The end of a hot, hazy summer is approaching, but many of the animals and insects on our acreage don’t seem to notice yet. The flies are still buzzing, the cicadas are still humming and the crickets in our yard and garage are still chirping. What started as tiny grasshoppers a month ago are now full grown bugs hopping and flying around everywhere, and there are dozens of dragonflies soaring through the early evening sky, showing their amazing flying skills while eating their fill of whatever they can catch. There have been strange looking bugs I can not identify, which usually only live a few days. They are long, skinny and bright green, then others came soon after that are dull green and fat. The bees that came through first were the large, loud, round bumblebees. Then about a month later came the tiny, conical shaped bees that have to fly around your mouth and eyes to find contentment. I have seen a few very small toads this season, no snakes, and the usual horde 0f rabbits.

The garden this season produced below average except for the cucumbers, which came on like nothing we have ever seen. We eat them raw everyday, have bartered some with a neighbor for farm fresh eggs, made pickles, gave some away and we are still harvesting them.

The corn and beans are browning rapidly, and we noticed recently a few fields have already been harvested. Our usually quiet road will soon be busy with trucks, tractors and combines coming and going while gathering the annual bounty.

Once again we have reached the part of summer where we are surrounded by a wall of corn. The fields in every direction are seven feet tall, obscuring most all the surrounding views of farmsteads and acreages, highways, poles and power lines. There is a small stretch of the road in front of our house visible to us, and the sky above, while the rest of our world is full of vertical green stalks. We have commented before that we have a growing privacy fence during the summer that eventually gives way to a harvest, which opens our vista again for miles in every direction during the fall, winter and early spring.

Our garden is currently as thus: tomato plants so-so, no pepper plants left, melon and cucumber plants taking over everything else. There are dozens of blooms on the vining monsters, and we are already struggling to eat and give away what we are harvesting from them. Admittedly, food abundance is a good problem to have. But this year it looks like it will mainly be cukes and melons.

I was sitting in the living room when I heard a huge THUMP against the dinning room window. Usually when a bird hits our house windows it is stunned for a minute, then gets up, shakes it off and flies away. I got up but did not see anything on the yard in front of the windows. The next day I was out weeding and came to the front of those same windows. There lay a most beautiful bird, tiny yellow feathers streaming from its tail, a hint of red on its cap. I didn’t know what species it was, but from the angle of its head, turned to the back, it was obvious this was the bird that hit our window the day before. I picked up the poor thing by its foot and examined it. So many colors, and it seemed to me like it could, if I really willed it, fly from my hand, alive and free again. I carried it it over to the hollyhocks starting to wither against the machine shed, and dropped it among the large, fading flowers.

Since we have lived out here on our acreage we have heard pheasants, usually living in the ditches along the road. This year they have been coming closer, squawking around our yard. I have yet to see one on our property, but by the sound they are very close. You never know what might strut, flit, crawl, slither, hop or scamper across your place out here.

The guy we hired to cut down our dead ash trees backed out, so while we look for someone else to do the job some woodpeckers are making good use of them.

I spoke with a DNR forest biologist about our white willow trees (the crowns are dying) and his conclusion was they will either get better, or they won’t. (!) He explained they might be coming to the end of their natural lifespans, could be suffering from disease or insect infestation, but probably were not dying of drought. He said we could hire an arborist to check them out, but most likely there is nothing to be done. So we will wait and see. I might consult an arborist, or just let nature take its course.

Our mulberry trees produced a fine crop this spring that we were able to enjoy until the robins discovered the berries and stripped the trees of the rest. The garden is coming along okay so far this year, but as usual there is always something struggling. This year it is the tomato plants and the green pepper plant. A volunteer tomato plant grew up right next to the pepper plant, and I think I will let them battle it out.