Chinese Praying Mantis

I can't seem to stem the march of time...so much has happened in our family's life as well as here on the acreage.  We still have the constant of nature here surprising us, and having us scratch our heads.  An example would be the Chinese Praying Mantis that showed up in September on a Sedum plant in our Kitchen Garden.  We have never seen Mantis this far north, and sorry it wasn't a NA native.  These are big enough to catch Hummingbirds!  Kind of cool up close but still a bit daunting!  I'll be watching for these next year - not really thinking I want them hunting around the pasture or acreage to tell the truth.

 Have you ever heard of "Blue Tongue"?  It's actually a disease that affects Deer -

"Bluetongue is a noncontagious, infectious, arthropod-borne viral disease primarily of domestic and wild ruminants. Bluetongue (the disease caused by BTV) is usually considered to be a disease of improved breeds of sheep, although it has also been recorded in cattle and some wild ruminant species, including white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana), and desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) in North America."

 

White-tailed Deer are experiencing a harsh Fall from BTV

 

I may be the last on the block here to learn about Blue Tongue Virus (BTV), we're hearing more this Fall for sure...we'd been wondering why we just are not seeing the "normal" numbers of deer out here; not really complaining mind-you, but pretty noticeable.  Just had a neighbor mention he found 5 deer along the creek to our north laying dead along the water or banks of the creek.  A characteristic (from what I was told and have since read) is the dying animal seeks water.  I was told just yesterday by another individual, that farms about 30 miles NE of us, of friends with a small acreage of timber having found over 30 dead Deer just in the past few weeks.  Since this is an insect vectored virus from midges and other small biting insects, the infestation and disease has abated from the frigid weather change now.

At first I thought the neighbor was talking about CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease)...It is primarily in the eastern half of Iowa now, but there are now reports of it in Plymouth and Woodbury counties, much closer by.  CWD is not insect borne but neurological and has a longer incubation period.  Always something!

 

Green Ash succumbed to Emerald Ash Bore

Yes, always something...we have a small handful of Ash trees left on the acreage...the one in the photo was completely dead from incursions of the Emerald Ash Bore, and threatening to fall on our internet service  receiver/pole!  We can't have that!!!  And no, we didn't chop it down with the Axe in the photo!  I love my Echo chain saw!

Unfortunately there are 2 or 3 Ashes that do threaten the house and our parking shed...the trees behind our shed are on the neighbor's ground so I am at their mercy I guess.

 

But it doesn't always have to be a disease or pathogen...I nearly met my own demise when walking back to the house one afternoon in October - an extremely windy day.  I was just entering the sidewalk arbor and there was a loud "explosion".  I've worked this scenario over and over in my mind through the years when walking under or near our old Silver Maples.   I've always thought to myself that when under these trees, if there's ever a loud "crack" or "bang" - do not look up - RUN!!!

Well there wasn't a crack or a bang - it was a virtual BOOM!!!  I instantly knew what was going on and turned and ran as fast as a 74 year old can run and CRASH!!!  I turned and saw just how close it was.  It missed the house but crushed the fences and our beautiful old arbor that we build 20 years ago.  But it didn't crush the house or me...so fortunate I'd say!

Again - grateful for my Echo chainsaw...even had to buy a larger one...my old 20" bar saw was fine for the high branches but too short for this monster's trunks!

 

20 Truck loads to haul this "half" a tree to the north pasture burn pile!!!

A 28" bar saw takes these thick trunks bit by bit (too heavy to move otherwise)!

I'm 5' 10" (used to be taller - honest) - see how thick this puppy was!

OK, that last part was easy!!!

After 4 weeks work...Georgie and I are not super human - the local harvesting was finished and the neighbor came by with his huge end-loader and plucked the last 15 feet off the ground and drove it away!  Thanks Mark!!!

Northern Lights above the Little Sioux River Valley

October was good for other things as well (not that the last "thing" was actually "good")...we had 3 days of Northern Lights...well, nights...these even put those last May to shame...just magnificent.

On the 3rd night Georgie and I ran down to the Prairie Heritage Center (where I thought I'd have to fight a crowd - but was the only one there!), and I climbed up to the small tower platform and waited...it was worth it!  The shot above was actually about 4 pictures stitched together for a panoramic view of the lights.  (You need to click on this image to really see how cool it was!)

 

Comet-Tsuchinshan-ATLAS-10-15-2024-from the acreage lane.

Comet-Tsuchinshan-ATLAS-10-15-2024-with a 500mm telephoto lens

But we haven't finished the great wonders in the sky for this Fall - Comet-Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was making it's last pass at Earth for, well now I don't remember how many thousand years, but the last time it visited Earth was when the Neanderthals were here to watch!

November burn to the south pasture bottom

It had been incredibly dry since late June's floods here...its nuts how this climate seems to be acting.  We've been under a burn ban since August or September.  But come early November we got lucky and it rained a couple days - a good soaking, and the ban was lifted.

We decided to burn the "bottom" of the south pasture...it's nearly solid brome, always has been.  I'd been collecting seed in the north pasture since September and used it in the bottom area after more rain knocked all the burnt debris down over the next couple weeks.

