Mountain Pine Beetle...They're Heeeere!

 We've seen them making their way over the mountain...killing hundreds of trees along the way, but we hadn't spotted any in our backyard until today.  There was rumor of trees in the neighborhood being attacked by these bugs already, so we decided to check out the island to see if we had any yet...naturally the kittens came too.

 Well, sure enough, we spotted about 15 trees on the East end of the island with the telltale signs of mountain pine beetle infestation.  These plugs are covering the trees, some worse than others, but sadly, all of them will be turning brown soon.

 Heres one of the little killers still lingering on a tree...and here is a shot of one of our trees already starting to turn brown.  I know its all a part of nature, but the beetle kill in the Rocky Mountains has been rather devastating over the last few years, and the rolling brown mountains are a sad sight. (not to mention a fire hazard).

 And speaking of sad...we discovered Jordyns bouncy tree finally broke...it too, was invaded by the pine beetle and she was rather upset.

 She has played on this tree since she was a baby...it curved down on the far left, so she could sit on it and bounce like a teeter-totter, and when we would go for a stroll on the island, we always had to make a trip to the "bouncy tree".

 We promised to carve something neat out of the old tree for her to keep, but when daddy cut the tree down she found a whole new use for it...

 Now its "balancing tree"...because of its curve, it sits about 7 or 8 inches off the ground, and once again, she can walk and bounce as well as balance on it!  Nice save daddy!

 So, with dried tears, we headed back to the house for some cuddling and play on the trampoline with daddy, while mommy took photos :)  These two aren't having any fun~

Meanwhile, our neighbor Mena stopped by for a visit and was assigned an important task...

Justin put her in charge of the hose to the fire pump to blast large amounts of water into the holes a rodent has dug up in my flower garden.  I have to admit, i was envisioning little geysers popping up all over the yard with animals flying out of the holes, but no such luck.  At any rate, Justin and Mena had fun doing it, and perhaps it disturbed the vole/shrew/mole...or whatever the hell it is, enough to chase it off.  If not, my garden is going to be destroyed too.  Wish us luck! :)