I’m hoping to start a photo journal of the various plants we have in our restored native prairie fields.  The first 30 acres we converted a few years ago is struggling, the cool season grasses are dominate.  MDC has a plan to try and tip the balance on that field, but like all these projects it will take years.  There is a good diversity in that field (#2 in the photo to the side), but the CSG now represents perhaps 70% of the plant life.  Last spring (2012) we seeded fields 1A, 5, and 3.  Then it didn’t rain for 3 months.  This year (2013), field 1A has really come alive – I suspect it will be the primary source of photos.  Field 5 is really poor ground, but I’m looking forward to seeing what comes up in it.  Field 3 is planned as our ~2 acre forb garden, but we shall see how it does.  Its all northern facing slope, and home to our bee hives.  Although close to the house (that blue patch in the photo at the end of our 900′ driveway) it doesn’t get a lot of attention.

Oh, the header photo for this section is of field 1A, near the road, taken in late June of 2013.  The flowers are purple coneflowers – a very popular and showy native plant. The wide bladed grass just a bit right of center is Eastern Gamagrass.  The trees are across the gravel road on a neighbors property.  Photo’s are compliments of John Murphy, Private Land Conservationist with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC).

Oh, chances are somewhere between absolutely and positively absolutely that I will miss-identify many of the plants.  Please leave a comment and I’ll fix up the errors.

We are not settling into our normal farm sleep cycle, going to bed at dark and getting up at light.  I’m blaming the cat, which continues to be in a much deeper nocturnal cycle here than at home.  The heat probably has something to do with it at well.  We are often working until after sunset.  I’ve dug a few holes via lights on our Kubota UTV.  Sunset is around 9pm this time of year, so we are finding ourselves eating dinner at 10, and maybe getting the kids in bed by 11.  Read for an hour and somehow getting up at 5:30am isn’t happening.

Nastya is holding the fort down at the city house.  Her friend Bailey is with her.  We have an open rental and she is doing a great job showing it for us, allowing us to be here instead.

They predict rain for today (40%) and tomorrow (70%).  They got it right… I was out in the far field checking if the 2-4-D had any impact from yesterday’s spraying and it started.  Can’t quite tell if the 2-4-D took, but I think so.  The damage in the one weed patch looks more severe than what I managed to do with Roundup earlier in the week.  Was actually surprised to see some Roundup activity after only a couple of days – normally it takes a week or so.  Guess its the heat – speeds everything up chemically.  If so, I missed a bunch, going to have to try again later.  Rain is only suppose to last 2-3 days.

So now its noon, and wet.  Evia just came in, she is in charge of weed whacking, and we have a weeks worth to do.  She did find a nest with (4) blue eggs up in one patch of grass and left it undisturbed.  Hopefully the robins will return.  Speaking of birds, lots of them out.  We have a red-winged blackbird that considers the top of our antenna home.  Its perched there almost daily and is quite vocal whenever we get near the pole.  I’ve saw a pair of yellow finches yesterday, and some type of blue bird this morning.  VERY blue, didn’t spot any red in its chest, but only had a few seconds to view it before it was gone.  Of course, the swallows have been around for weeks now – had the normal flock chasing around the tractor when I was brush-hogging a couple of weeks ago.  Plenty of what I think of as field sparrows as well.  Actually, the Audubon came out and did a 2nd annual survey a month or so ago.  We should hear back on that in a couple of months.  Last year they were quite excited by the population of Henslow’s Sparrows on the property.  Of course, we have lots of red-headed woodpeckers as well.

Well, my shirt is almost dry, I’ll pause for now.  Time to do some inside chores…

Alas, by the time I was done with the post above, it stopped raining.  Temperature is down, but humidity is very high – do anything outside and your soaking in sweat.  Frank and I decided to go drive around and take plant photos on the iPad for use in the new Plant blog on this website. 

Evia and I took the evening off, both tired from the stupid cat.  We kicked it outside around 8pm and haven’t heard from it.  Hopefully it will spend the night hunting and let us sleep for a change.

Had a bit of wine, cheese, and some left over pork loin for dinner.  Sliced apples for desert.

Arrived Wednesday night, July 3rd, at around 11pm – with cat.  Cat has been eating everything in sight at the home, especially anything stuffed, so opted to bring it with.  Cost to us:  Night sleep, critter seems to like to go out at dusk and explore, then wail to come in between midnight and 4am.

4th of July – Work day.  Finished brush-hogging around the fruit trees, grapes, berries, and currants.  Evia worked on her strawberries.  Day seemed hotter than it was, they say it only hit 85F, but even with a breeze, it was toasty out.  Mixed 30 gallons of Roundup to spray the driveway just to discover the spray nozzle was broke. Worked on the broken PVC water pipe in the garden.  Discovered that the nylon blades in the weed wacker can shatter 3/4″ PVC.  Almost had enough of everything but was one valve short.

5th of July – Shopping day.  Called Jeff at Jepson Lumber and ordered supplies for the climbing vine rows I plan on building next week.  Picked up rebar, gloves, concrete mix and PVC stuff at Home Depot.  Bought cattle feed, a 14′ gate, a salt basin, generic Roundup, a mineral and a regular salt block at the MFA feed store.  Stopped at Hy-V for food and filled up the truck (got 18 cents off a gallon!)  Almost forgot the spray wand and turned around and went back to Orscheln for that.  Switched out the Brush Hog for the Auger and started drilling holes for the new gate posts.  Worked until after 9pm – at least its cooler then.

6th of July – Work Day.  Built the “bull proof” (as Sonny called it) wooden railing and hung the new 14′ gate.  This basically segments off the first third of the cattle pen.  The pen was too large come handling time, and this shrinks it down nicely.  Also all wooden railing and steel gates in case they get antsy.  Started work on the loading area – managed to get two 6×6 steps set, complete with (3) 2′ rebar poles drove through the steps into the ground to hold them.  Quit around 2:30 when I found myself stumbling.  Just too dang hot (90ish) to be swinging an 8lb sludge hammer.  Drank a lot of water, but even so, hit my limit.  Came inside, showered, and cooled down.  Had Brats and Mac and Cheese for an early dinner, around 4pm.  Stayed in until it was cooler at 6pm, and an extra brat, then went out and finished pounding the rebar into the 6×6 wheel stops and leveled the dirt I have moved in the day below.

7th of July, Sunday – light day on purpose.  Thick cut bacon and eggs for breakfast. Sprayed 30 gallons of 2-4-D mix (2oz of 46% per gallon) on thistles and a few woody things.  Will see how that goes. Ran back into Orschein for a pump sprayer we previously forget to replace (at 10 years of use, it finally stopped allowing me to pump it up), picked up a few other things while we were there (Bag Balm for Evia’s hand, a sprinkler, the pump sprayer, charcoal and fluid, etc.).  40% chance of rain tomorrow, 87% for Tuesday.  Thinking of cooking the pork loin we bought on shopping day, then going out and basal spraying thorn trees.