Day 222

Getting married changes your life. Having kids changes your life even more.. Moving to a twenty acre hobby farm with your family changes it more than you’d know. I can honestly say that my life has taken a  different turn than I thought it would. I  probably would need to plead the gift before getting into specific details, but Saturday nights before children were fun for a variety of reasons. Now, they are still fun but for dramatically different reasons.t home. I still love the occasional nights out on the town with friends and significant others. I also find joy and calm in quiet family nights at home.

However, every blue moon, my wife will be at her third shift nursing job and the kids might have a sleepover with their grandparents and I will find myself alone for the night.

Time to party.

I could catch up on my favorite television shows or movies. I could go for a nice run. I could read a book or catch up on school work. I could work on my picture book writing. All of these are wonderful options that I could engage in. 

I could, but I don't.

This summer, on a wide open Saturday night where I could do anything I wanted, I actually made a responsible choice and did something I needed to do.
I went on the attack.

I searched for the enemy.

I came. I saw. I conquered. Or at least tried to.

I sprayed thistles.

With our restoration “disturbing” the land in an attempt to restore the native seed bank that had been smothered by the invasive reed canary grass, other not so welcome plants thrive. This includes thistles. These prickly plants can shoot up quickly and envelop an entire area if you let them. While some native insects like them and some people find their purple flowers pretty, they are not very beneficial to a restoration project. To help stop the spread, I needed to act quickly. There was limited time before the bajillion plants already sprouting up would come to seed and make future work even more difficult.

Time to get to work.

Saturday nights alright for spraying.