The ground beneath the largest oak is pretty dried-up and crusty.
I “vacuumed” up about forty five sacks of weed-duff using the bagger attachment on the John Deere mower, with the deck-height set at just 1-1/2″ high. Also got a lot of dirt, but chopping the burrs and scooping it up seemed worthwhile as far as an attempt to eliminate some future growth… Yeh, I know it’s futile, but we have made some progress every year, especially in killing off the broadleaf dock.
I’m ready for the fall, and will order-up more pre-emergent – and also sacks of soil amendment to soften the hard-pan. Meanwhile, with the bagger removed the 25-gallon sprayer attachment is ready for work – but I don’t think these are the right conditions, it being so dry…
What is NOT dry is the doggie in her new pool. After we walk the old rail line in the morning, she loves to get in and splash-paddle and cool her paws under the awnings. The deck remains cool with the two 10’x10′ canopies, and underneath the deck is her new happy place. Today the temps are only expected to reach the low 80’s, so we are enjoying a brief bit of cooling-off until the weekend when the mid-90’s return.
UPDATE: The doggie pool is made of truck bedliner material, and is heavy duty. The dog is white, but after an evening luxuriating under the deck she comes out brown and dusty, so after splashing in the pool frequent cleanings are necessary. Fortunately it has a drain valve at one end that I hooked up to a small pump, and once plugged-in that pump coveys the dirty water down a 50-foot hose and out onto the dried-up old prairie via a sprinkler – so we will see what effect occasional watering has on the dry dirt and weeds…
The two 10’x10′ Ez-Up canopies on the deck are providing good shade, and kill the reflected heat. The dog likes splashing in the pool to cool her hot paws, but the pool up on the deck sprung a leak. They’re made in Mexico of pretty flimsy plastic and only cost $12 at Walmart – but the Walmart summer inventory is long gone. So I pulled up the lower pool and layered the non-leaky pool into the other and it’s holding water. As a skilled proponent of Redneck Engineering, I’m going to spray a can of ‘as seen on TV’ Flex Seal stuff (in blue) into the lower pool, and slap the good one on top of it, and sandwich the two together to strengthen them and stop the leaking.
Six more squares of astroturf, sixteen 10-inch 3/8″ carriage bolts to use as corner stakes, some grommets as bezels on the stakes, and an eight foot piece of fence-pipe.
It’s also a reminder of my Dad and growing up. In our front-yard as a kid, the flag-pole holder was a piece of pipe sunk flush into the ground so that the blades of push-mower I used to cut the lawn (and earn my $1.00 weekly allowance) would roll right over it. On days when we put the flag out, it fit right into the pipe sunk into the ground. Thanks Dad, I miss you guys.
So I got a pick-axe and did a bit of trenching to find that three wires were buried below the pipe. Good thing the shovel handle was wood, and the pick too because I suppose that’s insulation… 
And with the pick I levered-up and bent the pipe a bunch to get a good look at it – it’s only about 8″ deep in the dirt, but keeps going. And the direction it goes is pointing at the terrace block circle, where a couple years ago I dug down to waist-deep (36″) and came across the junction point of three, very old four-inch clay pipes that teed-joined an eight-inch clay pipe… 
nThe old pipes that I dug down-to were loaded up with gravel and sand, and whatever connection had broken – which is why, after rains, the way water kept coming up in that location we thought there might be a spring or other water source.
So…my neighbor the plumbing contractor, has a buddy who’s an electrician and owns a business and the junk to do some subterranean detection. Initial “probes” with a long screwdriver indicate some metal clanking, and an electrical thing showed some voltage in the wires that are upstream – but whether it’s millivolts or bigger is the question. A guy is coming over with equipment to detect and terminate anything as needed.
The ongoing protests by radicals – the lawlessness and looting, the public displays of violence by anarchists that are disturbing the rest of the country, are thankfully not evident up here.
We’re expanding the footprint of the “dry creek” area, and have been moving large, smooth river-rock out to expand and build up the walls of the drainage…
So with a few nice days ahead before another wet-weather system rolls in off the Pacific ocean, I decided to remove it with my Stihl chainsaw-on-a-stick… Now the pathway up the embankment is more open and fewer dangly birch-pods festoon the remaining trees.
So with that done it’s grillin’ time, with some zucchini and asparagus, and re-heating a piece of petite fillet.
