The other dad did not sleep very well last night. I am keeping him up a bit longer tonight. Hubby and #2 are out to a friend’s. Number 2 is riding a horse and her daddy is cutting up and collecting firewood. I imagine daughter will probably help load the firewood. You can be sure I will make sure to check him for ticks when he comes home; we’ve got enough tick borne mess in this house without another dose.
After our guest left, I went out to work. Sleep was interrupted a lot last night so I was feeling a bit tired but I managed to get my purple basil plants put in the ground. I love the flavor of the purple basil and my Herb Man at the market had some real issues with his greenhouse this spring so I started my own seed. It is getting a bit late but I think if the bunnies don’t eat it off that I should get quite a lot to dry. There are so many different flavors of basil but this purple one is my favorite. It seems to hold its flavor longer when dried.
I also worked on a heavy grass patch that needed to be gotten out of the melons. I got tired and did not get the patch completed but I got the worst of it pulled out so the rest can be done with a hoe. If you look at the picture you can see on the far side the heavy grass. The other side looked about as bad, you can tell where I pulled the grass out. The far side will not be as difficult because the melons have not grown into the grass and most of it can be mowed down and then tilled.
And to end this post I want to give a report on what my flamingo has been guarding. If you have been following this blog long you will remember my Mingo sat a better part of the winter in snow. There was a reason for that, he was guarding a very small Butterfly Bush. Surprisingly, it survived the winter almost better than the larger more established one. But some time in the spring the second daughter failed to realize that Mingo was not just a yard decoration and she hacked down half of the small plant with the string trimmer. I am glad to say that it is thriving and we look forward to it blooming in a few weeks.