Today is the second day of a massive rainfall event throughout southwest Missouri. Here, I recorded 4.69″ of rain yesterday and 3.07″ of rain today, both amounts shattering my previous one-day record for precipitation amounts. Flooding in the creek was at its highest on Saturday night after dark.
Prairie restorations look messy and “weedy”. We’ve heard second-hand comments from people that some neighbors and other passersby think we’re lazy or don’t care what our place looks like. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder and I think our place is wonderfully beautiful! At the same time, I think manicured looks, well, unnatural.
Furthermore, the county comes by at least 2-3 times per summer mowing a wide path along each side of the road. Normally, this is fine as it’s better for visibility. However, it gives the non-natives an advantage over the native prairie plants. Thus, I put up signs to ask the mowers to not mow in front of the house. So far, they are more than happy to oblige.
To help everyone understand what we’re doing, signs are helpful and I’ve had some up for a few years. This Christmas, my folks got some signs made for the place. They are awesome! Thanks!
No, this isn’t some kind of obscure euphemism! It really happened!
Continue reading The Bad Astronomer Tweets About My Fire Tornado Footage
Here are more photos of Pearl Creek. The top image, featured in the banner on this site, is at the confluence of Pearl Creek and Sandstone Spring. There is a small waterfall where the spring flows into the pool visible on the right side of the image. This is near the corner of our house and outside of our bedroom window.
The bottom image was taken from the top of the hill looking northwest. You can see the results of a recent controlled burn at the top of the image. The burned area stops abruptly at our north fence.
In December 2007, we bought a house and ten acres in northwest Greene County, Missouri. Although the little spring-fed creek running through our place isn’t named on any map, we call it Pearl Creek, thus the name Pearl Creek Farm. Except for chickens and our attempts at raising a garden each year, we don’t do much to earn the name “farm” but we had to call it something.