Why I Oughta...

There are big portions of our back lawn that currently look like this photo below - littered in white, tropical-looking blooms that are falling from a pair of mature Northern Catalpa trees that we inherited in our Zone 5B, Northern Illinois backyard: Below is a look at the mid-yard Northern Catalpa tree that is fully-leaf'd out and full of white blooms: Both Nat and I have grown to really like the Catalpa trees - and their large leaves, white blooms and layered limbs.   I've posted about the Catalpas before - here's one from Fall 2021 .  And from 2019 when I posted about it for the first time .  And, I've been growing some seedlings in containers , too.  More on these in a future post.  

This is the first season that I've taken a high degree of interest in our lawn.  This is also the first time that I'm cutting the grass (in the front) by myself.  For the past few seasons, we've used a service to cut the front (while Go-Go - our Automower - cuts the back) and I wasn't ever really pleased with how they worked our lawn.  They came every week, no matter what and that, I think, made for a less-than-ideal lawn for us.  There were some ruts that I fixed this Spring with seed and I think generally, they were cutting it too short and coming EVERY WEEK just to put in the billings.  I get that.  They're running a business.  But, when the price increases came this Spring, I just decided to buy a lawnmower.  My FIRST lawn mower and cut it myself.  The front itself isn't very big (including the parkways and the side strip on the other side of the driveway, we're talking less than 2,500 square feet), so it doesn't take long.  And,...

The Babe says...it isn't over until she says so.  And there's still plenty of watermelon and corn on the cob to eat before we move on to pumpkin spice this and pumpkin spice that.  Labor Day may be here, but we're still in shorts and t-shirts (at least most of us are....the Babe...for some reason is going all long-sleeves-all-the-time) so just hold on for a second, Fall.  I'll take your college football, but let's just hold tight on those leaves falling and cold mornings.  Sound like a deal?

Another year, another great Petruck party.  This time The Babe brought her own chair. 

We had the first fire in our backyard this past weekend - not out of a need to sit out there and relax, but because I have a HUGE stack of wood that is a mess and I wanted to bring some order to the area.  It is still a work in progress, but after burning through the material that was in the box over the winter (Christmas tree branches, yard waste, etc), things are looking better. We have a weird, evasive animal that is making a home in our yard these past few weeks.  And by "making a home", I mean taking HUGE smelly dumps in weird spots.  I have Animal Control coming over today to set a trap so hopefully we'll be free of whatever it is soon and can go back to enjoying more fires like these!