Thursday, November 18, 2010

Vacation.........and The Hidden Evils of Honeysuckle......

Hubster has been on vacation this week.  He's been getting lots of stuff done, but I've been pretty much worthless.  I've got some sort of sinus muck going on.  I'm not really sure what it is, but my equilibrium is totally off.  It feels like my brain is swimming around in my skull instead of attached like it ought to be!  I've been to the doc (because of the dizziness) and they said I've got fluid in my ears and some nasal irritation.  I'm taking OTC sinus meds but the dizziness and disconnection aren't going away. 

Anyhow, today Hubby took me to town to get my supplies for Thanksgiving.  I'm not comfortable driving in my current state........LOL!

Here are some pictures of my handsome man workin' 'round the place.  I never tire of takin' pictures of him, even though he gets tired of being my model!

You can tell in this picture he was thinking......Lord a mercy woman stop with the camera!!  He is working on clearing honeysuckle from the back of our pasture.  Honeysuckle is evil and don't let anybody convince you otherwise.  At least here in our neck of the woods it is.  This stuff is almost impossible to kill and like kudzu in the south it will take over everything if you don't stay on top of it.  When we first bought this place it had totally choked the creek.  It was when we started clearing the honeysuckle that we found all the scrap.  I'm happy to report that the creek is almost totally cleared of scrap after 6 years of living here!

He has been clearing and burning and cleaning and now the back of our pasture looks like a park.  It is so lovely! 
Above is back in September......

This is the same area now.  There are some huge old trees back there that we didn't even realize how big they were because of all the scrub growing around them.  This will also allow more grass to grow for Champ to eat. 

And don't worry, there is still plenty of brush for these two to eat....... 

The creek banks are covered in honeysuckle and other browse that Tulip and Star LOVE to eat.  There is so much scrub brush that even when I had 11 goats they couldn't make a dent in it.  As you can imagine with just these two lovely girls they have their work cut out for them.  Star is in the background and Tulip is in the foreground.

Last but not least, I have to mention this girl...........

Have I told you all lately how much joy this dog brings me??  Yes we have 4 dogs and I love them all, but this is my dog and I adore her.  The Hub-Unit tells me all the time it's a good thing we only have one kid. The way I favor Ellie over the other dogs, if we had more than one child I'd be sure to favor one over the other!  ;) 

God Bless............



7 comments:

  1. Looks like your hubby is a hard working fellow.the pasture looks great! AS for Ellie, hard not to spoil and favor a good dog , I kinda do with Winston too ,but he came to me at a very hard time in my life as well so maybe that is part of it

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  2. I get that look A BUNCH!!Lol I was going to say you know what can kill off honey suckle AND Kudzu??? Goats! Lol They have used it in the south some for raising goats in areas that have been taken over with Kudzu. I cant remember where but I do remember reading it.
    My first goats were Tulip and Sunshine.. Sunshine is still here and my herd queen...Tulip was hateful and I had it and sent her to a new home when she was about 2 yrs old..
    Great Pics!

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  3. Love the look on hubby face. The pasture is looing great. Hope you get to feeling better soon.

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  4. Anonymous is Deb because once again I can not figure out how to post on here I know I know you have showed me but I forgot.

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  5. Love the pic of your Honey... lol It does look like hes saying enough already! My honey gets that way too... he thinks we are just silly girls with a camera drivin everyone nuts with "here let me take a pic". We have alot of honeysuckle too... I do love the smell of them but yes they are evil vines! We've cleared alot since we moved here also and need to clear more, your back pasture looks so pretty. Love the goats and your kid dog, lol. I think I'm gonna be that way with my porkchop :)

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  6. I have felt the dizziness too lately! Weird!

    And we have 2 kittens, I favor one over the other, but that's b/c he's the friendlier of the two. The other one scratched me and bit me in a matter of 2 days :)

    I hope you get to being on your A game!!!

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  7. Getting better soon; Christmas needs you! :) I wonder if you been messing with any old wood or hay or something that could have mold in it? Flu symptoms are the norm when you move/touch that kind of stuff...

    Love love the yard - looks great!And your honeys look says it all lol honeysuckle is considered an invasive species in Wisconsin - im sure Illinois probably is the same! I know we had to seed the areas where we pulled it otherwise other stuff kicked in right away!

    and no, you dont end up favoring either of your kids when you have more then one- by the time the teenage years are over and youve moved on to being an empty nester, you are sooo way over them lol and way into hubby ;)

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