MJ and I went after the thistle along the fence early in the morning. I watered down the thistle last night so the ground would not be completely dry. The thistle mostly gave up easily. My goal was to clear the access to the septic field, but MJ was on a mission. We continued down the fence clearing thistle as we went.
Mike thought we were crazy to remove thistle by hand. For all that, a few hours gave us equal amounts of exercise and satisfaction. Mike also encountered his first rattlesnake, a young one. Lacking a gun, he dispatched the snake with a rock and then posted a picture of the rock and dispatched snake on Facebook. He is getting great mileage out of living up here.
Later in the morning we inspected the Saint Francis rockrose. I grabbed the loppers and went after the dead wood. We found buds on branches that almost looked dead, and MJ stopped me just moments very I did something rash. MJ was delighted to see that a branch had traveled out from the main plant and rooted itself. We cut the newly rooted branch away from the main plant and bless it on its way.
Judy and Elaine came for dinner. We sat awhile on the back porch looking toward the lake. Judy remembered July last year when she sat on that couch and waited for her ankle to heal. One more time we wandered through the garden and gathered flowers for the bud vases on the table. Could not have been a lovelier day and evening.
A Year at the Snake 