Tree trimming, wind, and more

I didn't get all my box elder tree trimming done today.  It got very windy.  20 mph to 40 mph.  I had to be careful the wind didn't blow me off a tall ladder.  And I had to be careful where the cut branch would fall as it often did not fall straight down, but sideways due to the wind.  I didn't want the branch to hit me. So the wind slowed my trimming down.

I think I may have PTSD about the wind.  I grew up on the Plains and lived half my life there.  It is almost always windy there. I was used to it as I thought everywhere was like that.  Here in the Flathead it usually is not windy.  I got used to not much wind.  Certain times of the year, due to the major weather pattern changes, it can be windy.  This year it seems to be much more windy than usual.  And this wind is now driving me crazy.

I haven't found my missing sunglasses.  I've looked and looked and now have given up.  Hopefully some day I will find them.  I still think I may have left them on a fence post.  But maybe not.  I've noticed since then when digging a deep hole and setting a trap to catch a pocket gopher, sometimes I take my sunglasses off as it is too dark in the deep hole.  Maybe I left my sunglasses somewhere in the hayfield where I was trapping pocket gophers.

I've trapped more pocket gophers this year than usual.  I cleared the hayfield of gophers before the first hay cutting.  Then after the hay cutting I worked on clearing the hayfield again.  I got sidetracked trapping the gophers in my neighbor Ruth's yard.  I got back to my hayfield but I was irrigating by then and the grass and alfalfa grew tall.  It was harder to find fresh dirt mounds.  And the irrigation lines slowed and stopped my trapping.  I got most, but not all, of the hayfield cleared before the second cutting.  During the second cutting I found more new dirt mounds, and once the second cutting was done, I went back to trapping.  For whatever reason, after the second cutting many more pocket gophers moved in.  And I trapped another gopher from Ruth's yard.  I am almost done clearing the hayfield again.  Slowing me down now is one or two pocket gophers that fill or cover the traps with dirt and don't go in the traps. Tonight the one gopher gave up.  He filled the trap with dirt, but then also filled the tunnel with dirt.  Usually most tunnels and traps are a few inches below the top of the ground.  This gopher's tunnel was a foot and a half below ground.  When making his tunnel he pushed all the dirt to the top of the ground.  A lot of work.   Since the tunnel is so far down, and the ground top is solid alfalfa, it is hard to find another tunnel.  I had to quit as it was getting dark.  Tomorrow morning I'll see if I can find the gopher's tunnel.

My pickup is still not fixed.  I stopped by when riding my bicycle this morning.   He said it is not the fuel pump that is the problem.  He thinks it is an electrical problem.

The walnut tree is doing fine.  I haven't picked the walnuts yet.  But the time is getting closer.  Here is photo of one walnut tree.  When I irrigated my fields I also extended one line to run a few sprinklers in my yard.  As you can see the walnut tree's leaves stopped some of the watering.  Green is where the water reached.  Brown, the tree stopped the water.