Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Hippo Birdies Two Ewes

Happy birthday to Selene, JV, and my great-aunt.  Yes, the August Babies have already begun counting in their birthdays.  Some of them I've forgotten the exact date, others are burned into my mind, in no apparent order or with any reason or rhyme.  Your parents knew how best to occupy themselves on those longest nights of the year.

We're still pulling tansy from our pastures, and when we're done that won't be the end of it.  Sadly, there's more scattered on the trails through the blackberries (and some are unreachable in the middle of the blackberries) and in my garden.  I talked to my neighbor across the fence--they're pulling the last of theirs out of the lower west pasture sometime this weekend.  If we can bear the thought, the next step is to ask our neighbor on the other side if he needs help with his.  He's been here for over thirty years now, and due to his age I don't think he can manage even an hour out there pulling by hand.  Maybe he can mow it--it'll come back, but weaker, reducing the overall seed load.  Either way, it's best if it goes away.

There's a fun side-benefit--tansy ragweed attracts bees and beneficial wasps.  With all the local tansy pulled, they'll gravitate to my lavender, squashes, tomato, oregano, mint, blanketflower, echinacea, farewell-to-spring, and all the other stuff that's in bloom right now that self-seeds.  Hopefully we'll have more of these lovely and useful plants popping up everywhere, and less blackberry seedlings.  There eeeevvryweeeaaar, the wee little blackberry seedlings and they make me craaaaaazy!!  As if we didn't have enough blackberries around here.

Which brings me back to ABBB--traditionally, we have blackberry milkshakes, and sometimes I get pie crusts and make homemade blackberry pies.  Well, this year we may be all done with the best of the blackberry crop.  We'll see.  If it rains between now and then, poof!  The berries get very watery and many of them mold, spoiling our fun.  That's one of the hazards of having the party later in the month.  On the good side, though--we may have early grapes.  Yum!

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