Weeds

And the effort to “whack” them down

I remember with some fondness mowing lawns whether it was my childhood home or our houses back east, mowing nice straight lines with some overlap to ensure that the grass was evenly cut. Flash forward to now and here I am with a gas-powered, bike handled, weed trimmer (whacker), knee deep in long (possibly tick infested) grass (all manner of nasty weeds) attempting to mow (ha!) them down to a manageable height and hope that the weather dries them out soon so that this is a one-time event.

I learned yesterday we received over 78” of rain for our wet weather season. And with all this rain we get a huge explosion of plant growth, some beneficial, and the rest not so much. To make the property presentable and accessible, I need to clear several acres of weeds and in the process, avoid the poison oak that has also sprouted. And so I get all covered up in long pants, boots, long sleeve shirt, gloves, and a helmet with face shield and ear protection and head into battle.

Now you would think that this job would be tedious and to a certain extent it is. I do get however a certain satisfaction along with the ability to release any aggression by taking down the weeds. It is like a video game where the weeds are the alien invaders and I have all sorts of weaponry to eradicate them off the planet. Actually it is probably the other way around, I am the alien invader and they are the natives and I am capturing this planet for the Foxtail Farm B&B federation.

Flashing back to my earlier years, I can remember finishing the lawn in a couple of hours and then relaxing on the deck with a nice cold beer. Flash forward, my planet capturing activities will take probably about 3 weeks putting in at least two (plus) hours every day (only if we get no more rain) followed by a tick inspection, a cool shower using a product called Technu to remove any poison oak oils, washing my clothes in the same, then followed by a nice cold beer. Doesn’t this sound like fun?

I may be crazy but I enjoy my time out in the wild whacking down the native population and look forward to spending a few hours making the property look great!

The native population