Autumn Olive Wars - 2017 Edition

 
Friday afternoon, and this afternoon, I worked hard at completing one of my pre-winter goals. Not that it's one that brings me any great sense of accomplishment. It's like washing dirty dishes... they just come back.

My weapons of singular episode destruction:
1. a shovel- one of my two favorites. I bought this for myself in Ann Arbor when I started getting serious about plants. It's just the right size for me.
2. an axe- given to my on my 10th birthday by my dad, along with a number of other real tools. It's small, which is perfect, because it's also just the right size for me. I wish I could say I'd taken better care of it, but I don't have a grinding wheel to re-do the edge. Since I abused it today, that's just as well.



The project:
Remove all the autumn olive sprouts in the yard down by the road that have gotten too large to mow over. This is my own fault for not keeping that space mowed well this year, but there it is. You can see the dark green shrubbery among the other weeds that pass for a lawn when cut. Of course, you are seeing just one small space here.



I'm sorry (not) to bore you with seven loads of the crappy plant, but I want you to appreciate how much work this was. They have tap roots that get hefty quickly. But if you can cut that off below the surface, you can pull the whole clump out.















Now, if the weather dries out before we get snow, I can run the mower once to chop the weeds down without damaging the machinery.

Accountability report:
In addition to this, I wrote 2.5 chapters in Dead Mule Swamp Druggist, 2906 words. I may be written out for the day, but will see how I feel after posting this.

	See Trees Down, Trees Up for some of last year's effort
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