Blue Monday: kids in the field

Walking the dog with the kids was so fun in this unkept field of weeds, made the animal in them come out and stalk me.

Sharing with Smiling Sally and friends on Blue Monday!

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A nice day ruined by weed killers and pesticides

Photo by Gribley

The crap ought to be illegal!  

So you saw my last comment on starting the day off right.  It really was just perfect out today.  

After my class at the gym I stopped by our local farmer's market.  A little place but I love it there, plus it's all home grown stuff and/or locally grown.  Anyway, I bought petunias, Tomato, gerber daisies, and some other pretty flowers I can't recall the name but my plan was to spend part of the afternoon putting these beuties in my garden and the other part playing with the kids and eventually settle out back to relax after a hard day working and playing.

Doesn't that sound like a nice plan? I thought so too!  

That is until my neighbor decided to turn up his music......in his outside speakers.  At first I was a bit irritated but he was playing pleasant Gospel music and if I wasn't going to do something about it then I should just deal with it.  Then I saw him come around the house with a big black tank and spraying hose.  I knew what was about to happen.  He came over to warn me to keep the kids and pets off his lawn for the next three hours because he was going to spray a mixture of weed killers that were made to kill off every weed in his yard, plus, he added "your stuff is starting to creep into mine and I'm not crazy about that."

I have Bermuda grass which turns an even shade of brown in the winter while it's dormant but comes back with a vengance in the spring, summer and fall.  

That's not here nor there.  He has a kid too. There are other animals landing on his grass like birds, rabbits and cats.  Besides, it all gets washed into the ground and into our waters.  I just don't get it.  He started spraying this crap and my throat started to hurt, my other neighbors asked me about that aweful smell and just about anyone who was outside at 3:30 PM went back in the house to avoid the  poison.

I was still working in the garden and just before I went in the house he decided to share with me that he found these chemicals that kill anything that flies and he was planning to use it in the summer to kill off mosquitoes and flies.  I asked him if he was planning to have a party and he said no, "just doing it for my own benefit."  I said, "well hopefully whatever you decide to use wont kill the butterflies, the birds and the bees, after all they have wings too."  His answer.. "oh well!"

How ignorant and frustrating. 

It's been 4 hours since he sprayed and it still smells bad outside.  He ruined a great day!  Now I can't wait to move!

Ugh!  Sorry...the destruction of the natural world puts me in a bad mood!

Here's some information I found online about weed killers from fellow blogger Starre

" Every time you use a chemical in your yard or garden, it eventually washes away and joins the myriad other environmental toxins already present in our air, water, and soil. On top of the possible individual health impacts of each of those compounds, very few chemicals have been tested for how they interact with one another, meaning we’re running a big science experiment on the planet and ourselves. Avoiding chemical products is a sensible precaution."

...and to kill the weeds, here are some tips from Hanna

"here are The 7 Deadly Homemade Weed Killers, guaranteed to help you eradicate the weeds you find in your garden."

Pulling weeds

The other day I realized I had to face reality and go clean out my "garden" before the weeds grew into a jungle.  At some point towards the end of the season life took over and my garden was the last thing on my list to worry about, plus, I thought things would start dying off soon so no big deal.  Unfortunately things didn't die off, they grew thinker and strong and the flowers were beautiful.  However, the weeds were growing right along side the flowers and for a while I just figured, hey, let the be, they deserve to be among the beauties.

Finally, this week, I decided it was time to cut them back.  Even the flowers are dying out and these weeds are persistent.  They are dry and dead but standing tall...what the hey!  I spent 2 hours putting weeds and made a clear dent in the garden.  It was a heck of a workout for my legs, arms, chest, glutes, back and arms.  What that means is, I was sore, so sore I could hardly move.  Now mind you, I workout all week so you would think there would be no soreness.

Baby was out there with me either trying to pull weeds or trying to eat them.  He found out quickly, that's not a good idea.  He took a nice long nap and I got a nice break in the day...time for me.  Great day.