Got a late start - after 11 am - because just as I was getting ready to drive away, the roofers showed up. They applied some silicone caulk to the furnace vent. I asked how long the silicone lasts - 2-4 years. OK. Good to know since that's what's keeping rain from running down our woodstove chimney because the roofers banged it up so much that that the collar no longer fits tight around the base. They also dropped off the promised package of spare shingles just in case I need them in the future.
Afterward, I drove up to American Springs Road/FR181 to meet my hiking buddy of the Big Trees fame. She and a PEEC volunteer were murdering invasive bull thistles. Turns out that invasive musk thistles are easily dispatched by beheading them because their flowers are only on the top half of the stalk. But bull thistles have flowers all along the stalk which requires chopping down the whole thing. Invasive Canada thistles are even worse, sending out nasty runners everywhere that sprout baby thistles.
Thankfully, due to the roofers coming late, I missed all the fun of wrestling thistles to the ground! As I walked in on FR181, they were driving out with 4 trash bags of thistles in the trunk. I got to meet the PEEC volunteer and she seems very nice.
On my walk, I saw a bicyclist coming up out of Water Canyon and continuing east on FR181 to loop back to West Jemez. When I asked, he said it looks like the Youth Conservation Corps crew has worked on the upper quarter of the trail but the rest of it is getting a little thick with overgrowth.
I hadn't been up to FR181 for a long time. When I started walking, I was sure that I'd get caught in a lightning storm but it never happened. I enjoyed seeing old haunts. I stopped often to gaze upon the beauty of the wildflowers, the billowing clouds and the green mountains.
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