7 rounds of spraying burrs this weekend

And I am at that point of "Arrgggh, I'll never get rid of those horrible things"  I probably will never get rid of them, but I must remind myself that there are hardly any in the mini's pen where I got them sprayed 2-3 years in a row, and the spots in the big horse pens closer to the house only have a few of the nasties coming up.    I am reducing their territory and if I ever get a couple years of really getting them sprayed before they set burrs in the horse pens it can become annual moderate effort to keep them from coming back vs the huge task they feel like now.

I thought I should use the riding lawnmower and spray tank to make sure to not over-stress my ankle.  Well that didn't work out.  Bogged the tractor down after 10 minutes.  But I did find that the cam boot kept my ankle from getting sore tromping around with the backpack sprayer  and I did 3 sets of not quite half-full tank spraying on both Sat. and Sunday and 1 round this morning.   If I can keep up the morning spraying I may get the big horse pens covered.   I may have to find my shake siphon hose to get spray from the trailer tank into the backpack.   I don't know if I trust the mower even in the ditch or around the yard unless I at least reduce the amount of weight in that tank.  Sigh.

It was HOT this weekend so it was easy to spray and then take beer breaks and I didn't even think about riding.  However I should rasp Sadie's feet and probably ride her and probably should ride Tanza,  he will have gone 3 weeks since Sante Fe on Sunday.    But I think I give myself permission to focus on the burr spraying first.

I have been thinking about what tree to plant for Shade.  Canyon maple sounds good.  A smaller tree, tough and able to handle harsh conditions so it would be very like her.   I've been in envy of the silver maples but I read that they are bad to have in a yard because the fast growth comes with weak wood so they are prone to come crashing down on a house or car.   That would not be a huge risk where this tree will be, but the canyon maple is more true to her tough, no quit spirit, so I'll either buy one of those trees or start a honey locust? tree from the seed pods I have.   Those are pretty good trees too.