It’s Too Invasive to Ignore. It’s Now Or Never.
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- It’s finally time to clear some of our pastures of invasive thistle.
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I've been watching you and your homestead evolve for many years and I just wanted to say that it's been a pleasure to watch and learn and see how you grow and change. You two are a great team and you've built a beautiful life and family together. Thank you for sharing your lives with all of us watching.
❤🎉 Your cow just loves you!!!! I enjoy watching your videos, for sure. God bless you both.
She is a sweet girl.
Thank you so much for the kind words!
Wouldn’t it be easier to cut down the thistles using a hedge trimmer, using sweeping motions? Just wondering
I just loved the opening with Babe ! So heartfelt !! ❤❤❤❤
Me too❤
Babe is SOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!!! ❤❤
I have been noticing change in your editing, your filming and I love it all! I love that you mix the old way of creating with the new way. I love the end result! Keep showing up as real as you've been showing us. This is why people come back to watch. Thank you from a fan of many years. Blessed be 😊🙏
Thank you! We’ve been slowly self learning more editing techniques. Glad you are enjoying it.
I am so glad you guys show the ordinary and routine things that have to be done on a homestead. It makes your channel authentic.
Most of the work on a homestead is not glamorous…. but it needs to get done.
Suggestion, The next time you have to burn green foliage I would put a couple of dry wood logs in the burn barrel. This is what I do, and it helps burn everything that is still wet. I find the logs burn hotter and helps dry things out and keeps coals. Babe sure loves her brushing.
I loved watching this. As a kid on a farm, I was a bit of a pyromaniac, always asking my grandparents and parents if there was anything I could burn, LOL!
It’s very satisfying! lol
This is just an opinion, but I would like to suggest you guys invest in two of those heavy plastic snow sleds to take with you into the thistle patch, pile what you cut onto the sleds, then drag the sleds to the UTV. That would eliminate a whole lot of trips between where you are working and your vehicle and save both effort and time. Just an idea. I've used large cardboard boxes cut open to lie flat to slide things (including an old wardrobe) instead of carrying them from place to place. It's much less effort and much faster. Again, just a thought.
In Northern Illinois the Canadian thistle is probably our most invasive. We try to cut it off several times a year, but there are areas we can't get in with the mower and sometimes get neglected. I love your new format, and your interaction with Babe. Raw milk is probably what I miss the most at this point in my homesteading journey.
Thank you!
Never had thistle problems til this year, and I've been here for 14 years. Theyre in my blueberry patches, in NW Missouri.
Goats@@LivingTraditionsHomestead
Goats
THAT IS ONE GOOD LOOKING HERD OF CATTLE. Kevin and Sarah I have been with you guys for sometime now and I never leave a comment. But I had to compliment you all on your cattle herd. They are absolutely beautiful. Picture book/textbook perfect. Great job guys. 👍🏽
Wow! Thank you so much. We really enjoy having them. We think the Hereford Limousine mix is a great cross!
It is always such a pleasure to watch how you guys have grown and developed your life
Wouldn't it be easier to bush hog them before they get the flower?
Thank you!
The old way of filming was fine but the changes are nice too. Idea: take the feed bags to the field and fill them then put the whole thing in the burn barrel.
I like the introduction change. Thistle grows when the ground can grow anything else. Plant turnips. Food plot
🌺Good morning you 2! Brought tears to my eyes watching you brush your sweet Babe and talking to her, taking such wonderful care. Your the best! Loving this weather for sure, I am so READY for real fall here on coast of VA. I also decided not to do a fall garden and just let the beds rest and get them prepared for spring planting.later. Enjoy burning that nasty thistle, be careful!
Thank you. It was a hard but productive day.
That was a lot of work! It looks so much better now.
I think I would just cut the seed heads at the growing site, and stuff them inside the paper feed bags, and then take those to the burn barrel, maybe with a bit of firewood in the bottom. Then you can just brush hog and mulch the rest of the plants in place.
That's what I was thinking too. Then you could add a small food plot for the deer.
This was a wonderful video, so many comments how thistle is medicinal, but you can only use just so much and when it's overwhelming it's too much. Our cattle did not like to graze near thistle and using a brush hog was our solution on its highest setting to avoid the rocks. I don't think I could really handle all that smoke but you all handled it really well.. bright blessings and keep up the wonderful work..
