Diary 8/18/13

Smoky again in the AM, but still made applesauce and put four trailer loads of wood into the wood shed. Dried four racks of apple slices, and dusted the aphid areas with diatomaceous earth, a silica powder made from the fossilized shells of sea creatures from long ago that dried as a layer in the great basin and elsewhere. The spiny fossils poke soft bodied insects such as aphids. The aphids are there because a gopher is bothering the roots of the plants and thus weakening them. The bugs know the weaker plants and prey on them like wolves. Cooler, wetter, weather would help, but so would gopher eradication. Hope to do some widespread attacks when fire season is over.The boys from France made dinner; quiche and ratatouille! YUM!