41/52 - Stumps, Squash, and A Bat
Our neighbors have a flower and squash patch every year. They previously had a large garden patch they tended, but for the past few years they have seeded with flowers and squash as a low maintenance way to keep the weeds out. We enjoyed cut flowers a few times from it this summer, and now that fall is here the squash is overflowing.
We gathered a carload of various decorative and edible squash a couple of weeks ago, but it barely made a dent in their patch. They decided to load a trailer full of squash and put a "free" sign on it at the end of our road. Within a few hours, the entire trailer had been emptied. So a few days later, we gave them a hand loading it a second time. It disappeared just as quickly.
We are now properly prepared for the great pumpkin shortage of 2015. Thanks, Carl and Inese!
Speaking of things you only see in farm country... Corinne was out for a walk to the mailbox when she encountered this coming down the road:
This is one section of one arm of a pivot irrigation system, which we have throughout the valley. It's not every day that you get to see something like this. And this was actually the SECOND one in a row to drive by, so Corinne had enough time to get her camera out.
As summer fades into fall, our time for doing outdoor improvement projects is closing down. We have a BIG one starting very soon (more on that next week), but I did accomplish a smaller one that was particularly satisfying.
In the almost 10 years that we've lived in Trout Lake, we have thinned out the plethora of trees in our yard. The previous owners loved trees and planted a variety of interesting trees in what was then an empty yard: Butternut, Quaking Aspen, Elm, Oak, Maple, Cherry, Giant Sequoia, Port Orford Cedar, Hawthorn, and more. But as the trees grew, they started to crowd each other. So we have gradually started to thin them out. But without a good way to remove the stumps, we just left them.
Until now.
Last weekend I rented a stump grinder and spent a few hours grinding out many of the stumps we had accumulated. We didn't quite get them all this go 'round, but one more day and we should be able to check this longtime property management task off of the to-do list.
Walking back into the house after practicing soccer in the yard, Anders suddenly called out: "Mom, Dad, look at this!" When we got closer, we saw what he did: a small bat was lying face down on the grass. When we leaned over to get a closer look, it turned its head and opened its mouth.
Something wasn't right. We have little brown bats in our area during the summer months, but we don't see them this late in the season. And we'd never seen one just sitting on the ground in plain sight. We couldn't see any obvious signs of injury. We know that white nose syndrome is a major problem for bats, but we didn't see any of the telltale white coloring on his nose, and the experts haven't reported any cases this far west yet. When we checked on him after a short while, he had moved about a foot from his original location, still on the ground.
Not knowing what to do, we made a call to our local conservation district. They referred us to the local Department of Fish and Wildlife office, who then called their bat specialist in Olympia. The best hypothesis they had was that this bat could have been one of this year's pups that somehow got left behind when the rest of the bats migrated at the end of the summer. There aren't any wildlife rehabilitation facilities anywhere near us that would take bats. They suggested that he was probably cold, so the recommendation was to give him a place protected from the elements and see what happens.
We found a small cardboard box, lined it with fleece, and wrapped the outside with a towel. We used two sticks to transfer him to box and placed the box at the base of the closest tree to where we found him. He seemed more active when we picked him up, spreading his wings once. Once we placed him in the box, he appeared to snuggle into the inside corner on the fleece.
Survival seemed unlikely, but it didn't hurt to try. Now we could only wait and see.
We checked on him every day, but he didn't show much activity. By the fourth day, we confirmed that he had lost his battle for survival. We hope he died knowing that someone cared.
We put the whole box - bat and all - into a ziplock bag and put it into our refrigerator, hoping to bring him to Anders's school for Show and Share day. But the school was concerned that it could give the kids nightmares, so they said no. Seems to me like this would have been a perfect opportunity to de-mystify bats so that they aren't scary, particularly given that several of the students did a bat writing project.
Oh well. Anders got a good look and hopefully a better appreciation for bats as a result.
- Mike, Corinne, and Anders
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