29 April 2009

Weekend, Plus a Little WTF

My weekend off, which included Monday, was primarily devoted to some much-needed yardwork and left me sore, sore, sore. On the plus side, I did some hard pruning of one of my apple trees and used the twigs to make this cute little woven trellis for my sugar snap peas.

042709Trellis

And before any of you go telling me that sugar snap peas vine a lot higher than that, it's a dwarf variety that should do just fine. The front soaker hose has parsley planted along it, and I also planted lettuce mix in with the red leaf mustard that's coming up from last year's seed and some Sugarsnax carrots in amongst my garlic, which I'll have in spades (Get it? Spades!) this summer. There's quite a bit more yet to be planted outside the raised beds, too, so I'm going to need to get butt in gear and start preparing the ground.

The bulk of the soreness, though, came from doing battle with a couple of huge stands of multiflora rose behind our shed and along the road that we let go far too long. David got out and snipped a lot of the individual branches a few weeks back, but I lopped off more, pulled a bunch down from where it was intertwined in the sumac trees, and got some triclopyr stump treatment to try to kill it off at the roots. While I was at it, I also treated some of my arch-nemesis, bittersweet, which I hate with the passion of a thousand suns. As bad as the multiflora is, it at least provides nectar for bees. Bittersweet is good for absolutely nothing, period.

Hopefully, though, this weekend's endeavors will help us get both scourges under control and, eventually, eradicated from the property. I expect, though, that they'll give my back plenty of reason to ache for at least the next few years.

Um, Yeah

I was just going back through old pages on Fail Blog and just happened upon this one, which is only a couple of miles from where I went to high school.

fail owned pwned pictures
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Actually, considering the sizable influx of workers from Mexico and Central America over the past 10-15 years, that sign isn't terribly surprising. When you're used to a barter economy and the bulk of your income goes back home in remittances, you're likely to - what else - barter for goods and services. It's still kind of funny, though.

But not as funny as this:

fail owned pwned pictures
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7 comments:

Unknown said...

I read that wrong. Poor goats, I thought. They get p.m.t too? And what sort of person ( I wondered) would use his or her goat's temporary pre-menstrual tetchiness as an excuse for failing to pay for self-storage.

Oh, durrrrrr. Two nations divided by a common language.

Sheepish Annie said...

Who wouldn't want a goat? Goats are cute and make sweet bleating sounds! I'd love to have goats!

(Of course, I live in a condo and I don't think the cats would appreciate it, but a would-be goat girl can dream, can't she?)

Alwen said...

I need to get out in my garden, too, if it would just quit raining and growing the weeds!

Blackflies are out. argh.

Molly Bee said...

Bah! Bittersweet. Scourge!

Lisa/knitnzu said...

I've had a day of WTF's, but they didn't make me laugh like yours did. People will tell you that bittersweet is good for wreaths, and oh, they COMPOST it so therefore they're doing a good thing. Yikes! Triclopyr is the way to go sadly. Here's a trick... put some in an old squeeze mustard container, with a bit of sponge in the tip. You can spot apply it to cut stems. Beats using a paintbrush if you've got a lot to do. Our fact sheets are online, but the environmental stewardship abstracts from tnc have more detailed info. email me at work, lisa DOT st DOT hilaire AT maine DOT gov and I'll send you a word doc w/ a bunch of links.

tornwordo said...

we had a goat when I was a kid. Named him Billy. So clever, eh? We gave him away after he ate every growing thing in the yard.

I just can't understand what that anatomy book is intending to illustrate. Bizarre!

Luuworld said...

yay for spring and gardening! i planted peas this year too.