Going's on lately

Wow, been a bit hasn't it? Spring is just such a busy time of year!! Gardens to be planted, fencing (always!) to be done, many projects to try and maybe actually get finished over the summer. Yeah, right.

Then we had to take oldest child to the state fiddle camp. She had a blast. Weather was beautiful, thankfully since we were tent camping. Youngest child spent most of the time playing in the creek. It was a bit claustrophobic for me, but it went well. I did see a very pretty moth of a type I've never seen before. This was on the wall by the sinks in the girls dorm bathroom. What you can't see in the pic (because I am NOT a photographer) is the  very pretty feathery look to the head area. The contrast between the black and white was much brighter in real life as well. I'm trying to figure out what kind it was, but googling 'black and white moths in Montana' isn't getting me too far.

Then, when I got back, it was time to shave my dogs. We have recently had a rather nasty grass show up on our place. I call it corkscrew grass, but I am sure that is not it's official name. That's rather what it looks like, though. Two of the dogs have long hair and these things get in them and just keep going. The first year we had these was a bit of a surprise and I cut several of them out of the dogs. Now I try and shave them just before the grass heads ripen. They look like they had a losing confrontation with a lawnmower, but they don't get the grass heads stuck in them much anymore. It also makes the daily checks for the heads much easier.

Aren't those just poor, pathetic looking specimens? I need new clipper blades, the black and white dog doesn't usually look quite that bad. The big guy is big enough that he gets to keep all the hair on top. It doesn't add to his appearance, but really cuts down on the sunburn.


Here's a pic of the whole seed head. It's a got a barbed end that digs in and the rest of the awning just aids the corkscrewing action. Nasty piece of grass, that.