WWOOFers vs. Thistle

On Thursday, Laurie gave us all a chance to do something not entirely different from what we do on the farm but in a new place: pulling thistle up the road at her friend Jennifer's house.

Jennifer lives on 50 beautiful acres up in the woods in the foothills of the Crazy Mountains on Horse Creek Road North (we're on Horse Creek South). It's a spectacular property that they moved an old farm house to and have amazing views. But, like all of us, they have a thistle infestation. So the six of us went over there to help out for a few hours.

We hit the thistle hard for a couple of hours alongside Jennifer's 70-something mom, Glenda, whose a weeding-machine. We worked hard for a couple of hours and then Laurie and Jennifer treated us to (another) amazing lunch on her porch with a stunning view of the Crazy range. We feasted on clam chowder soup, ham and bean soup,zucchini bread, spicy salad mix, and great conversation.

Despite hours of work, I'm sad to say we hardly made a dent in the thistle... though the driveway and front yard look improved. I'm not generally in favor of herbicide (especially not after working organically for the past few months!) but thistle is so invasive and spreads like, well, thistle. I put in a call to our new friends at the Invasive Species Action Network for advice and will connect them to Jennifer.