Mighty Hunter

I went hunting yesterday with great success.  Wearing my trusty overalls I filled my pockets with my weapons; a hand pruner, a pruning saw, a loppers, and a bottle of brush killing herbicide.  I focused on the area by my driveway which is an area I have worked over previously.  Cutting the buck thorn and spraying the stump with brush killer is about 70% effective.  Sunday I focused on the 30% where my previous treatment was not effective.  I noticed I had regrowth on stumps I had cut maybe 3 inches from the ground level.  The poison goes down about two inches.  At the bottom inch, right above the ground level, the buck thorn grows new shoots.  Some plants had 5 or 6 shoots from the original stump.  Some of the evil shoots grow horizontally, along the ground like a vine, for 12 inches before they start growing vertically.  That darn buck thorn is so sneaky and so bent on survival.  I bent over carefully because of the sharp objects in my pockets.  I snipped the buck thorn regrowth. I snipped off 3 or 4 segments before reaching for the poison that dangled from my pocket by the spray handle.  If I cut more than 3 or 4 I could not remember where the stumps were among the leaf litter. And if I just cut the stumps without spraying the herbicide the buck thorn will grow thicker and healthier. Many times a leaf would cover the stump I was trying to spray forcing me to bend over again and remove the leaf.  Between leaves covering the buck thorn stumps and sticks poking me in the head, I felt the tricks of my prey trying to foil my hunt.  Newer buck thorn plants less than 5 inches tall pulled out of the ground easily after all the rain yesterday.  My hamstrings are reminding me today of all the bending over I did yesterday.  I see by the glossy green leaves in various other parts of my yard that I have more buck thorn hunting to do.  Tomorrow is another day.