Playing our Part

Well, that’s how July went. It’s been hot, like July is supposed to be. But oh, our Idaho nights! We don’t have an air conditioner, just let the morning breezes do the job. We’ve been sleeping in the basement where it’s cool and quiet. I tell Mark it's a mini-vacation. Why does it feel so good to snuggle under blankets even in mid-summer?

We identified a new bird (to us) this year, a western wood pewee. It’s nondescript in looks, gray/brown with a touch of a topknot on its head. Its song is a somewhat annoying screech. Kind of like a nighthawk with a blurb in the front. They start calling before dawn and are the last to bed at night. Different birds seem to dominate our homestead each year, or maybe we just turn our attention to them. For a couple of years it was the kingbirds squawking us awake each morning. Last summer, I imagined that all I heard was the two-tone monotonous call of the chickadee. We love them all, of course.

We will remember this July as when my dog, Kate, had the maggot episode. Flies took advantage of a hot, moist spot on her, maybe where a cheat grass awn had embedded in her skin, and thought it a good spot to lay eggs. What a harrowing event it was! We knew something wasn't quite right with her when we left for a day of cutting weeds. When we returned that evening we found her in a sorry state. I made a quick run to Walmart for hydrogen peroxide and examination gloves and we worked together on her, getting rid of the vermin, until 11:30 pm. Maggot work is not a job you want to tackle alone. The next day I took her to the vet for hydration and a partial body shave, only to find after we brought her home, that the professionals had missed two more nests under her collar! The sight of wriggling masses of maggots kept coming to my mind for the next few days. Yuck.

Kate is feeling much better now. Today she followed along to change water and was wagging her tail and digging up gophers with the rest of the dogs.

Other than maggots, weeds have been a morning conversation staple this July. I tell you what, they take the joy out of ranching! We concentrate on burr-producing invasives since they collect on our animals, but there are others that concern us too. I regularly monitor musk thistle for the presence of seed-eating weevils. Bio-control offers the best hope for the future. It may not be a clean sweep, but it’s cheap, sustainable, and environmentally friendly. The irony was not lost on me to find that the musk thistle weevil looks a lot like a maggot.

Insects in all their life cycle activities contribute to our world in many ways, maggots by decomposing and recycling animal carcasses, others for feeding songbirds, pollinating crops, and in general adding to the biodiversity that makes the whole thing function. We don’t notice or appreciate their work enough, but we wouldn’t last long without them.

Nature works in strange and wonderful ways. Finding our place and guarding our niche, while studying her mysteries, will be our life’s work. It will be imperfect, disappointing, exhilarating and amazing. We call ourselves ranchers, but during the growing season, students of the ecosystem is a better title.

lovely blossoms of penstemon in the mountains

musk thistle seed weevil
not sure what the adult interloper is

    

a second bio-control agent, the crown weevil, stunted this thistle stand

my cheery front porch