Pocket gopher record

I trapped three more pocket gophers today. That makes my total (so far) this year to be 210. This is one more than my total for all of 2005. Each year I trap more and more. I would have thought the count would have gone down this year as 209 should have eliminated most of them last year.

I also got two gophers today and one mouse. One leg hold trap in the north pasture had caught a mouse. Some of the traps have very sensitive triggers.

With the cooler weather the regular gophers seem to be more active now. Today (Monday) our high was only 73 F after an overnight low of 35 F. The 35 F is a new record low temperature. This may be Montana, but 35 F on July 31, the warmest day of the year, is still chilly. Our average high and low is 83 F and 48 F.

After the 90s F we have had, temperatures in the 70s F seem chilly. After weeks of leaving all the windows and doors open overnight to cool the house down (I don't have air conditioning - this is western Montana!), last night I closed the doors and most of the windows.

With the cooler weather I noticed it is getting dark earlier. I know we have been losing several minutes of daylight each day, but with such hot weather I looked forward to the sun setting. Now after the sun sets the temperature drops quickly and noticeably. The seeds are being planted in my mind that summer only has one month left and Fall - and cooler temperatures - is not far off. Why is that as one gets older summer seems to go by quicker each year? One would think that as a kid in school that the summer - and fun - would fly by quicker.

Oh yeah, I found my latest missing conibear trap. I found it while searching for the missing steer. The trap was in the same pasture, but under a tree near the river. The chain to stake it in the ground was wrapped around and in between the two metal squares of the trap. I imagine the chain got wrapped this way while the bird ate the gopher and the trap closed tighter as less of the gopher remained. I don't see how cattle fiddling with the trap could wrap the chain in this manner. The good thing is I got my trap back! This conibear trap is one that I had recently purchased.

To bed now. Early for me! But after returning the escaped steer back to the pasture (took two days) and riding 28 miles on my bicycle I seem to be tired tonight. I'll try to write about the escaped steer another day. It was a new way and a new place for a jail break. *sigh*