It's all how you look at it

Things have been keeping me up at night lately.  It's spring, which means that life is sprouting up everywhere.  Here, on my 3 acres, the Stinging Nettle is sprouting up, taking over and disrupting my sleep.

Last year we were in the process of moving in and getting settled when the weed season started, and being new to the property and farming, certain things were left undone or done too late.  What irks me about this is that I should have known better, in fact, I DID know better and yet I was too concerned about babying the cute little chickens that came with the property and picking oranges and blah blah blah....reaping the benefits without doing the work.  I should have known better because I am a Trained Horticulturist with many years of experience and KNOW what happens when you ignore weeds and let them go to seed.  When we did get around to the weeding and I was hand pulling while Dr. Farm Hand was manning the industrial strength Weed Wacker, I saw the carpet of seeds that the mustard and nettle were leaving behind.  I saw it, I cringed, and I thought, all of those seeds can't sprout....there are MILLIONS!  We don't get enough rain to support all of those seeds!  The birds will eat most of them!  Then, in walks Fall/Winter 2012/13 and it's never ending rain storms.  And seemingly overnight I walk out to this.

only half the real picture....

This year, mother nature conveniently scheduled weed season to start right at the same time as Dr. Farm Hands annual surf trip.  She also must have had the universe send an electrical or magnetic pulse or whatever to cause all of my power lawn equipment to break the very same weekend.  I'm left powerless, no batteries, no gas, no brawn against these attack weeds as they try to take over. It's just me, my gloves, and my bum shoulder against Millions.

This past week I have shed tears over this stupid weed more than once.  I'm sure the tears were in part induced by recognizing my lapse in horticultural judgement and being unforgiving towards that part of me, and in part fueled by the fact that my Right Hand was conveniently on a 5 acre island in the South Pacific, indulging in his favorite pastime, drinking Fiji Bitters and eating fresh caught sushi.  But none the less, when faced with the understanding that I had to do what i could to get the nettle out before it set seed again, I was less than enthusiastic.  I did, however, farmer up and filled one lawn bag a day with the stuff, lining the curb with brown bags on trash day felt like an accomplishment, but in looking at the square footage that I had cleared I was left heartbroken.  I have had nightmares about nettle, which morphed into that recurring anxiety dream that most of us have had at one point or more in our lives. For some it is forgetting to study for a test, or your football helmet not fitting right before a big game (you, Dr. FH) for me it has been various things, usually school related.  My farm anxiety dream, however, is a new one to me.  It consists of goats that have babies daily...sometimes they're goat kids, sometimes lambs, sometimes piglets all while I watch helplessly while fighting through the 12 foot tall nettle plants that are keeping me from the corral, unable to feed the starving mothers who are birthing themselves to death.  Hows that for an anxiety dream?  Bet you never heard THAT one before!!

As part of my goat endeavor I joined the Pygora Goat Breeders Association, since, with the birth of Jheri, I AM one (squee!) and it is a good educational resource.  Welp, the $20 annual fee paid off in full when I got my first newsletter yesterday.  There it is, in black and white, nettle is one of THE BEST things you can feed your goat.  Highly nutritious, lots of calcium, good for digestive issues and circulation.   I did try, in fact, to get Petey to weed it for me....but I didn't know the secret trick of letting it wilt or dry before hand to incapacitate the spikies.  Here, the author is stating that she wishes she could plant and bale an ENTIRE FIELD of nettle for her goats. And this is where the outlook shifts, where it is, in fact, all in how you look at it.

Suddenly, I am excited and eager to get out there and weed.  Pulling nettle has just jumped up to the top of the To Do list, and instead of being a dreaded chore, is now a way to provide for my dependents.  It's funny, isn't it?  One day, this task is overwhelming me and causing tears and anxiety dreams and the next, I am feeling like this nettle is my Green Gold.  It is true that the worth of the job changed, from meaningless  property maintenance to harvesting a farm product.  But that shouldn't account for the very dramatic shift in attitude.  I'm accounting most of it to one of my defining characteristics as a person, I am a nurturer.  I liken this newly found love of hand pulling stinging nettle to the absolute joy and fulfillment I received my making all of my kids baby food from scratch.  It's pretty much the same in my book.  I'm sort of second guessing leaving that last sentence in for the viewing public to read.  Ah  well.

laid out nicely for wilting

So, days after actually starting this post, I am still pulling and feeding the never ending patches of nettle to my little goaties.  The LOVE it, I am swarmed by 7 running furry little bodies when they see me coming to the gate with it.  Yesterday, I thought myself a tough farmer chic, hardened with experience and tried to pull the weed while wearing short sleeves.  I was being lazy, yes, and I paid for it.  The rash really isn't that bad, it goes away after a couple of hours in case you are wondering.  Oh, and the opening picture?  If anyone is interested in combining a morning workout with nettle pulling, beware of squats and lunges while sweating in jeans.  And if your old farm jeans DO rip, don't continue to pull nettle in them, I should have only had to learn that lesson once.  

Goats eating nettle, Petey, the 'special' goat is having trouble reaching it