Supervisors and trimmers

I drove out to take down a section of invasive thistles that were in a huge patch in the mule pasture.
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.

A delicacy! Soon everyone got in on it.
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.

Meanwhile back in the yard...

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.

The final inspection was rated 'good'.

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.

A Not Day

I think after I do the morning chores, and go to town for groceries, I will be coming home and I will NOT do any other physical labor.

Well, that is my good intentions, to take a day off and relax. The vegetable  garden needs a good hoeing and the flower gardens need weeding. I may get a the little squishy pad out and sit next to the flower garden and pick and poke at weeds and listen to music in the afternoon. That is relaxing.

Yesterday I walked to the meadow and fired up my Weed Eater and tore through a large patch of Canada Thistle. I know the cattle will eat the wilted thistle so last night I let them out into the meadow. My hope is that they eat it, if not that is okay. When I chopped down another patch by hand, the mules ate the chopped thistle and then stripped the remaining stalks.

My neighbor and her kids came for an afternoon jaunt down the new ridge road to the creek yesterday. We walked through the meadow and my neighbor noticed the Ox Eye daisy invasion and mentioned that her goats absolutely loved those pesky daisies.

Let's pause briefly for
Creek fun:

Back to the goats. Hmm. The Mules are natural browsers and so are the Dexters. I used to raise goats but never had them in the woods. It has been ages. I may have to see about 'borrowing' the neighbors' goats for some cleaning and gleaning. I know they eat multiflora rose bushes and those pesky berry briers along with burdock.

So last night my mind was whirring away, here I was trying to figure out a rotation to include a goat or two and wondering if I could pasture them with my Dexters. Mules are not generally happy with goats, however in the past two years the neighbor goats have been constant companions on the other side of the fence...and occasionally a wayward goat finds its way into the mule pasture.
I was sure that my red headed mules would hurt the goats.

So far that hasn't happened.

And then I wonder what I'd do with goats in the winter. Sigh. I do actually have the room to keep at least two.

Decisions, decisions.

However I've decided to NOT work on fences or thistles, or much of anything today. The yard needs mowing. Maybe I'll just trim a bit.
See? There I go again.
But I see rain in the forecast again starting tomorrow for the next two days.

Enough already!
And then I think.
Perhaps Sunday should be a NOT day.

And then there is that new fence line I thought I'd put up...and our pony who was wandering around this morning loose. He's broken his tie out...
and going to visit MIL...and...

Oh heck. Can I just have one day of doing nothing please???