A wonderful thing to say about a couple is,you are great farmers! I have and still do chopping of thistles. Its a necessary chore😓
Job well done. You work like my husband and I always did, quietly, once in a while nodding to each other and speaking with our eyes. Such good times they were. Love watching you guys. Can hardly wait for the new calf.
She loves being brushed. She is very pretty. Good for Ralphie. Love how you all care for your animals. Such fun to follow and learn from you and Kevin.
Another great video! Our pasture is only five acres so, I'm able to keep it cut with the mower. Otherwise, the thistle would take over in no time. Love the cattle you guys have.
I love the way you have changed up your intro. It is so relaxing to see your farm and the beauty God has blessed you with. I am always learning from both of you. Thank you. God bless.
Thank you so much!
I can still smell the smoke burning thistles! Our old mare loved to eat the flowers on top. Good Luck and God Bless!
My saddlebred mare liked them too. Fun to watch how she rolled them around before chomping on them.
@@SallyGreimes Yes, those lips would work the flower away from the thorns. Great memories!
Consider all the health benefits of thistles. You are blessed with an abundance of them. Just a thought. I do know they can be difficult with their prickers poking you and not fun to walk through. Experience is a great teacher there. Great job cleaning all that up.
There are still ALOT around! These were in an area that we need our cattle to graze and they will NOT graze around the thistles.
Been relatively cool and wet here in DFW Texas too. I don't water the lawn and this year it stayed alive all summer which is extremely rare.
I love the new video style. It feels very personal and professional
Totally agree!
wonder if they hired a professional editor,very well done.
Nope, still just the 2 of us doing the editing. Just learning some more skills and trying a few new techniques. Glad it is being appreciated!
Those falling pine needles, or cedar branches make wonderful fire starters. Almost like gasoline. just in case you ever run out of paper. Yes, land management is so necessary. Thanks for showing us and taking us along. Your farm is beautiful. What a blessing.
Love what you have been doing with your video editing. Beautiful.❤️❤️
Thank you.
What an awesome way to combat sead heads! God bless you all and many prayers 🙏🏻 Nurse Judi in Scottsdale AZ and Eucharistic Minister 🙏🏻
Your videos are so peaceful to watch. We love and appreciate all that you both do to help us enjoy some sanity in this crazy world.❤
GREAT PRESENTATATION♥♥
that looked like milk thistle you were cutting. it's a very strong medicinal herb used to treat the liver. did you not want to dry and use it?
It’s called “Tall Thistle”.
Love your burn barrel. Stay safe. Hearts and flowers coming your way. ❤️💐
What a great team you two are, city people are really missing out on a good life. Congratulations
I've heard if you hang old wasp nests or an inflated brown paper bag that will deter new wasps from coming around 🤷♀️🤷♀️ I use the paper bag method on my porch, it seems to work 🥰
Wood chips are your friend around your fruit trees- it makes such a difference. We are putting more chips around the trees and bushes now- we soak the chips with water in the wheel barrel before we put it down- at least 4 inches deep or more. Winter snow will help keep it moist.
Thistle root system is very deep. I treated each plant at the base to kill the root system. This does not disturb surrounding plants. Nixa hardware is my go to which I highly recommend for those in the Ozark area.
Hey, Seattle Donna! We moved to this area from Seattle area! Sure don’t miss the rain or the traffic at all! How about you?
@@marthavanderpool6829 hi
@@marthavanderpool6829 I’m selling my home and moving soon. Did you buy already?
What did you use to treat the root?
I've noticed that periodically brush hogging my field has reduced the thickness of the thistles over the past couple years. Knowing that they may also be biennials, helps explain why. Thanks and good video!
Babe is so sweet! She loves you Sarah. Thistle are a torn in my side here also. We are constantly cutting them down.
It’s never ending!
There's a day in August if you cut thistles down it will completely kill the whole plant . My grandfather told me about it & I did it in my pasture one year & never had thistles in the pasture again !!!
Use a wasp decoy nest in your blind. I haven't had a nest under my eaves or my garden shed since leaving a decoy nest on front and back porch AND in the shed. I still have wasps in my garden doing caterpillar patrol... but with no nest they aren't aggressive. Wasps won't make a nest within 100-150 ft of another nest. I used to have to trap and spray them cause they yearly wanted to be near all entrances of my homes. Now they don't. 😅
Thank you Kevin & Sarah. Good job. God Bless you all in Love. Prayers. Maranatha ! ( shared to f/b )
Thank you!