Mixing everything with wet sand to scarify the seed hulls and break off parachutes, and to easily broadcast by hand, randomly around the base of the hill.  This was all done just ahead of a wet front that promised great rain amounts...we got 3 inches over that next couple days...good downpours helping tamp down the seed for good contact with the ground.  

I still did not have enough seed to completely cover the bottom half of the south pasture but I knew that going in...it would take about 3 - 4 times as much seed as we'd been able to collect...but progress is progress, and we'll take what we can get.

 Now the temps are down into the single digits and teens, a fresh snow cover and more cold weather ahead into this month of December.  I think the only winter chore I have yet to perform is to attach the plow to the truck...I'll watch the forecasts and try and beat old man winter when he decides to test us!

Have a good winter, and please remember to be good to one another! 

Hope to see you on the Tallgrass!

It's Over...

5/28/24 Showers Across the Valley - image ©Bruce A. Morrison

It's official now...the Drought in Iowa has finally ended.  No exclamation point punctuating the end of that opening statement yet, but I am happy none-the-less.

It's been a bit of a mixed bag of course, nothing is ever straight forward or simple.  The weather systems in the middle of the country have come with a cost...flooding and damaging storms in many areas.  Iowa lost the best part of two small communities in the SW/Central part of the state from tornadoes.  Its been bad elsewhere too.  

Its been a bit of a race with area farmers trying to get crops in during the melee...the neighbor just got his beans in behind us yesterday afternoon.  I was kidding him a bit and said he still had a couple hours before the next rain comes and he said he didn't think he could disk and plant another 300 acres before then!  He'll be looking for another hole in the storms like so many others I guess.

5/28/24 Showers in the "Neighborhood" - image ©Bruce A. Morrison

 

Its been a real joy "here" to see everything as it "used to be"...the pastures were mostly burned late last winter and early this spring.  We left the NW quarter unburned to help the invertebrates out...had a bonus surprise there just two days ago - our 3rd Prairie Skink in 22 years!!!  We had our 2nd Prairie Skink outside the sheep barn in the south pasture late last summer...that really gave me hope that maybe they could make a come-back.  Now I'm optimistic!  Yes, even this pessimist is now optimistic!  What a little rain can do for a person, right?  Our first Prairie Skink here came the first or second week we moved here in the Fall of 2002...we discovered it in the mouth of the farm cat that came with the place!  Ouch!  Was so sad to see that.  

Red-headed Woodpecker on the acreage - image ©Bruce A. Morrison

 

We do not allow cats out side here unless supervised anymore...we are just down to one now and she is my studio kitty...I'm afraid that little rescued lady is indoors bound.  Don't get me wrong...I have had cats since I was a little kid, but I've witnessed first hand what they do outdoors.  I revisited a report I read many years ago on birds...it was reinstated recently due to the precipitous fall in the world bird population.  Cats are the LARGEST documented cause in the drop in the population of birds.  Larger than habitat loss even - very significant!  And I will be witness to the significance of that here - we have lots of birds...more than we used to before bringing all the cats inside...lots more!  And they are more successful in raising their broods than I have witnessed in past years.

Anticrepuscular Rainbow - 5-8-2024 - image ©Bruce A. Morrison

 

 

This last day of May marks an interesting month here, its been quite eventful really.  We get rainbows here fairly often each year...except during the drought when it's not raining of course!  We had a rainbow on the 8th of May that was kind of special in it's own way - a rainbow accompanied by ANTICREPUSCULAR RAYS. I have only witnessed Crepuscular and Anticrepuscular rays 6 or 7 times in my life - and ALL of them Out Here. Most people have either never seen them before or just didn't realize what they were witnessing.

 

Here's a WIKIPEDIA Quote for a brief explanation - "Anticrepuscular rays, or antisolar rays, are meteorological optical phenomena similar to crepuscular rays, but appear opposite the Sun in the sky. Anticrepuscular rays are essentially parallel, but appear to converge toward the antisolar point, the vanishing point, due to a visual illusion from linear perspective."

 

Fun huh!

 

Northern Lights from the North Pasture - 5-10-2024 - image ©Bruce A. Morrison

 

 

But the Crème de la crème was the Aurora Borealis on May 10!  A solar storm so active that the Aurora was visible into Mexico and the South Pacific!!!

 

I was so fortunate I got photographs from the north pasture here...even luckier I went out and set up when I did.  It was still daylight; that civil twilight when you can still make things out but the darkness is closing in.  And there they were!  Spiking high and moving around.  I had to be quick and probably got the best of the evening - the shot above shows the foreground still discernible and the moon off to the west as the Aurora danced on the horizon!  The next 45 minutes was great fun but I still prefer this image, as the rest had the foreground only as a blank black canvas.

 

Well May was great for us...here's to June being better!

 

Have a great rest of your Spring out there and always - be good to one another...we are not all the same, yet we are all from the same Maker and Loved Equally.  Again - Be Good To One Another.

 

Until next time...See you on the Tallgrass!