The weather pattern is stuck in Hot these days. It was about 95 during the day and not much cooler at night. We had one nighttime rainstorm and the next day was much better – dryer and cooler.
I did a little weeding of Sweet Clover and Parsnip, but it was just too hot to do much outside. Mike got Buffalo Ridge Prairie mowed, but he had to do it a few hours at a time because it was so hot.

The prairies are looking great, in spite of the heat.

Here’s the prairie next to the house.

This is a closeup of the Narrows Prairie – it’s second summer.

The areas in the wetland that I sprayed for Reed Canary Grass, and then planted last winter, are growing well. This is one of the areas west of the driveway – there are lots of wetland plants coming up, and almost no Reed Canary Grass.

The area just east of the driveway has lots of grass – and I’m pretty sure it’s Reed Canary Grass. That area has been sprayed twice – once three years ago, and once last year – so I don’t know why the grass keeps coming back.

Turk’s Cap Lilies were blooming in the wetland.

The day after the rain was a little cooler, and we did some of our preparations for the party – it’s coming up next weekend. Mike mowed trails and I put up trail signs. One unfortunate discovery was that Big View Prairie is full of Sweet Clover this year. I pulled and cut as much of it as I could – and Mike mowed in front of the bench so we have a view.

Then, in the afternoon, Mike decided to try digging out the frog pond – it was totally dry, so it was easy to dig with the powertrac. He finished all the digging, and since we really didn’t want it to rain on all those dirt piles, we decided to run into town to get the plastic liner, and put it down before we left. It got hotter and hotter, and the sun beat down – we were completely exhausted at the end, but we got it all down and all the dirt pushed back onto the edges of the plastic. Now we’re hoping for rain to fill it up. I will only be a few feet deep – but hopefully that will be enough for frogs and dragonflies.

Here’s Mike playing in the dirt.

And here’s the finished project – all we need now is some rain.