At the end of things

Interesting time in the Woods right now. We are near the end of things. Change, a transition is coming. Sixty six days without rain.. Norman has the longest driest stretch of any of the 110 Mesonet stations in the 77 OK counties. Russell and I went to the Woods via the NE gate this afternoon at 6 to lash a length of elm across the Elm Bridge as a hand rail. Along the entry trail, the green Elephantopus elephantsfoot and Symphoricarpos coralberry were wilted. The Chasmanthium fish-on-a-line grass and others are dry cured bleached by the sun. Two white-tailed deer were there along the tree trail. They ran off to the NE. Everything else is waiting. Snails, pill bugs, fungi, millipedes, ants, beetles. Life has stopped growing or moving and now is waiting, enduring, waiting for rains of autumn and the end of the season of drought and heat. The great heat and drought of summer have been too much for some. Stressed by last summer, they have died this summer.

My guess is we will have significant rains in the next 1-2 weeks. Day lengths will begin to shorten noticeably now two months past the solstice. Days with temperature over 110F will end. We will not see many more days over 100F this year. I nailed a 6 foot metal ruler as a water depth guage to the 4x4 post I had placed earlier in the deepest portion of the Wash above the Elm Bridge (now dry). The Woods are ready for the rain to come again.