Here today, gone tomorrow

It was a wet Sunday. We needed the rain even though I wish it would have waited until I left for North Dakota.

Sunday Jackie invited me again this year to go with her to the Octoberfest celebration at the senior center in Whitefish. It seemed the closer I got to Whitefish the harder it rained.

What a difference from last Friday and Saturday where the temperature was in the 70s and 80s F. It certainly feels like Fall now when the temperatures are in the 40s and 50s F for high temps.

The rain slowed my trap checking down but I did trap four more pocket gophers. I also caught a mouse in the gopher trap under the hay shed wall. That may explain why recently the trap has been triggered without me catching anything. That is the second mouse I caught this year in one of the leg hold gopher traps. For the mice, they are completed caught when the trap is triggered.

One of my hiking groups wanted to go on a hike but Monday was the only day I had available. Because of Sunday's rain and the forecast of more rain Monday, the hiking plan was canceled. I'll have to wait until I get back next month.

Monday turned out to be relatively dry although overcast. On Saturday and on Monday I fenced three fruit trees. All three had a couple strands of wire as a fence around them but I wanted to add a real fence to them as cattle can - and do! - reach through the wire. Although the deer don't do the same, come winter when there is less feed for them I don't want the deer to get the idea they can reach through the fence.

While I only had to add a fence to two of the fruit trees, for the third fence I took the old one completely down and rebuilt it from the posts on up. Naturally the only time it rained Monday was during this time.

All my fruit trees now have some sort of fence protecting them from the deer. I do want to rebuilt three other fruit tree fences next year as they may not stand up to the abuse cattle put the fences through.

I also put a couple rolls of small fences over a couple of my serviceberry bushes. The bushes are near an apple tree and after eating the apples that have fallen the deer have been nibbling on the bushes. Darn deer!

I also walked the pasture. The weeds I sprayed last month are dead. For the thistle I hadn't got to spraying I chopped them down so they won't go to seed. I'll spray them next year after they regrow. With the rain last month I see new weeds coming up from roots elsewhere in the pasture. While I am making progress against the weeds, it seems at times like a never ending fight.

The river is low. The leaves are starting to turn so it looks nice along the river. Between the low water level and gravity I noticed a few parts of the bank on each side has now fallen down where the river had undercut the banks during high water.

Tomorrow I catch the train to North Dakota to work more on my mom's estate. Just when I started to get back into a rhythm here.