We are in the middle of a heat wave....again. This probably does not come as any big surprise to most of you. While the heat is almost unbearable, I have another problem out here in the country. That problem is grasshoppers. They are every where! Or at least they seem to be everywhere. I could rephrase that and say, "they are everywhere I try to walk!"
Grasshoppers are fascinating little creatures, to say the very least. They have barbs or something on there feet or legs that is very disturbing to my skin when they land on me. Now, granted, they do not make contact with me very often, but once was enough. The fact that they are ugly as sin does not help at all! So when one does land on me there is a lot of jumping and screaming going on from my body.
Now I have a lot of weeds out here on my little acre. I try to keep them at a manageable height with my mower called a weed whacker. It has 2 high wheels in the back and a nose out the front with a string trimmer. This thing is very powerful and can sling a rock the size of a lemon through the garage window in a split second, but it does not harm grasshoppers! Nothing harms grasshoppers!
Now, I speak as an expert on grasshoppers because I have tried everything! I even got a bag of something that is supposed to make them sterile. Now, it will not kill them and it takes a season to get them all sterilized, or so the instructions on the bag said. So the spray that was supposed to kill them only made them bigger and meaner! The sterilant appears to be more of an aphrodisiac then any means of birth control!
One would think that with a ratio of 40 grasshoppers per every square foot of weeds I have that at the very least I would get rid of the weeds, but that is not happening either. I have no idea what these beasts actually eat. They do not trim the grass. They do not eat the weeds. The trees still have their leaves and the geese eat the garbage.
I have thought about moving in to town, but I can not find an apartment or house that will allow me to have 7 adult geese. And on that subject, how long does a goose live? My friend looked it up on google. Now google knows everything!! It told us, a goose lives 16-17 years under ideal conditions. Ok. I got these geese for Bret when he was 6 or 7 years old and he is 31 now. You do the math! Hell, even Google is jerking my chain!
So, as I try to type with the cat laying across the keyboard and the grasshoppers laying in wait right outside the door, I am trying to count my blessings. Actually, they are many! I have a computer that works, a refrigerator full of food, and friends who love me!
Peace!
