Dust becoming unsettled again, we are still feeding despite last week’s half-inch rain, season totals less than 2 inches at all locations on the ranch. Though I haven’t gotten on my knees to search for cotyledons, there is no noticeable germination of new grass, our high temperatures in the low-60s. Our top layer of dust and dirt is deep due to the drought and appears to have absorbed the last rain quickly, perhaps leaving seeds without sufficient moisture to complete germination. I don’t know, I’ve never seen our grass wait until February to germinate.
Up and down the mountain with hay a week before the rain, we noticed Blue Lupine blooming weakly in the bluffs above Lake Kaweah. At the same location, Phacelia or Scorpionweed below. It seems some wildflowers have already given-up on spring. Not a good sign. BBC coming today, chance of rain tomorrow, this is a roller coaster ride.
drycrikjournal 
Across the mountains next to Long Beach wild flowers I planted last spring haven’t stopped blooming. Milkweed is continuously making seed as are weeds and grasses and Monarchs haven’t quit laying eggs or developing into beautiful butterflies. Nature taking from others may be a way of restoring the endangered population of another? It seem nothing is fair anymore in this topsy turvy world that it has become.
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I think we can be assured that the planet Earth will continue to adapt and be resilient, with or without man.
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