins.
The next pumpkin had rather a sickly yellow color. Again the effects of the drought. Archie and Merry’s confidence seem to be building. They seem peculiarly satisfied the other folks pumpkins were doing terrible. A very unusual attitude for these two who are normally very positive thinking.
Well their look of self satisfaction took a nose dive when they walked into this patch. It was clear that the human who tended this patch had arranged their pumpkins as trophies. Boy, were they big! Merry did some quick calculations and told Archie, “We are in serious trouble now.” The next thing I know they ran off and I lost sight of them.
It is obvious these two are up to no good. What are they up to? I put my Sherlock Holmes hat on and tried some deductive reasoning. They were focused on the quality of the pumpkins but more importantly on the shear size of them. They were happy when the pumpkins were small or sickly but deeply disturbed when they found really large pumpkins. The only logical conclusion I can come to is, they were “checking out the competition” so to speak. What is their motive? This will require further investigation. I will report back when I have more details.
