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Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Hopper invasion!!!!!

We have been invaded by thousands of hoppers:






Seems like there are more and more and more, and they are growing!  They have stripped several of my trees of leaves:


These are Russian Olive trees.  The hoppers attack the caragana first, then move on.  Many of my caragana have no leaves left.  I keep them watered and hope they will survive until next year.  Honestly, I have pretty much given up on the caraganas.  The deer destroy them by rubbing their antlers on them and the hoppers strip leaves, even in years when there isn't an invasion.  I have some ash trees, assuming the hoppers don't get them, to put in place of the caraganas.

I had intended to transplant the ash trees this spring, but broke my wrist and couldn't do much of anything for a while.  It was too late by the time the wrist healed enough to be able to move the trees—they had leafed out and it was getting hot.  So, next spring it is.

Due to the wrist, I also didn't get much of a garden in, which is probably just as well since the hoppers are after what little did come up.  It seems this has not been a good year for gardening.  I do have tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse, so maybe I'll get something out of those.  The hoppers do occasionally get in the greenhouse, but I can put Sevin on the plants and kill them.  Outside the greenhouse, I haven't got a chance.

The ducks are cheap to feed due to the hoppers.  They free range and eat the hoppers and weeds during the day, then they go in the garden at night.  Since I only planted 1/4 of the area, they have the other 3/4 for staying in at night.  It gives them far more room than the pens we usually keep them in and makes it easier to feed and water them.  Eggs laying has been more erratic than usual.  My pet, Baby, has been laying fairly well.  I think the others are hiding their eggs under sagebrush and outside the garden where I have yet to find them.  Ducks are not good about laying where you want them to, especially if they get broody.  One sat on eggs for 2 months and hatched none.  We may need to get new stock as these are getting fairly old.

The dog continues to be adorable (of course, I may be prejudiced!).  She goes for a 10 or 15 minute walk with me when it's not too hot.  I broke my wrist taking her to the vet, but after she was treated there for not eating or drinking for most of a day, whatever they did resulted in her no longer regurgitating her food two or three times a week.  It also resulted in her gaining weight!  Thus, the walks!




The last one is "puppy tracks" where I pulled her across the carpet because she often refuses to move with her harness on, especially in the house!  I was amazed at how well a small critter can dig its feet in when it does not want to move!

The weather here is hot and I'm not very ambitious.  I miss the cold!

That's it for now.