I’m very busy these days – getting the last of the tree girdling finished before the season ends. Trees – aspens and birches – are easy to girdle at this time of year because the bark separates in just the right place. I have a few more days of that project, and then it’s on to battling the summer weeds – Wild Parsnip and Sweet Clover.
Category Archives: 2011
Journal for May 27, 2011
It’s been a long time since the last blog post – we’re in a whole new season now. Everything feels like summer except for the temperature. The leaves are green and lush and thick, and birds are singing everywhere. It’s been a lovely, cool, slow spring. Many of the spring flowers are still in bloom, and now the early summer flowers are starting.
Journal for May 9, 2011
Finally – a rainy day so I can do some computer work! The weather has been so beautiful that I’ve spent most of the last week outside.
Journal for April 26, 2011
Some Prairie Enthusiasts came down from Eau Claire on Saturday, and helped us clear more brush from the top of Sumac Prairie. It was a great day! Everyone worked very hard, and we got a lot done.
Journal for April 19, 2011
Finally, the first (native) flowers are blooming! As usual, they’re the little mustards on the steep bluff prairies. This year I’ve only found Sand Cress (Arabis lyrata) in bloom. Usually Common Whitlow Grass – another mustard, in spite of its name – is blooming too but I haven’t found any of those flowers this year.
Journal for April 10, 2011
Today it feels like summer! Thunderstorms all night last night, and it’s stormy and almost 80 degrees right now.
Journal for April 3, 2011
Spring has come and gone a few times in the last few weeks. Friday we woke up to an inch of heavy wet snow covering everything and sticking to all the branches. Yesterday it was sunny and warm – in the mid-50s – so nearly all the snow has melted.
Journal for March 19, 2011
It’s really spring today – the spring birds are arriving, I found blooming crocuses, and saw my first moth and butterfly of the season.
Journal for March 12, 2011
This is the time of year when one day seems like spring, and the next it’s snowing hard. The bluff prairies have been completely free of snow, and then covered again, several times. But the days are getting longer, and the low temperatures are not quite so low – so I have hope that spring will really come sometime soon.
Journal for February 17, 2011
Spring is coming! It’s been nice to have some warm weather for the last few days – the first temperatures above freezing we’ve had for several months. It makes me remember that spring will really come someday.