Why I Oughta...

A few days ago, I posted an updated photo of our Saucer Magnolia tree in the front yard and mentioned this blight/mold/black stuff that is on quite a bit of the leaves.  You can see it in the photo above.  After digging around on the Web, I think that it might - or might not be Sooty Mold.  The University of Minnesota Agricultural Extension has a post up that is titled:   Non harmful tree conditions that catch your eye but require no management .  In the section on Sooty Mold, they provide the description and a photo that looks an awful lot like the one above.   Here's a screenshot: But if you look elsewhere on the topic of Sooty Mold, the photos look totally different .  Most of the articles reference insects and/or aphids, which our Magnolia doesn't appear to have inhabiting it right now.  I also found this photo of something called Fungal Leaf Spot in the Science Photo Library , which isn't exactly what I am seeing on our leaves.   I'll keep poking around an

We went out to a kind of fancy lunch recently to a place called Pier 290 in Williams Bay up on Lake Geneva that is run from the folks who run Gage Marine.  It is a waterfront dining destination (for some) and we wanted to give it a try.  We drove by a place called Harpoon Willies that seemed more our speed, but we ended up staying the course and heading to Pier 290.  I went with the Wedge, which I have to say:  they got a bit too cute with and wasn't awesome.  Wedge's are best when they are dead simple with super high quality ingredients, right?  The one at Pier 290 is a balsamic-based dressed wedge , which was their first mistake.   But, that's not the point of this post.  Nope.  While the food was just fine at the restaurant, their wall of honor/memorabilia/photograph collection in the hallway on the way to the restrooms is, by itself, worth the visit.  And one of the displays there is all about the Playboy Club in Lake Geneva that you can see above.  (Side no

Nat picked up these three fountain grasses (pennisetum alopecuroides 'hameln') at Costco of all places.  They were priced right, so after she texted me a few photos of the various varieties (including a variegated version), we ended up with the three pots you see above.    According to the Missouri Botanical Garden , these are a particular hardy variety that seem to be able to be planted pretty much anywhere. Over the weekend, I dragged each of the pots to the backyard and placed them in a spot where I thought they'd look good.  Then I walked back to the patio to take a peek from that view.  Didn't love the first layout.  Nor the second.  Nor the third.    I ended up laying them out to form a sort of hedge along the fenceline, near one of the rear gates.  The issue is that our beds in the back are totally undefined at this point.  So, by placing these things, we begin to define at least part of them future of the beds for the #newoldbackyard.  So, while I've tr

Just over a five weeks ago, I posted the first photo of our new/young Saucer Magnolia tree in the front yard of our #NewOldFarmhouse after I had 'limbed it up' for the first time .  It had grown a bit since being installed in June and the pruning I gave it will hopefully fuel its upward trajectory. Above you'll see a photo I took this past week after I gave it another minor pruning where I continued to 'limb up' the main leaders.  I took off a few suckers and removed leaves and shoots that were coming off low on the main branches.   Flipping back and forth between the early August post and this photo tells me the late summer growth is hard to detect in terms of size, but is noticeable in the buds being created.  The leaves - in some places - have become discolored - which has me worried, but I'll post a closeup of it on the blog and show off the newly emerging buds, too. I have big hopes that this tree will grow up - with our family - and be a meaningful

Tonight, the Village Board of Downers Grove is meeting to discuss the future of Downtown Downers Grove.  According to the agenda, they're actually doing this : Discussion of the proposed downtown development regulatory framework developed by the Comprehensive Planning Ad Hoc Committee and the Plan Commission in accordance with Village Council direction. But, a closer look at the documents attached to the agenda show that the dry description actually reveals quite a bit more interesting ideas and what appears to be a big deal.  There are 115 pages of documents attached to tonight's meeting, but buried in there are some interesting nuggets, charts and drawings.  If approved, the plan laid out - appears to me at least - to provide the blueprint to continue the reinvention and reinvestment of downtown Downers Grove.  The plan lays out specific locations and recommendations for improvement and calls out 12 specific 'Downtown Catalyst Sites" that you can see above. 

It is no secret that I have a soft spot for two holiday-related items that are, umm, not super cool.  The first is Christmas Village structures .  Have you met Mantleburg ?  The other?  Holiday-themed inflatables .  Most recently, I've covered how we picked up this blinking eye owl Halloween inflatable .  And I've posted some photos and videos of other Christmas and Halloween inflatables at Menards over the years.  I even have a playlist on my YouTube Channel showing some of these Menards inflatables. The spark for this whole thing around inflatables can be traced back to this post in December of 2013 .  That's when I finally caved and bought our first inflatable .  You'll note that the Christmas of 2013 lines up with the Babe growing up and having some holiday-related awareness.  She and now her sister and brother have certainly influenced my purchase behavior. And, to be fair, I think Nat isn't sold on them.  Scratch that....I *know* she isn't sold o

In the past couple of posts, I've talked about the need for backyard planning in our #newoldbackyard including the placement of a potential pizza oven and pavilion and my desire (despite Nat's properly-grounded resistance) to incorporate a waterfall/water feature into the 'entrance' of the backyard along with some stone stairs .   Because we've been so deliberate about all the choices that went into our New Old Farmhouse, I thought it was only appropriate that we enlisted some professionals when thinking about phase 2 of our landscape design and specifically to help us figure out the best way to provide some privacy screening and transition from the front yard to the backyard - as this will be the main traffic route for us and guests.  If you look back at this post that shows the pizza oven placement options , you can see the existing patio that we are working with and if you peek back at this post that shows a photo of this so-called 'entrance' to the