Obsession, torments my heart

Sounds like a creepy stalker thought doesn't it.   I've been mildly obsessed with controlling goats heads burrs for over a decade.   And this has resulted in the yard and smaller horse pens getting just a few burrs that I can spot spray now versus the gross tangled mat of burrs when we moved here so its not a bad thing.

But with the neighbor making us a burn barrel plus knowing how to just get burn permits online I have also now gotten a lot more intent getting the neglected trees trimmed up.  Started with trimming a couple of elms that came up from old ones that were cut down to force them to grow upward more instead of just being bushes.  Then last fall I cut down a bunch of small dead trees and hired a pro with a cherry picker to take down 2 huge standing dead elms that were a danger to my vehicles and also paid him to do dead limb removal and some needed pruning on the remaining live elms.  He told me that cutting off dead and dying limbs helps the trees as they then put all their energy into the healthy branches.  Made sense and it also makes the trees look much nicer.  

But I'm a cheapskate so I've been pecking away at the russian olive trees and smaller elms applying a few things he told me for trimming the elms so they are not so thick that they are high risk from high winds or early and late snows.   Pretty much just cutting dead branches off the russian olives.  They are tough trees once established, but all 20 of them have been neglected for 10-15 years.  

*addendum:  Thank goodness the neighbor made us the burn barrel.  They are not issuing burn permits this spring.  Not because of fire danger but because of cover-19.   Blegh,  any increase in lung irritants from burning brush piles is surely offset by the brown cloud being gone thanks to the stay at home recommendations.   But bureaucrats have to enjoy their power trip.