Journal April 19, 2004 | Prairie Haven

It has been amazing weather. I love the warmth – we actually got hot walking yesterday, and were wishing for shorts.

We took the beaver’s dam down about a foot on Saturday – hopefully it will slow the beaver down a little.
We like having a pond there by the road, just not such a deep one – we’re worried that it will start eroding the driveway. Pulling out a beaver dam is really fun – one of our favorite projects. And it gives the beaver a chance to do some more building.

This is the dam after we worked on it.

And here is all the water pouring over the top after we lowered it – looking through the culvert under the driveway.

After we finished pulling the dam out, we sat on the edge of the creek and listened to the blackbirds, and watched the dragonflies. I saw a muskrat swim along until it was about 10 feet from me, and then dive, swim under water for a bit, and disappear into a tunnel which must be a door to it’s house. And I saw and heard a frog – I’m not sure what kind.

It was great to get real rain last night – we had nearly 2 inches in our rain gauge this morning. Everything looks greener already. Yesterday there were amazing wind gusts – Jackie said there were reports of some that were 70 mph in western Wisconsin. We walked up on the top fields in the afternoon and felt like we could be blown away.

Today I’m putting up bluebird houses – too late for this year, I think, but they’ll be seasoned and ready for next year. I put up all but one of the bluebird houses (I ran out of stakes), and when I drove back past one of them, a bluebird flew out of it – so maybe they’re still house hunting.

I’ve been hunting for pasqueflowers, but haven’t found any – I still have hopes of finding them on our land someday.

The burned area of Indian Grass Prairie is turning green.