Fire danger is high - some places near here have seen red flag or severe this past week, but we are just labeled high.  Spring flow is really good, stream is low but flowing well and clear.  Our power company had another "use shifting" day this week.  They said, enough power was shifted to power about 63000 homes.  So from 5 PM to 8 PM on that day, the customers lowered demand on the supply by that much.  There is a lot of tall dry grass in the forest - the growth made possible by the soil moisture from our wet winter, and now dry early due to our drier than usual late spring and summer.  There is also a lot of bracken fern in the same cycle that will be drying out shortly.  On the flip side, some of my baby trees that I planted in 2021 grew as much as 2 feet this year, and are poking up out of the undergrowth now.  So far, most of them that I can see appear to be in fairly good condition, with no prematurely drying needles. Ants remain plentiful - not sure what kind of ant it is, but there is a rather small ant that is plentiful all over the forest, and invades the house also.  They do bite, and I have learned to be careful where I sit!  Native bees and wasps have been plentiful, and paper wasps as well, but I'm just beginning to see a yellowjacket once in a while.  Have seen some baby garter snakes this week.  The rabbits and deer are eating blackberries, and the robins have been raiding my garden - presumably my sprinkler increases the supply of worms... It's been hard to keep the soil damp enough to keep things growing.  The hay farmer moved his big sprinkler to a different plot, and has cut and baled the plot he was watering.  The company working to install the fiber optic network has been keeping a water truck near us.  Not sure if that is required by current fire restrictions, or to help abate dust, or maybe just to supply their ditch witch boring machines.  We had a period of wildfire smoke set in this week - about 24 hours.  Not too bad, but we were advised to reduce our activity levels for the duration, or stay inside more.