Great Burdock Massacre of 09

I'm still fighting the good fight! #@$%^@$#&!(Insert expletive of your choice here, I prefer f'ing) Burdock must be eradicated. I don't care if you can eat it, it must go. I sneak out and dig or chop down a few more whenever I can, but with Mom being sick I've had to stay in the house more. The %$(*) burdock has been winning. Then, the Amazing Wonder Dawn came to the rescue. She is one of the super friends who helped put up The Fence (yes, capitalized, it is that important to me) a couple of years ago. She showed up out of the blue last week, and asked if she could cut down some burdock. I welcomed her with open arms, of course. She brought this amazing little tool.

It is called a bean hook. It is usually used to cut down errant corn growing in soybean fields. You grab the stalk with one hand, hook the business end

close to the ground around the corn stalk, and give a sharp jerk. The hook slices through the stalk, and you're done. It works the same on the flower stalk of the $#@$%^$ burdock. Dawn cut down burdock for most of the day, right through the rain, and cleared a lot of it. There is still more out there, but she made a serious dent. I sent her home with a couple jars of homemade grape jelly and a plate of chocolate chip cookie bars. She left the bean hook here.

If you need anything fiber tool related, please consider purchasing from Detta's Spindle. I've been doing a lot of carding recently (I'll tell you why soon, watch this space!), and finally the drive band on my drum carder gave up the ghost. I called Detta in a panic, and she is mailing one out to me today, while I am mailing her a check. Thank you Detta!