Early August Events

This is August and there's a lot to do around here. I just finished mowing the trails so they shouldn't be too hard to walk.

First, the State Fair is just 26 miles from our gate; it runs from August 7th thru August 17th. However, we don't have any availability during the fair.

That brings us to Nature and wildflowers. Rain & heat sure help the plants grow, and there's much more green than you'd normally see this time of year. The Cottage is energy efficient with a ground source heat pump.

Orange - The tiger lilies are done for the year, but a few butterfly milkweeds are blooming in shaded places. Yellow - the blackeyed susans are still blooming away, and I noticed a few gray goldenrod blooms starting - they normally bloom later. Purple - the purple coneflowers are fading, as are the rough blazing star, but the tall ironweed and tall thistle are coming on; red clover blooms summer-long.

Our native grasses along the lane to the cottage are doing very well, with some of the big bluestem starting to head out. Some people call this grass "turkeyfoot" because the seed heads are splayed much like a turkey's foot. We see lots of deer tracks in the creeks, which are down and very walkable despite the 2.5" rain last week.

Gas & Summer Update

The weather is beautiful, despite the frequent rains. All manner of true wildflowers are blooming - Black Eyed Susan, Queen Anne's Lace, Chicory, White Heath Aster, Red & White Clover, Yucca, and my favorite, Butterfly Milkweed. Then, there's the planted flowers: Purple Coneflower, Tickeseed Coreopsis, Tiger Lilies (aka daylilies). The native warm-season tallgrasses are starting to grow; the cool season tallgrass, Eastern Gamma, is doing well in the back 40. The main trails are opened, although mowed a bit high, and the creek has many new sandbars for the arrowhead/artifact hunter.

Warrensburg gas prices are very competitive. This past week, most stations were $3.69, at least 10 cents below what we saw in Kansas City on Tuesday. Together with our Summer Special, Cedarcroft is a very affordable getaway.

Temporarily closed due to water leak.

We discovered a leak in the water supply for the Ultrabath which will take a while to fix. I do not think we will be able to accept new reservations in the cottage for dates prior to May 10th. I will keep the availability at our website updated so you can see if we're open sooner.

Sorry about the problem!

Bill

Sounds of Spring

We had lots of rain over the weekend, but we're high and dry. Our creeks never even reached bankfull. The meadows are squishy and the creek crossings are muddy, but I still led our guests on a trip to the Back 40. As we neared the pond, it got loud - the frogs were croaking away at their mating songs. The grass is starting to green up, and buds are starting to show on the trees. The big turkey flocks are still all-hens, but the toms will join them shortly and begin their display, often in the meadow below the Cottage.

If you're a Civil War buff, plan on attending the Burning of Dayton (MO), just south of Garden City (off MO-7). That will be March 29-30, and the website is BurningDayton.com.

Bill

Back to it

I've been remiss. I haven't posted any news since October! Lots of things have happened in that time - winter, deer season, winter, becoming president of the state B&B association, winter, a couple of 2-day B&B meetings, and more winter.

In any case, Spring is almost upon us. No more 3 weeks in a row of lows in the 20s. Daffodils are starting to poke through the ground, and a tiny bit of green is showing in the meadows.

The Cottage has gone through the bad weather pretty-much unscathed, and it's time to start thinking about a Spring getaway. Come see us!

Kawhump - or Fall didn't last long

Monday & Tuesday were beautiful, color had finally reached a lot of our trees. We had our first low-20s temperatures Tuesday night. Wednesday AM, the ground was littered with mostly-green leaves from Osage orange, mulberry and silver maple trees, and those trees were mostly bare. The leaves will just have to mulch themselves, because the lawnmower died a couple of weeks ago. I prefer nice crisp leaves on the lawn, because they're so much fun to walk through.

I've been cutting up firewood that I couldn't get out last winter/spring/summer because of the snow & ice/muddy creek crossings/heat. Our wood-burning furnace is running and puts a bit of aroma in the air. We burn mostly Osage orange & honey locust, the thorny stuff with a high heat content. The Cottage gets elm, maple and eastern red cedar.

One anomaly this year is the lack of "hedge apples" (fruit of the Osage orange) and honey locust pods. The early spring and late freeze did them in. Deer will be hurting for mast this winter, since to only trees that produced many nuts were the shingle oaks (red oak family). As soon as deer season is over, I'll put out a feeder below the Cottage.

We still have room for a mid-November getaway and for the weekend after Thanksgiving. Check out availability on-line.

October Time

October is upon us, but it's still hot. Perfect weather for a picnic at Knob Noster State Park. A few leaves are turning and falling, but not many yet. We've had only a small amount of rain in the past week, so the grass isn't growing.

During check-in last week, a guest looked out into the meadow below the Cottage and saw a monster buck. Sandra says she saw it too, and they figure that it's maybe a 14 pointer. Yes, you could see him, too!

This weekend is Warrensburg's Chautauqua festival, with impersonators of Harry S Truman (my distant cousin), Mark Twain and George Washington Carver. Lots of music in several venues, as well. I'd refer you to the visitwarrensburg.org website, but it's not very informative.

In two weeks we have UCM Homecoming here in Warrensburg, and Warsaw Heritage Days is going on down there. They know how to run a small-town festival!

Enjoy the season - weather will change!