Relative Something

Today, Cyndie’s and my forearms look like we have been through a shredder. On Sunday, we decided to try tackling the chore of locating the old fence posts along the front half of our northern border, and then cutting out the old barbed wire. That section is a complete tangle of junk trees and vines that have been left untended for a very long time. Any area like that is bound to include that scourge, Common Buckthorn, and ours is no exception.

Cyndie had a thorn puncture her head, which we made sure to wash thoroughly and apply an antiseptic cream to, after my experience of having a puncture wound become infected, earlier in the year.

I said, “Ow!” so many times that Cyndie finally stopped inquiring as to what happened. The last one did require an explanation though, since it led to my taking a break to clean and bandage the wound. Regardless how careful I tried to be, one of the rusty barbs finally bit me, and it was deep enough to bleed a fair amount. Luckily, after washing the scrape, I found that the portion doing the bleeding was just a small section at one end that had broken through the skin.

I probably let my guard down about the barbed wire, after suffering so many stabs from the barbs of berry bushes and the thorns of trees in all the bramble. I think the thorns on the bushes were more lethal than the fence wire. Heck, they were probably the original inspiration for the idea of barbed wire.

One of the reasons we were doing battle with the tangled mess, instead of just clear-cutting it to get at the old fence, is that we want to keep as much growth as possible to maintain the visual barrier that already exists. The dilemma which that presents for me is to decide whether I allow the Buckthorn to remain or not. I seem to recall that it was originally brought to the U.S. for use as a hedge, and so I would be using it for its strengths in this location, if I keep it. But the problem with Buckthorn is that it out-competes native plants and can totally take over. I prefer a more natural diversity of native plants, if possible.

I may go for a compromise of trying to have both. I just need to be active in tending the growth in that area. When left to neglect, like happened over the years, trees grow through the fence, and send runners in all sorts of crazy angles, searching for the best sunlight. Buckthorn leafs out early in spring and holds its leaves late into the fall, creating shade that helps it to steal the light from other plants.

By the end of our effort of battling the nasty thicket, we had just a small distance completed. On the positive side, we found all 4 strands of wire, and all the old rusty posts for the distance we worked. I know the fence posts will disappear for a portion of the remaining run, and expect the wire will have gotten buried at those places where there is no bramble. At least we will be able to dig for the wires without getting stabbed all over our bodies!