The fireflies are almost all gone by now, replaced by the grasshoppers, which are about full-grown and hopping around everywhere. This has also been a bounty year for dragonflies around the acreage.

Some soybean crops around us have started to turn yellow-gold, while other patches are still green, making for a beautiful mosaic stretching into the distance. Our vegetable garden has been so-so again this year, producing a few zucchinis early and some cherry tomatoes later in the season. No green peppers.

I wrote recently about our dog Steve acquiring a taste for baby bunnies. Last week he expanded his diet even further by eating a baby bird whole that had fallen to the ground. My son and I were working out back when we both heard loud and excited baby bird chirps. We looked around and spotted Steve under a pine tree, his mouth to the ground. The chirps grew fainter then stopped when he began chewing something. Up went his head, followed by a big gulp. If he is going for a trifecta I can only guess what the next baby animal would be.

Some orange milkweed plants established themselves in the rock garden last year and have spread to over half of of the rock garden this year. They seem to bloom for months at a time, and we have seen various bees and butterflies, as well as dragonflies, buzzing around the flowers. There are a variety of dragonflies: different colors, sizes and patterns on their wings. I recently read that dragonflies are predatory insects, so now I wonder if they are killing our bees and butterflies. I also just learned about damselflies, which we also have flying around the place. Maybe we have created a beautiful orange killing field. I hope not, and I will do more research on the matter.

I read an article recently that was wondering if the firefly population is decreasing or endangered. Starting in June then throughout July we could stand on the back porch looking out over acres of beans around dusk and see thousands of fireflies blinking among the crops. At least around here they seem to be doing fine.

Because we still have not taken down any of our dead ash trees we have several pileated woodpeckers nesting in holes they have drilled in them. Living in the city a property owner will remove a dead tree as soon as possible. Out here it has been interesting to see what happens when they are left up. I have read the pileated woodpeckers will not use the same hole twice, leaving them for owls or other woodpeckers to call home.

Finally, our little toads are back, enjoying the end to the drought maybe more than any of us.