05 June 2008

It Ain't Natural

It's been raining here, not quite the biblical rains of last year, but close. I'm not used to seeing my lawn in neon green, sage - maybe, or olive, brown - definitely. But green? It's kind of scary. What's happening to my high plains desert?


I cut the lawn about 5 days ago, during a break in the drizzle. It's already ankle high again. Used to be, I could go two weeks in between mowing, three in August. It took me three hours to mow the back yard this time - it was over 12 inches high in places. In some spots, all you could see was dog ears, not even the whole dog. The Corgis had to porpoise through to get to the fences where they had a path beaten down. A path which is now a mud slide, and the beginnings of my very own moat!

Last year, my neighbor and I shared a ten foot wide swath of water, this year, it's a smaller moat. I did have ducks in the low spot in my backyard, but only for a while. They moved on to the suddenly big lake up the street.



The fun part about the mud? It's sticky. And clay-ie. I've hand built a pot from the stuff an inch under the grass. Of course the Corgis don't care about niceties like wiping their feet and bellies when they come in. The good thing is, when they come in the back door and see the towel in my hand, they promptly stop to get wiped off. The bad thing? Last week when I mowed, the dogs ran around in the clippings and came in the house ... with green feet. They looked like little leprechaun dogs. I'll get a picture next time, I promise.

The hills in Wyoming are alive with greenness. A startling sight. I'm taking pictures for when it gets to 100 degrees in August, and everything shrivels to multi-toned brown crisps. In other words, Wyoming normal.


15 comments:

Anonymous said...

It figures!
The grass is always greener on the other side of the country.

Gabriele Campbell said...

You should dig your own moat. And then build a nice, big wall. With towers, a drawbrdige, and a portcullis. :)

Anonymous said...

And dress the corgis up as mini-dragons!

Meghan said...

That's insane! I didn't know that was actually possible...

Constance Brewer said...

Anon - I've got NY flashbacks with this green.

You think two small Corgi dragons will do the trick? Maybe I need a whole herd...

Constance Brewer said...

Gabriele- I'd have to build the wall out of antelope. No big rocks here. On the other hand, a moat would protect my trebuchet...

:)

Constance Brewer said...

meghan - didn't know what was possible? Green Corgis? :P

Anonymous said...

St. Patrick's day Corgis?!?!?

AscenderRisesAbove said...

wow a moat in your own backyard!

You live in wyoming? now I have to look through your blog to see if we know the same people... I lived in Casper for about 20 years


ascenderrisesabove.com/wordpress

Constance Brewer said...

Anon - they're Welsh, they can't be Irish Corgis!

Constance Brewer said...

ascender - with only half a million people, we're bound to know some of the same ones. :)

Geraldine said...

That is one VERY green lawn Constance!

www.mypoeticpath.wordpress.com

Constance Brewer said...

geraldine - don't worry, the green won't last long. A few weeks of sun, and we'll be back to our usual brown. But I needed proof - grass CAN grow here!

kc heath said...

Wow! Didn't know there was anything green in Wyoming, except maybe the aspens in July up in the mountains. :)

How's the wildlife?

Constance Brewer said...

KC - It's green everywhere, the antelope are fat... and the horses are foundering. :( We're not used to all this good grass. But at least we're out of drought now.