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| Summer loves tearing up the paper bags the grass seed came in. |
A fool lets it all hang out; a sage quietly mulls it over. Proverbs 29:11 (The Message)
Remember the post a year or so ago when challenged by husband to rid the pasture of weeds, I found myself sitting in the middle of a weed patch bawling because the job was so overwhelming? http://fromaheavenlyland.blogspot.com/2009/11/never-alone.html We had already tried weed killers, but two types of weeds were resistant to even the strongest of sprays. Those two weeds had taken over the pasture keeping any grass from growing. Even the horses would not eat them. Husband announced one day that the only way to combat them was to pull them out by hand. Five acres of weeds faced me that day, and I gave up thinking it an impossible task. Over the last couple of months, something odd has been happening. Those weeds gradually disappeared. At first, it was so subtle, I didn’t notice the change. Then, one day, I looked at the pasture and noticed that there were more bare patches than weeds. I thought it might be the drought. Or maybe the very few cold days we had this winter. Or maybe the weed killer just took a while to work. I didn’t really know what caused the change, but, when I could see more sand than weeds, I began to make plans. I thought if husband just got out the weed killer one more time, he could finish off what was left. And then, we could get some seed and plant more grass. Of course, we would have to fence it off to keep the horses away from it for a while, but without the weeds competing with the grass for water and sun, we might have a chance at growing pasture again. So, knowing that she was taking her horses away for two weeks camping, I said something to Andrea about my idea. She looked at me as though I was a fool, then laughed and confessed. All this time, she has been pulling the weeds! One bucketful every day pulled and tossed over the fence. A little at a time and she managed to eradicate almost all the weeds singlehandedly. What I thought was impossible, she accomplished. Inspired, I joined her campaign on Saturday mornings, filling the manure cart with weeds to dump on the burn pile. Yesterday, I pulled the final weed and once I was done, husband got the tractor, graded the whole pasture, spread seed on two thirds of it and raked the seed in. We had to string electric fence around the planted acres to keep the horses off it and move the round pen up front so we have additional space for them to graze, but if we can keep them off the newly sown areas for a couple of months, we may be successful in our efforts. I looked at the enormity of the job and gave up. Andrea did it a little at a time and reached her goal. I feel quite foolish when I remember my crying jag, but am relieved that Andrea didn’t never gave up.
For more First of the Month photos go here http://www.murrieta365.com/
Go You!
What a great photo! Looks like Summer was having fun.