Spring at last! Ostara greetings to all! Maybe no more freezes to kill our grass.
I even painted a rock
Since it was a pretty day, I took a walk at lunch and even read for a few minutes on the porch, next to my lovely petunias that smell so good (white petunias are impressive!).
They are tiny but aromatic!
After work and poultry and equine feeding, I enjoyed some time with Apache, just walking around. My son had come over to get some eggs, so we were chatting, when we noticed what Apache was munching on.
This is good.
Was it grass? No! It was prickly sow-thistle. These plants are like ugly dandelions with big thorns on the leaves.
Don’t step on one barefoot.
Yep, Apache was methodically mowing down all these non-native plants. I was impressed. After my son left, I watched Apache’s grazing pattern. Somehow he was able to avoid all the other wildflowers (other than field madder, which he also liked) and just focus on his favorite greenery. I wonder how they know? Scent? Feel? This is when I wish I could ask my former horse trainer. She’d know.
This is the good stuff.
After we ran out of armored dandelions, Apache kindly switched to weed-eating around the garbage dumpster. He even provided fertilization services (not pictured). It turns out, my new lawn maintenance tool is pretty good! Too bad it costs so much to keep it up and running!
Excellent long grass around the dumpster to trim!
I helped him burn off the calories from all that snacking by getting some good exercise in before returning him to his herd. Our pleasant walk ended the week on a good note!
You may remember that for the past couple of years we’ve had a problem with cockleburs in the horse pasture. I spent hours and hours removing them from manes and tails, and had a horrible time with Drew, given his dislike of being touched on his head.
Drew last winter with his bur-head
This year we Hermits’ Resters have decided to do our utmost to rid the pasture of these plants, which weren’t here before. Step One was me going around with loppers and getting rid of most of the plants around the horse pens. More came up, but I’ll get them this week.
You can see them by the gates. Made it hard to open gates.
Step Two got interrupted when a piece broke on our shredder (a mowing apparatus pulled behind a tractor—you may see them on roadsides and median strips. Part of the hill created when the pond got cleaned out hadn’t been de-burred when that happened.
Now it’s more of a scorched-earth look.
However, yesterday Chris braved the heat and made the repair (welding in a Texas summer is brutal) and he was able to finish shredding as much of the “tricky” parts of the pasture.
Looking much better
That left Lee with the job of finishing the job and shredding the rest of the pasture. Goodbye to burs, dove weed and ragweed. The horses eat giant ragweed, but not the small kind.
Horses still have stuff to eat.
This project takes a ranch family village to accomplish! The next step will come next month when broadleaf killer is applied. Carefully. I don’t want it on my wildflower areas.
What are they doing here? Grazing in the few areas the tractor couldn’t get to. Burs are still there. This calls for loppers.
Then a few weeks after that, seed and fertilizer will be applied to get the pasture back in shape. I’m hoping to get grasses that are more native, but the horses’ need to eat may mean some sacrifices. Luckily we still have all the yard and field in front of the house that still has good natives.
I assure you, I NEED to eat.
I’ve also been asked to do some horse moving, which will happen next week. Some lucky horses will have new grazing areas. Poor Apache and Fiona will stay in the area with worse grass, due to their metabolisms.
We get new grass?
That’s good with me, since I like going over and hanging out with Apache multiple times a day. I think we both enjoy each other’s company. Today we hung out a lot, because I was so happy with how well he’s doing with his ground work and trail walks. It’s so much fun.
I know I post lots of pictures of him, but he’s such a fine equine friend.
I repaired his new breast collar (Vicki helped) so tomorrow I may try to put it on with his saddle to see how it looks.
I’ll take a normal saddle, please.
Hmm, this was not my planned topic. Oh well, I hope you enjoy my horse pictures as much as I enjoy the idea of a bur-free winter.
Itch timeBird supervisor Drew had a good day todayMabel is having issues, but I have a plan. She eats only soup. Spice is doing just great. The welcoming partyTwo buddiesThey circled the hay bale while Lee shredded. Protecting it from the tractor!Tractor didn’t phase Apache
The need to focus on things that aren’t related to pandemics and other stress-causing circumstances has continued to this morning, so I took a break and checked out what’s going on around the Hermit Haus offices. My main focus was my “wildflower garden,” but I branched out. That got me lots more entries in iNaturalist, too!
The “wildflower garden” next to the stairs. It is about to get pretty.
The seeds are shiny in the sun.
I have to say that I find it fascinating how varied the plants are in what looks from a distance like a lawn. Actually, there’s very little turfgrass, just a few sprigs of our nemesis the coastal Bermuda. The one other grass is what they call nutgrass around here, but is actually purple nutsedge, a nonnative plant that sure likes to grow here. I have pulled up many, many sprouts of it in the “wildflower garden,” and there are still more. However, I think the seed heads are quite beautiful.
The lantana bud is pretty in its own right. Nutsedge is coming up behind it.
The area I am using as a showcase for the “weeds” that grow up around our building has lots and lots of lantana in it. I noticed those trying to bloom last year before the weedeater got them, so I decided to ask that this one area be left alone. The lantana are now getting nice and big, and are just about ready to start their late spring blooming festival.
The Hermits' Rest 