More goat's beard weed picking today. I had errands to run this morning, then had to check on my gopher and pocket gopher traps, then I got down to serious weed pulling.
Today I wore a glove on my weed pulling hand to keep the goat's beard sap off my hand.It otherwise takes a lot of scrubbing to get the sap off. I also wore the glove as my hand is getting sore from pulling weed after weed after weed. My hand seems to be getting weaker, or the weed roots tougher to pull from the ground, or a combination of the two. Other years the same thing happened and I thought the weeds were harder to pull because the ground got drier and therefore harder. With all the rain this year that has not happened yet.
This morning when I looked out over my hayfield I could only see a few yellow flowers here and there on the north side. Even when I stood near the top of my fence. Success!
I started checking for weeds near where I left off yesterday and reached the other side of the north power line tower. Getting into unchecked territory went slower as the weeds were more numerous. I then switched to the south pasture in an effort to complete checking it. I did not succeed as it got dark before I could check the SE corner.
On my way home I walked through the hayfield. Even in the rapidly darkening field I was able to pick out the large seed pods. The dew was forming fast. By the time I got home my shoes were wet and my lower pant legs were soaked.
Today I found a half dozen pods opened to seed balls. They opened even though the day was cool and cloudy (and of course a rain sprinkle when I first went to the first to check for weeds). I imagine a large number of seed pods will open when we first get a warm and sunny day. And one of the those type of days is in the forecast soon.
Wink
This morning I ran my weekly collection of errands. I bought two more conibear traps. I bought two blocks of "bloat blocker". These are needed to prepare the cattle before I let them into the hayfield. Because the hayfield is part mature alfalfa, the bloat blocks are needed to prevent the cattle from getting bloated because they pigged out on the alfalfa. The "bloat blocker" blocks are not cheap. They cost $18 each.
I get so focused on tasks that I later wondered as I walked the hayfield and pulled weeds, "Was she flirting with me?" I stopped at the Food Bank and learned there was no extra bread for my cattle this week. As I was at the door to leave I talked with the old lady who runs the place. I don't remember what we were talking about, but whatever it was I saw an attractive woman, who while kneeling down to get a bag off the floor, look up at me and give me a wink.
I noticed the wink, but it didn't register at the time as I was focused on the conversation with the old lady and also on the rest of my errands that I needed to complete that morning. Was that a wink because she was flirting with me?
I guess I'll never know.By the way, I reached a milestone in trapping pocket gophers today. 150 for the year. I am on track to easily exceed my total (209) for all of last year. Especially considering all the fresh mounds of dirt I find as I pick weeds in my hayfield. And the south pasture which I cleared this spring... quite a number of fresh mounds of dirt. *sigh*
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