I planned to use some netting I had to protect the cherries from the birds as another year I lost most of my cherries to the birds. I didn't act fast enough as Tuesday night I discovered over half the cherries were eaten. A half dozen cherries were somewhat ripe and I ate those. A few unripe cherries are left but the odds are the birds will get those.
I also noticed that now that I weeded the strawberry patch, the robins clean out the strawberries. I found more ripe strawberries on the plants when they were smothered by weeds and grass than I do now. I often find a robin on a post watching over the patch and it doesn't fly away until I get close.
The robins are hatching their second batch of young as today I found half of one of their baby blue shells near my corral gate where it was dropped off.
The cattle made work for me today. One of them crapped on the side of the water trough and part of their crap went into the water trough. I had to drain an almost full trough, clean it and refill it. *sigh* Cattle, unlike horses, have no concept of where to crap. When they have to go, they go right then and there. Horses will pick areas to serve as a bathroom.
A few days ago this insect decided to "guard" my doorbell. It stayed there all day. It was gone the next day.
Tuesday the mosquitoes were bad, as usual due to the high water this year. While checking the pocket gophers traps I took a little time to whack a number of Canadian thistle weeds as they are now starting to form flowers. All of a sudden I was stung on my arm. I looked down and found a half dozen wasps or yellow-jackets on my pants. They had a nest in a hole in the ground somewhere where I was standing and I unknowingly disturbed them. I ran off waving my arms and that usually solves the problem. Not this time. The ones on my pants hung on and when I stopped they moved to sting me. I got stung on both forearms, my right leg on the side of my knee, on the other leg, and on my butt. I am sore. In the past I've found the wasps/ yellow-jackets who live in the ground have a nastier sting than other wasps/ yellow-jackets.
Wednesday I went back to check my pocket gopher traps and whack a few more Canadian thistle weeds. I carefully whacked the weeds where I thought I had encountered the wasps/ yellow-jackets on Tuesday. I whacked the weeds with no sign of the pests. Maybe it was because I stood in a different spot as I whacked the weeds. Wrong! A little later I got stung and as I ran off I saw what I think is the hole they came from as I saw lots of them flying just above the ground there. So I got stung on the top part of my arm this time to match the sting on the underside of the arm yesterday. The odd thing is that I got stung on the part of the arm with less feeling and sensation as my arm was crushed in an accident when I was much younger. And I definitely felt the sting. My arm was a little swollen for the rest of the day near where the stinger stuck me. I did get the rest of the thistle whacked in that part of the pasture.
I trapped a mouse a few days ago. Usually I don't get mice in the house in the Summer, but with our cool weather this Summer one decided to come in early. Or to avoid the owls which are back each night. He or she had a light touch and would often lick the peanut butter off the trap without triggering it. I hadn't realized the mouse had cleaned the trap until one morning when I had gotten up early to use the bathroom and I heard it scratching my paper garbage bag. Finally I had to wedge a peanut from the peanut butter deep into the trap's curl before I caught the mouse with the light touch.
Ants have started to come into the house and I got the Terro ant killer out to get rid of them. The ants have been lining up all day to eat the poison.
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