August 2017, The only good vole is a dead vole!

  And the winner for "most destructive animal" (in my garden) goes out to!... drum roll please........the one!, the only!...VOLE!!!!

Whatever the little rodents didn't eat last year, they sure have eaten, chewed on, or just plain cut down (without reason) this year.  I'm sure they have a purpose, but one I could live without.  

 Honey Bees love Sacred Datura.

Not sure of an id for this Bird  

I feel horrible about this.  A gopher snake went through the vole cage, but after eating the vole it no longer fit through.  Also, to make matter worse vole then ran up to it and ate it's face off.  Voles don't just eat plants, they also eat small animals the catch.   

You can see the vole hair fluff out as the carrion beetles do their job as garbage personal.  

Yucca faxoniana x pallida.  With vole cage.

Yucca gloriosa

Agave utahensis x neomexicana

My Yucca elata that froze last winter has finally come back.  Better late than never.  

A few humming birds still hanging around late August.

Turkey Vultures flying over head one morning.

Wild-land fires have ruined this county!

I know a few people believe fires are good for rejuvenating wild areas, and yes this might be true in some cases, but over all burning off wild-grounds every 10, 20, or even every fifty years is not good for anything other than creating a place for weeds to grow.

The fact of the matter is just the opposite of what all our school books have told us.  Areas like that of the deserts and semi-deserts have a more diverse habitat in areas where fires have been absent for a 100 yrs or longer.

The change in the sage brush steppe in just my life time has been darn right scary.

This time the fire did not burn right up to my front door (like the last fire did).  Most of the brush was burned off from previous fires (fewer fuels), none the less this was still a very fast moving and dangerous fire, so thank you's go out to the BLM and our local fire fighters,  They did a great job!   

Two thumbs up for these guys, my Farther-n-law and Carmelo for standing brave with me on garden hose duty!

The garden saved!

Opuntia "mini-rita" 

First time in bloom.

 Pretty little flowers!

So glad to have seen this guy, not many tree frogs in my garden anymore. 

I can tell the summer temps are cooling down a bit, not as much purple on my Mini-rita.  I should have taken a pic a few weeks ago, it looked real pretty from the heat stress. 

Here we go again. A week later and the north side of Shoshone burns.