Loaded For Bear

Here is Lee Ann modeling our new "Honeysuckle Popper." This is a big, heavy crowbar-like device with a hinged wooden block that acts as a fulcrum. You push the head into the soil underneath the unsuspecting honeysuckle and then lever it up out of the ground. Working for about an hour this morning, Lee Ann "popped" about a dozen good-sized bushes and any number of smaller ones.

This approach sure beats my previous method, which was to drag on the bush from all angles until I had broken enough roots to physically wrench it from the ground (at the same time wrenching my back, as it turned out). Now that we have the right tool, it's a matter of keeping at it until the invasive miseries are all gone. We have probably a thousand to go.