Weeds, mosquitos, gophers, Brian

Weeds

Yup, still pulling weeds. Filled two more plastic grocery bags with the seed pods. I may only have one full days work of pulling before I have completed one pass of the hayfield. As I only get about 80-90%, that leaves more passes to find the rest of the goat's beard.

I was up earlier than usual and the yellow flowers were open when I started my weed work. For the first time this year I pulled goat's beard from the NE pasture. The grass has recovered from the cattle and is growing again, along with the weeds.

Mosquitos

Man, they are bad this year! When pulling weeds in the evening I have to wear a long sleeve flannel (thick) shirt, cap, gloves, and mosquito repellent on my exposed face, neck,and ears. Even then many mosquitos try to find some place: inside my ears, by my eyes, or a sometimes gap between my shirt and glove.

I have mosquitos even during mid day. It is sunny and in the low 80s F but they still want my blood. I seem to scare them up in certain areas. That is, lower areas with lots of alfalfa for the mosquitos to hide under in shade during the day.

Gophers

It has switched. Now I am catching pocket gophers and the regular gophers are avoiding the holes with the traps. Tonight I seen a gopher at the very first "subdivision" I had cleared gophers from. *sigh*

One of my pocket gopher traps broke. The plastic inside barrier/trip goes through the top of the trap and has two little plastic prongs to hold it in place while allowing the barrier/trip to swivel. The two little prongs broke off. This has happened once before. When I had called the company to get a replacement part, they told me they stopped selling this model and were redesigning it for this very reason. I was able to bend a small wire to hold the barrier/trip and continue to use that trap. I'll have to do the same with this trap.

Brian

Brian didn't make it here today. He decided, since he is on vacation, to take a side trip and drive on the Beartooth Highway. Last year mud and rock slides damaged that highway and it had to be rebuilt, closing the highway for the summer.

The Beartooth Highway was a little out of Brian's way. He called from Helena at 8 pm wondering whether to make the drive to my place tonight. Only if you like driving at night as you won't get here till midnight or later. I stay up late so it is no inconvenience to me. It doesn't get dark till after 10 pm, but he'd still would miss seeing a lot of the scenery along the way. He decided to stay overnight in Helena. He'll be here tomorrow.