What a pleasant autumnal chore, to have a burn pile. Course, I wasn’t out there getting pricked, lol.
Good evening! You two are an inspiration to me when my husband and I become empty nesters ❤
💧 In today’s video, here’s the drip hoses we use: amzn.to/4dYvfoT
👩🏻🌾 Love Sarah’s hat? a.co/d/9mw070o
✝ Sarah’s shirts: ellyandgrace.com/?dt_id=321383
It stopped raining in central Louisiana in late June. Drought two years in a row with new fruit trees planted each year. Now I just hope it doesn`t get down to ZERO degrees again this year but winters are getting colder. We had lows in the lower 50s here in JULY this year and some springs are too cold to get early starts. It didn`t hit 100 degrees until mid August but not for long...maybe two days. I don`t remember it ever being this cool in September either. Last year`s terrible drought came with extreme heat well over 100 day after day and this happened after the worst December freeze ever seen here. My entire garden was wiped out.
I`m coming up with plans to protect my new fig and mulberry trees from the extreme cold. The strange weather ruined any chances of a large fig harvest this year on my two year old trees. I started with Brown Turkey trees because they perform like an early and late everbearing variety with giant fruits but I added four early producing Celeste trees this year and 5 Dwarf Everbearing Mulberry trees plus two Pineapple Guava. The Celeste & Brown Turkey trees are cold hardy once they`re well established.
I love your rolling hills of Missouri. It's one of my favorite things about living here. A country ride in the fall is a favorite pastime of mine.
It is a beautiful area, especially when the fall colors are out.
We had a burn ban last year so I used big paper leaf collection bags for some of my noxious weeds. Bagged up I set them in the shed, when the ban passed a few weeks later there was the added benefit that they were bone dry. And surrounded by kindling. I bet you could use the feed bags the same way.
Great idea!
Even with the optimal area of your burn, you should have a few fire buckets filled with water ...just in case. I do the same thing with my weeds. Thank you both for you videos. I enjoy seeing your progress. I would love to see an update on your ketogenic lifestyle journey and how it is affecting your health.
Good day, I loved this video. I would like to see more videos like this one . Less greenhouse and canning videos , and more fencing and outside ranching videos, please. Fantastic video
I would like that too, a big job well done
I guess I would’ve been from the jump, thinking which part needed to be burned and what didn’t, (work smarter not harder), found a bag or something to cut the seeds into, to minimize the spread while cutting, then just take the bags (closed, again minimize spread) and just burned the bag(s) seeds and all.
When I was a kid, we had those thistles pretty bad in one of our pastures too, and I remember going out with my dad for a couple of years and using a shovel to turn them over and stomp them back into the ground. I think we did burn them the year they got so big like yours. After about three years we had them really under control. It's amazing how quick they will spread those, with those pretty little flowers. Good job on getting a handle on it.
Sheep will smash that. I had heaps of that on my farm here in Australia, we call it scotch thistle here. But to my surprise sheep loved it.
Good thing u r young, wow lots of work for us we love to watch.
I’m feeling good along with you as you get your thistle job completed 😅 I loved your time with Babe at the start of the video 🥰
You two have done so well
Congratulations 🎊 👏 🌳🙏✔️
I enjoy every on e of your videos from our ranch in Cornville, Az along Oak Creek. I really like the music you choose for each one. Blessings on you both!
I love the new pop- up animations y’all are adding now! Great job on the editing! I’m not a homesteader, but I do LOVE your videos!
I use a scythe blade for those brush chores around my place. The Austrian snath with an 18 inch brush blade is lightweight and fast. It'll easily cut a 1/2 inch sweetgum sapling which is a pretty tough wood. I saw you guys bending over with those pruning shears and wanted to let you know about the scythes. What I like is you can stand tall while your cutting and avoid the stooping. It cuts as flush to the ground as you want it to.
My Grand-Aunt's beef cattle would eat the thistles that grew in the pastures, so I was unaware that they could become a problem. I don't know if they were a different sort (since I'm in Georgia) or maybe dairy cattle don't enjoy them as much or even just my Grand-Aunt's herd was just "a little bit different" - But thanks for sharing your process. It makes sense to clear them out and try to make sure they can't spread in that area any more.
