“This aint nuth’n. The other day I was out here and it was like a black cloud you couldn’t see through.” That was the statement one of the guys at the ranch told me yesterday morning, as the first signs of mosquitos made their dreaded appearance.
It was a big day for us. We were set to spend the day at the Hirschy Ranch in Wisdom, about one hour South of Darby, towards the Idaho border, then east on Hwy 43 for several miles. To date I hadn’t been that far, but was told the drive in was beautiful and to be on the lookout for a lot of wildlife near the highway and be careful. Oh and get some DEET, because the skeeters are really bad.
I left my house in Darby about 5am. Normally I would have left earlier, but after considering what I was told the day before, I reasoned it would be wiser to leave with a little twilight, so I could see my surroundings a bit easier. Indeed, there was a lot of wildlife. I saw quite a few elk grazing not far from the edge of the hwy. Hitting a deer is one thing, but if one of them big ‘ole animals happened to step in front of me while I was driving, well, I might not be writing this today.
I arrived on the ranch with plenty of time to settle in and get situated. It was going to be a big day. We were driving cattle, branding and castrating. Yeah, I know, castrating sounds cruel, but believe it or not there are sound reasons for doing it; flavor of meat and stress to cattle being a couple of reasons.
As soon as the temperatures began to rise, so did the skeeters. Before long it was a full on blitzkrieg. No one was safe from those blood sucking parasites. The only thing one could do was stave the attack by applying deet and making sure you wore long pants and sleeves. As the day progressed, it got worse. And, well, by the time the sun began to go down, it was total mayhem. The mosquitos literally seemed to have multiplied ten fold by that point. I’ve heard it said, an onslaught of mosquitos is enough to drive a sane man mad and have the ability to change the course of battle. I can tell you, it was so bad, I couldn’t even complete my paperwork correctly. To add insult to injury, the blood suckers also followed me while I walked to my vehicle.
Rumor has it we’re going back. Oh and by the way, the black flies will be out by then. Hmmm! I think I’ll be sick that day.
