So, for the past couple of days, I've been fighting my mother's arch-enemy mano a... vine...o. This stuff is like the Texas version of kudzu...wait a second, I'm going to make sure it actually
isn't kudzu... I don't think it is, but it might as well be. If you don't know what it is, it's
that stuff that grows at the mall, but they have the advantage of actually keeping it down. My parents planted it forever ago and kept up with it for a while, but in the past few years it's gotten absolutely everywhere and mom says I'm not doing anything but sitting at the house (which is true, I suppose, but still,) so I might as well be out killing her nemesis. The actual work part isn't too bad, but wrestling this stuff out of the trees is absolutely exhausting. I am sore in the weirdest places from trying to not fall over when I finally get it out of the tree (namely, my bum. My arms are sore too, but that's expected.) Funny thing is, the jasmine has actually gotten thicker in a lot of places than the 10 foot tall bush it's growing on. =/
Dad is "helping" as usual; he watched me and mom pulling it out of the ground for a bit yesterday, and said, "You know if you don't get the roots out, it's not going to do anything," which sounded more like, "Totally not worth the effort guys, lol." Best part is the section I cleared yesterday could be easily taken care of with the mower, he just never bothers to mow there. So today I got to rake everything out of the area and bag it and pull the roots out by hand as best I can, because that seems to be the most efficient way to do it.
I moved on to the vines providing a nice canopy over the bushes (I hadn't realized
quite so much of it was actually jasmine, now that I notice the bushes are looking kinda sparse,) and dad came out and watched me for about ten minutes.
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| Aaaalways waaatching... |
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He then asked if I was planning on clearing the whole fenceline, and decided cutting the bushes down will somehow help me. I mean, yeah, I guess it'll help, but it'll also make the yard look like shit. But that's dad for you. I think I need to convince him that I'd rather have the shade than super easy weed-pulling...
In other news, Dr. Athreya has agreed to write a recommendation letter for me because I was a strong student. Whoop! Also she must live on her email because she responded in less than an hour, which I was not expecting at all.
Seriously, I nearly cried with joy/relief. Now just waiting for the other professors to reply and probably bugging Dr. Grant too...
Must...find...courage...to ask for favors...
