This is the second patch I took down this week. The bull thistle is usually no problem as the mules will just keep plucking the blossoms off from them and it keeps the growth and spread of them limited.
However these thistles are different and grow in close dense clusters.
The Canada Thistle is from Europe and not Canada. I should be cutting them in June, August, and September. So I'll be out again and keep on fighting them in this section as well as other stands. Controlling them will be hard as the neighbor's land has them and that is only 100 ft away.
As I cut, the mules began to grab the wilted ones.
Sundance ever the explorer...decided that she'd have a go at the blossoms as I made it easier for her to eat them without standing in a group of them. Easy access.
I had Sven tied on the sandy mound of leftover fill from the house remodel. Little Richard was trimming along the red shed...
and Charlie was
supervising their work.
Charlie is the little black dot on the left.
I took a shot of the thistle patch before I started.
I went at this by hand because there was too many low woody plants in them and the weed trimmer wouldn't go through it very easily.
And the end result of an hour's worth of work with a hooked 'machete' type of blade.
The supervisors approved of my work and walked around eating the wilted thistles and hunted for grasses underneath.
Well.
That job is done until late August. Then I get to do it again.
I worked with my supervisors and my trimmers and we all got along just fine.
Just before dark I went out to have a talk with them and did some grooming. Mica got her sweet feed and I had to use some spray on Sunshine's legs.
The flies always seem to gnaw on her cannon area.
Sunset...dew fall...
And then darkness.
All was quiet on the farm.
Peaceful.
I like that.
I spayed Thistle today, it will be dead tomorrow and never come back. Of course if I had mules or a goat they would take care of the horrid things:)
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