Found a groundhog

Not the animal though, the steel anchor/pile that we can use for our deck. While the website is somewhat limited it looks like they are actually manufacturerd in Winnipeg (www.groundhoganchors.ca). Essentially it's a piece square steel with an auger at one end and threaded at the top to accept different top plates. My brother in law, Grant, could make them easily at his shop but then we would need to pay an engineer to certify them. Still haven't found a price on them but I don't imagine they would be too expensive. They come with a bar to screw them into the ground and then you use the stabilizer (four trianle shaped wings) to well, stablize. We'd be looking at 4 - 8' x 1.5" groundhog which has a load rating of ~ 2500 pounds.

Here's a picture of one: