Advice from a farmers wife

– Whenever you return a borrowed pie pan, make sure it’s got a warm pie in it.
– Invite lots of folks to supper. You can always add water to the soup.
– There’s no such thing as a woman’s work on a farm. There’s just work.
– Make home a happy place for the children. Everybody returns to their happy place.
– Always keep a small light on in the kitchen window at night.
– If your man gets his truck stuck in the field, don’t go in after him. Throw him a rope and pull him out with the tractor.
– It’s a whole lot easier to get breakfast from a chicken than a pig.
– It’s easy to clean an empty house, but hard to live in one.
– All children spill milk. Learn to smile and wipe it up.
Homemade’s always better’n store bought.
– A tongue’s like a knife. The sharper it is the deeper it cuts.
– A good neighbor always knows when to visit and when to leave.
– A city dog wants to run out the door, but a country dog stays on the porch ’cause he’s not fenced-in.
– Always light birthday candles from the middle outward.
– Nothin’ gets the frustrations out better’n splittn’ wood.
– The longer dress hem, the more trusting the husband.
– Enjoy doing your children’s laundry. Some day they’ll be gone.
– You’ll never catch a runnin’ chicken but if you throw seed around the back door you’ll have a skillet full by supper.
– Check your shoelaces before runnin’ to help somebody.
– Visit old people who can’t get out. Some day you’ll be one.
– The softer you talk, the closer folks’ll listen.
– The colder the outhouse, the warmer the bed.
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The Yin and Yang of clearing out the big weeds

Every other weekend, I am pulling out agapathus plants and privet tree’s.

The philosophy and tactics are very different for each.

The Yin

Agapanthus’es are hard work. They need to be dug out of the ground while making sure you have got all the rizhomes, otherwise they will grow back.

Because of the shear size of some of them, a block and tackle is sometimes needed. It’s a slow and cumbersome process, but it’s still easier than using a shovel.

Sometimes you just get nowhere with a big one, and your expending lots of effort for no gain. It’s best just to walk away and leave it for another day

The smaller ones will sometimes just pull out by hand, others need a shovel, but you never know until you actually try.  

In conclusion, you need lots of patience and a ‘just go with the flow’ attitude.

Those privet tree’s….

Even small privets have to be dug out of the ground, rather than just pulled out. Their roots tend to snake along the ground horizontally making them rather stubborn buggers to get out.

Given the shear number of them, that doesn’t sound like much fun..

Time for a different strategy..

The Yang

A chainsaw and stump paste is a far easier method…

You can rip thru the privets in double quick time, making it immensly satisfying to make a big difference to the garden in such a short time.

I then haul them out with the ride on mower, rather than labouriously dragging them out by hand.