Love your content. I would just recommend moving your burn pit to part of your graveled surface. I notice you have bricks underneath, which is good, however it’s on and near dry grass. And near a large tree area. The burn box itself is great with the lid and all. It would only take a small spark and all of that would go up in flames.
I live on a small suburban lot, but a few years ago I had an invasion of Canadian Thistle (which is really originally from Asia). I tried everything over several years and finally resorted to a special spray herbicide, spraying each individual plant, which finally got rid of it. It spreads underground, so just cutting it down, or pulling them up only increases the number of plants!
The nut under the flower on the thistle is yummy. Here in NZ we have so much rain in parts, I haven't had to water the garden for almost a year. When I put the trowel in to dig up a parsnip or anything, the ground squelches and the water level is up to the top. We get a day with sunshine, rain at night, then a couple days of rain and wind, then one part day of sun, then a few days rain pppffftt....
Land Management is an ongoing project , good stewardship pays BIG dividends but is constant work .
Good management practice on those thistles though . To control a plant you have to 1st know the plant , 2learn it's method of propagation 3 interrupt it's cycle.
Again good job !
Babe look like such a sweet gentle girl. I grew up next to several farms and I loved getting to pet the animals - never brushed them. There is something so special when a cow, a horse or sheep let you touch them and pet them. I love watching when you all interact closely with the animals - it is so sweet.
You two are so great; your homestead gets more beautiful every year and I have learned sooo much from watching your videos. Thank you for being such wonderful teachers for all of us! Many blessings to you and your family!!
Taking a tarp along for laying the thistle on as you cut helps to keep stray seeds controlled and easy to drag along before putting it in your truck.
Just sharing an experience: My last place had a lot of thistle (perennial) that resulted in a constant battle. However, I discovered that once I cut it and left it to dry on the ground. The thorns became soft, and the deer came in herds and ate it.
Great info, we have no land, live in city but hubby wants property & maybe we will go that route & your channel will help guide us
I purchased the Milwaukee Landscaping Power head with the weed eater, pole saw, and articulating hedge trimmer attachments. The Hedge trimmer can be used to cut off small trees, brush, thick woody weeds, and even thick high grass along fences. I think this would work great for the thistles you were cutting with loppers. It is really a back and time saver. Love the content as always.
Such healthy looking cows!!! That’s a big task to accomplish.
Hello Guys, I studied dairy cows during my school years... Your little dairy cow is such a pretty girl I am not just speaking of her coloration and markings, But her conformation and shape of head and neck and what an impressive udder! get a good replacement heifer from her if possible.... Blessings to you all
Thanks so much! We are going to try AI with her so we can get a full Jersey out of her.
We constantly dig thistles out of the pastures! We carry a potato fork and it is great for digging them up. Actually, there is a medicinal purpose for the thistle but it's way too prickly for me to mess with. Thank you for sharing. God Bless y'all!!
I use tree bags they seem to work quite well
I also found if you don’t want Thistle, you water them this is don’t like water and before they go to flower you mow them! if you mow them when they flower they’ll just seed out up 100 more plants..
When it flowers, those pods are full of seeds… And even if the pies are not open, you still have risk of dropping seeds
Though I seldom comment, I want to tell you how much I like your channel. I’ve been watching since you began your homestead journey on you tube. I’ve learned so much and have enjoyed all phases of homesteading. I appreciate the formate you present, it follows through on each episode with purpose. Keep up the good work and God bless you and your family.
It's been a very wet summer here in Scotland. One of the local farmers pays students to root up thistle plants in the fields where his daughers keep ponies. The plants are burned after a few weeks in a shed to dry out.
Great job y'all! I've only seen one or two here, so I did the same thing. Currently I am harvesting and drying Golden Rod for tea over the winter to go with some other medicinal herbs I've collected this year. 😁 Sure would love some rain! Blessings, Texas Deb ❤️
You must have been really satisfied with that day's work. You both sounded more tired than usual as the day went on, but I'm glad you figured out some shortcuts to your method as you went along.
the thistles (without the flowers and seeds) would make good compost material. Thistles have deep roots which pull nutrients out of the soil and would be a good addition to your compost
I like the voiceover intro at the beginning. A nice, new touch. The alarm clock animation too!
My father planted Yuccas at our property decades ago. Ugh! For the last 10 or so years I have gone there on a MO cool day after a front blows through and cut the flower stalks? Unfortunately the yellow water irises he planted that took over the lakes edges are harder to eradicate
WOW! What a project. But like you, it feels good when done.
It sure does! Being done was my favorite part of this project! lol. Kevin
Right! Canadian thistles are horrible medium cactus in thorns all over even the leaves, wicked things, glad to see you burn them, no chance of seed when you do that. :D It's a big job though. I chopped the flowers half off and burned them, then let the giant stalks dry, they burned like dry kindling later. Just got the flowers done 1st, otherwise was too wet to burn. Also a nice bed a wood charcoal under them helped.
We’ve not had much rain at all in Eastern Kentucky. Didn’t get much spring rains very little summer rains and fall isn’t looking to good either. Love watching all of your videos. Been watching for a long time.
When I had my horse pasture... I took my lawn tractor out (for two years) with the wagon and Cut all the flowers and seed heads off all those thistles they haven't come back since. I think they must be a Biennial Plant.
Ugh. I was just looking at thistle along my driveway. I hate that stuff! Thanks for the reminder…i guess I know what I am doing today.
Have fun!
The homestead looks so good! We are in year one so I love listening to you two give tips!
Thistles! Ugh! I know how much your neighbors appreciate that you’re getting rid of them too. We had neighbors who refused to do anything with thistles on their property and they just work their way onto the adjacent properties the next year. You have such a beautiful place!
Thank you!
Great job folks. Glad you did so well getting rid of the new seeds for thistles. That is a big chore. Good luck with filling your tags with venison, it's so good and much healthier than store bought meat. Stay safe and keep up the great videos. Fred.
A lot of work to be sure! The smoke is a good smudge....if there were any bugs...lol. Good job!
Thanks 👍
Your little torch is handy! Very strategic with alternating projects.
That looks like just as much fun as Canada Thistle. We are getting some headway on what was growing in our garden area, but just 40ish feet north of that is a slough/wetland area (which feeds our well) that is loaded with the stuff. It's going to need alot of attention to really get it under control.
It really does seem never ending at times!
Wow you guys have really been working hard and building a great homestead, you have grown a nice herd of cows also,you guys really work great together and it's really paid off
I needed to see this video right now! I'm dealing with a 20x30 ft patch of thistles, seeded in my yard because my neighbor ignores 20 ft of his yard on the other side of his fence. Mind you, they are only about 3/8 acre small town lots within the city limits. I've already spent 4 hrs pulling 6ft tall thistles by hand; I was lucky to get to them after a heavy rain so most of the tap roots came up. Sadly, another batch has already reseeded my backyard.
What gloves do you use? I've been stuck so many times even grabbing them at the base with leather gloves. Those big spikes are so long and sharp! I really appreciate the helpful content, even stuff we small town dwellers can can benefit from learning. I did not know to burn the seed heads. Thank you from Minnesota! 💜
I love watching the deer, incredible gentle creatures and amazing parents. I've had the pleasure of watching a mom with two young all summer..it has brought me joy. I'm not religious but if I was, deer would be a protected spirit animal. Gentle souls, that only eat vegetables and kill nothing. I'm glad I'm in the UK where you can't kill them.
My parents had several different kinds of deer English fallow, black German fallow, white tail, they are not, such gentle deer as you imagine they can be very mean to each other! Example ganging up and keeping one in a herd away from feed. It's a nice fantasy but not reality kind of like the movie BAMBI.
Nice blind Kevin. Working on my revamp of an old one looking forward to it as it looks promising
Love the clean mouths and love watching you all
We had that kind of thistle come up in our pasture this year. When we turned our goat herd in the very selectively ate the leaves first and then came back and ate the rest of the plant. Everyday they got smaller and smaller until they were gone. I don't recommend getting goats though, because they eat everything in sight. They are the only animal we've ever had that would eat mustard weed. They eat roses thorns and all and even bougainvillea,
Took me three years to get thistle out of my pastures. Working on the bull nettle now
Your thistle cutting sure looks more labor intensive than it should be with the lopping shears. A blade on your weed eater would eliminate the bending over and be much faster to at least to get them down. Also, gas-powered hedge shears would let you shear off all the flower heads in short order even before cutting them at ground level. I think this way now at my age because of my old back. Thanks.
Big job well done! You two certainly work hard and I admire you!
Thank you so much!
You guys are great problem solvers!👍