Despite the week long Heat Advisory and no rain except for last night's, it seems like early July weather to me. We picked wild blackberries this morning. The alfalfa has flowered and needs its 2nd cutting.  The grass and pasture were mowed this week and could use another mowing. The lower sheep pasture was too soft to chance mowing without getting stuck even though there is no standing water.  The creek and pond are gently flowing but flooded areas have dried up.  During this week we have had two brief, off-on power outages not related to thunderstorms.  The lawn mowing has robbed me of my daily mushroom monitoring. It was interesting watching them change as the days went by.  I saw a newly hatched cicada with its shell nearby.  Japanese beetles and Green June bugs are hard to ignore.  Mosquitoes are terrible. There was an unusual grouping of two squirrels, a young rabbit, and a chipmunk along with the normal birds feasting under our bird feeder in apparent harmony.  No further shrew discoveries.  I did see a small toad and a frog with a stripe down it, in the yard.  Our dog killed a young raccoon in the early morning. I wish they would not come into the fenced yard.  We still see deer, fox and what I hope is a lone ground hog about the place.  Driving to Springfield on highway 29 yesterday I noticed the corn outside of Cantrall looks nice.  I also noticed that little critters are getting killed along the highway at various places. (three little raccoons and a small skunk).  I hate that.  Also the spider webs have been very visible with the early morning dew.