Wild Weeds

Due to unfortunate events, our mower has not been mowing.  It was fixed Sunday with new parts, but before that, the chicory was growing everywhere, despite lack of rain.

The color on these photos is very bright due to our sunny days and higher heat.  You can see the grass is brown, yet the chicory is growing vibrantly.  It's growing like crazy along roadsides as well (but you don't that those plants).

I decided to take advantage of this and dig some up.  Chicory root can be dried and made into a "coffee."  It has wonderful health benefits.  We do not use any chemicals, so it's a win-win situation, but the roots are like cement.  

I also see we have a ton of burdock out there, but not sure if I want to add more work to my day yet.
 

Hubby and I took most, but not all of, Saturday off.  He surprised me by taking us on a motorcycle ride to the small town we married in - on a tiny island off of a local river.  The island is not filled in and connected to land and re-named a park, but we still visited and even ran into someone we both used to work with prior to marrying (who bet his co-workers we'd never stay together).  

Sunday, we got garden work done, mower back in action, and again took the afternoon off.  One daughter helped me chop up all the vegetables for our 4th batch of zucchini salsa.  That sits overnight, so today I can it.  I am concerned this may be the last of the zucchini, as the plants are yellowing already due to the heat and drought.  I am still watering the fall planted seeds with rain barrel water, but rain is needed badly.

When I say we took the afternoon off, I really mean we took the Harley to another town to pick up some needed supplies that would fit in the saddlebags.  While we were there, Hubby said "let's go to the movies."  Ha!  I haven't been in a movie theater in years.  I tried to talk him out of it, but we went, and quite honestly, I think he was procrastinating the end of the bike ride (ha ha!).   I'm glad we took the motorcycle.  We both needed a relaxing afternoon.  

Here we are, recharged for Monday.  Ready to tackle that garden, and whatever is ready to harvest.  I'm quite concerned the cauliflower is not doing well.  We literally watered the heck out of it the other day, and it doesn't seem to want to grow.  

We've had a plethora of horse flies this year.  I think I have killed about 30 on the front porch now.  I searched the internet and found a spray recipe to squirt at them, that is said to kill them instantly.  I'm giving it a try, but once I swat one, and know it's dead, another one shows up.    The carpenter bee traps we installed in the barn are working.  The traps have to be set so that they do not sway in the wind, but I see bees in the removable container.