Last year, we replaced a few tired rows of raspberries with strips of native prairie.
The general rule of thumb is that the new prairie plantings look pretty weedy and not very good looking the first few years.
But true to form, there are signs of prairie plants peeking through the weeds – like this purple coneflower.
And these coreopsis.
and some silky prairie clover.
and a bit of mountain mint. Later in the season, it will be interesting to see how the late-season grasses appear.
Very few things beat the scent of a freshly-cut hayfield.
The neighbor took a cutting off the back pasture as we don’t have enough animals to keep it mowed down this summer. It is rather novel to be able to walk anywhere in the pasture again.
It’s time to harvest the alliums!
The barn smells wonderful with the garlic drying up in the loft.
The first crop of onions are also just out of the ground.
We’ve had a mysterious clothesline change of location. After returning home from vacation, a line that goes from the tree to the clothesline pole was snapped, and the end of the line was about 15 feet up on the opposite side of the tree. Couldn’t quite figure out how it got there – if it snapped, it couldn’t weave its way through the branches up the opposite side of the tree. I tied it back and a few days later saw a squirrel chewing on the rope.
Again, it happened – the line usually goes between the pole and tree.
The line up in the tree, presumably dragged up by the squirrel – for fun or nesting material?
There’s a lot of interesting flora in the wilderness.
Here’s a showy lady slipper, the Minnesota state flower (within a few paces of Emma’s tent to boot).
This soft little orb is known as pincushion moss.
One of the most spectacular plants we encountered was this colony of Sundew growing on a log in Cherokee Creek.
This is a carnivorous plant. The end of the red hairs on this plant look like little drops of inviting dew. Surprise, if you are an insect looking for a dew drop or bit of nectar. It is sticky and “eats” the insects in the highly acidic, nutrient-deficient bog.
Another carnivorous plant of the floating bog – the pitcher plant. Named for the inviting entrance that attracts insects and small children (OK, maybe not small children).
The insects slide down, the hairs inside the pitcher facing down, where a reservoir of liquid drowns them since they cannot crawl back out.
Once more sporting the Meadville-Lombard swag, Linda portages the canoe between two lakes.
Martin get in on the action as well. The biggest portaging day was 4 portages totaling about 432 rods, or about 1.25 miles. Yes, that means carrying the canoes, all the food, tents, and equipment for over a mile – over rocks, through mud, up and down hill.
Here we are hiding out in a grove of cedar trees on Sawbill Lake while we waited an hour or so for the lightning to stop. We had originally planned on staying the last night on Sawbill, but the rain, and unsettled weather led us to get out at about 4:00 in the afternoon and power-driving home to avoid the big storms.
We raced the storms out of the BWCA, then also raced the storms in the car from Duluth to Minneapolis.
Finally, the aftermath – getting everything unpacked and dried out before putting it away.