Weed Notes: Sept 30
- Details
- Published on Monday, September 29, 2014
By Sid Lewis
Supervisor
The question I have been asked many, many times over the years is “What factor on a daily basis affects your day-to-day work schedule the most?” Other than words from across the kitchen table (I will pay dearly for this!!) weather has the most influence.
During the summer season when we are trying to do our weed/brush management programs, wind and rain will put a stop to our progress every time. Some would say the most influence I answer to is the Midwest Weed District board who hired me for this position. That is true in many ways and secondly, I answer to the members of the five councils who make up the district. Still my opinion is that weather is the main factor.
I am always watching to see if a wind/breeze has risen before or during a spray operation. If there is any indication (trees/leaves moving), then all spraying stops. This is especially true in towns and cemeteries. I have been accused of being too anal about this and needing to relax my standards a lot. A fine example of this was one morning a while ago when I arrived at a cemetery to do the usual fall dandelion control.
Looking at the outlying vegetation (grass, bulrushes, trees), I could see a lot of movement and decided to not even start. There have been times when I have left an area and a short time later the wind has died. (This aggravates me because I could have done what was intended.) I decided to go to the local coffee shop, have a coffee and see, after 20 minutes, what the weather was doing. A short while later as I was having a coffee, a producer told me I should be out working because the flag was drooping, a sign of no wind. Looking farther out of town I noticed the trees were still affected by the wind and in fact were indicating the wind was stronger now. Mentioning this to the producer his comment was, “Well, what would drift hurt anyway?”
Needless to say his thought didn’t sway my decision and if I disgusted him, I will live with it rather than face anger for damaging flowers etc. at a family’s grave site!
A saying I heard a short time ago fits well here: “Living by your own expectations, you will achieve success; living by everyone else’s expectations you will face disaster.”
On a miserable wet, cold windy day a while ago, the little missus and I decided to clean out a closet that for years we had put objects into because they were too good to throw away. Have any other readers ever done this as well? I came across a shoe box I didn’t know was there, but Terry did. Apparently when we were first married and an argument ensued, rather than let it escalate, she would quit and make a macramé doll. By the time she finished, her anger to me was cooled down. (Here her common sense was and still is better than mine!) I saw only two dolls in the box and a quantity of cash. I mentioned how super it was that in 40-plus years of marriage she only had to make two dolls. Then I questioned where all the cash came from. Her answer was, “From selling all the dolls I made over the years!”
If you have any questions for Midwest Weed District, please phone 204-764-2128.