Baymule’s Farm
- Thread starter baymule
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baymule
Garden Master
It’s wet here but not flooded. Most of the bad weather missed me.
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- #2,134
baymule
Garden Master
Yesterday morning I battled bull thistles. A few weeks ago, I dug up a lot of them, but not enough. I had to stop on thistles and slaughter 45 chickens over several weeks, and process them. Round 2 starts probably Thursday, I have about 50 to send to freezer camp.
Back to thistles, they are blooming and setting seed. About to blow all over the place, just what I don’t need. No time to dig up any more, but have to stop the reseeding of a billion of those darned things.
I sharpened up my machete. Chop and drop. A few days in the sunshine and wind and they ought to be dry enough to stuff in trash bags and get them out of here. As I pick up the bloom heads, I’ll spray the stumps with Grazon. I don’t like using poison but I’m losing this battle.
I have thistles that are 4/5 feet across at the base. I have thistles that are now multi crowned due to mowing. I have thistles that are almost as tall as I am. Tall ones, short ones, wide ones, fat ones, skinny ones, all are terrible. I hate them all.
Part of the middle field.
Close up. Nice job of peeing on the thistle in the background Buford!
I pushed the thistles over with one foot while balancing precariously on the other foot, and chopped with the machete.
Almost as tall as me!
Would you believe those awful things store water in their hollow stems? I found water up to 6” above ground level. Talk about survivors!
Same view, chopped and dropped.
Then I moved on to the front field, there were lots of short little thistles, just getting started, but heavy with blooms and seeds coming on. I stopped for several water breaks, and got both fields chopped. In a few days, after sunshine and wind have dried them out some, I’ll bag them up for the trash. Otherwise, they will release seed anyway. These thistles bloom and make seed in the spring, come back from the roots and bloom and make seed in the fall. That’s why I’m going to spray them. I hate thistles.
Back to thistles, they are blooming and setting seed. About to blow all over the place, just what I don’t need. No time to dig up any more, but have to stop the reseeding of a billion of those darned things.
I sharpened up my machete. Chop and drop. A few days in the sunshine and wind and they ought to be dry enough to stuff in trash bags and get them out of here. As I pick up the bloom heads, I’ll spray the stumps with Grazon. I don’t like using poison but I’m losing this battle.
I have thistles that are 4/5 feet across at the base. I have thistles that are now multi crowned due to mowing. I have thistles that are almost as tall as I am. Tall ones, short ones, wide ones, fat ones, skinny ones, all are terrible. I hate them all.
Part of the middle field.
Close up. Nice job of peeing on the thistle in the background Buford!
I pushed the thistles over with one foot while balancing precariously on the other foot, and chopped with the machete.
Almost as tall as me!
Would you believe those awful things store water in their hollow stems? I found water up to 6” above ground level. Talk about survivors!
Same view, chopped and dropped.
Then I moved on to the front field, there were lots of short little thistles, just getting started, but heavy with blooms and seeds coming on. I stopped for several water breaks, and got both fields chopped. In a few days, after sunshine and wind have dried them out some, I’ll bag them up for the trash. Otherwise, they will release seed anyway. These thistles bloom and make seed in the spring, come back from the roots and bloom and make seed in the fall. That’s why I’m going to spray them. I hate thistles.
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- #2,135
baymule
Garden Master
Interesting note: a neighbor told me when he lived in Uvalde, there were fields of thistles grown on purpose and harvested. Because the stems store water, they are used in shampoo to “hydrate” hair. I had no idea….
flowerbug
Garden Master
those are even worse than the ones we have to deal with. they are all along the roads and ditches and nobody cares to do anything about them. 
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- #2,137
baymule
Garden Master
Doing chores yesterday evening, I opened the doors to the shed to find two copperheads nestled on the alfalfa crumbs. Uhhh…., Nope! NOT reaching for a flake of alfalfa! I went and got a square point shovel and a machete. I slammed the shovel on both, whacked the bigger snake with the machete. Unfortunately when I shifted my weight to whack the bigger snake, I let up on the shovel just enough for the smaller snake to get away
AMKuska
Garden Master
Yikes! Glad you got away safe!
ducks4you
Garden Master
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Me, TOO!! Man, those are Dangerous critters!!
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- #2,140
baymule
Garden Master
Hahaha, I wasn’t trying to get away! I tried to kill both copperheads but one got away.
