Hard, hot days

Ironweed

This is hard. Real hard. Since early May, we've hardly had any rain and every day temps in the high 90s or sometimes 100-plus degrees. Even if we put faucet water on plants that are struggling, it does little good. At least during our 2011 drought, the dryness and heat started later in the season. Last summer we KNEW we were blessed to have the rains that we did, even in August. It was amazing! Now here we are with no rain in sight. My mother's water well struggles. How many others have dried up? And yet we continue to build, build, build, and bring more people into a region that cannot support the rapid growth. I'm trying to be optimistic. As they say, this, too, shall pass. But it's just hard right now. Real hard.

Salvia

The Meadow...very few wildflowers this past spring.

Antelope horns

Zizotes (milkweed)

Another froggie tale(s)...

Treefrog from the dryer

Remember my recent post about the treefrog above our front door? Well, I've got another frog story(ies) for you! Last week, I washed sheets, a normal thing that we do every week or so. After a wash, I  throw the sheets into our dryer and turn on the machine. But not this time. Because there was some leaf debris in the washing machine that got onto the sheets. So, one by one, I shook the sheets and pillowcases outside (while I inwardly grumbled at my husband for not shaking out his work clothes, which I know he does but still...just being honest). Before placing them all in the dryer, I leaned down to clean out some little pieces of leaf debris. Then a lump of what I thought was gray lint caught my eye on the bottom inside of the drum. I reached down to get it out, and HE JUMPED! A Cope's gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis)! In the dryer!? I was stunned! How'd he get in THERE? I still don't know. After a few photos, I released him near our little stock tank pond. Thanks to James and the leaf debris, that frog lived to see another day. Or else he'd have cooked in the dryer with the sheets! Oh, my, would that have traumatized ME if I'd found him!

Back to my frog tales.... Two days later, James texted me the photo above. A treefrog in the WASHING MACHINE!? Then a day later, he reported that he'd felt something slimy under the kitchen/garage exterior door knob. A treefrog! Another release in our pond.

Fast forward to this morning, when I was about to drop a load of towels in our washing machine. Just to be sure, I looked down to check for frogs and...you guessed it...THERE WAS ANOTHER FROG! I have no clue what's going on with this "frog infestation," but I find it all rather entertaining and very mysterious. With the lack of rain right now, where are they tadpole-ing? I don't see any little frogs around the pond. If you've got some ideas, let me know. In the meantime, I'd better go check the dryer before I throw in the towels. 

UPDATE June 22, 2022 

Another treefrog in the washing machine this morning!

 

 

A beautiful bearded iris

Isn't that a beautiful bearded iris? I thought so when I saw them blooming by the dozens in northwestern Arkansas last month. Now you know me–I'm a native plant person. But, I confess, we do have a bed of bearded irises in the front yard, most of which were originally planted by our home's former owners. Why not add some more to our yard as a reminder of our trip? So I got online and sleuthed around for the variety name. What I came up with was 'Indian Chief.' After a few searches, I found a good deal on the rhizomes on eBay. They arrived in the mail Tuesday. Yesterday, we read up on how to plant the rhizomes. Uh, oh, major project time! Which got done after supper. Looks like a little cemetery, right? Fingers crossed they all take and put out some beautiful blooms next year!