Fighting the British Invasion, One Vine at a Time

This morning, in honor of our county's new namesake and in honor of our country's man's man of men, the University of Washington hosted a Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. As MLK said best: "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?". Well, true. Not sure if our project really helped others but it's a Northwest Classic: ripping up the evil and invasive Himalayan Blackberry and its equally vile invasive friend, English Ivy. Both are apparently from Britain. Now, normally I'd assume that a Himalayan Blackberry would be from somewhere else than a little island off the coast of France but hey, I don't argue with people, yeah? And this little beast made "The Top 10 Unwanted Pest" list which advises "patrolling the area" and "searching out defenseless seedlings" with the motto: "LEAVE THE BRAMBLES IN SHAMBLES". So, let's just say this isn't the first time that we've had this project. And yet, knowing what we'd be facing, I pulled the classic volunteer trick which is to sign up for the list of miscelaneous tasks right at the beginning so as to avoid the blackberries and other nasties. Now this backfired when I was at the cannery and had to measure and pour raw beef (with blood, eeew!) in 40 pound sections. But it was aces this time. I was assigned to make stick rafts that would allow for composting in place without allowing the nasty Himalayans to re-root. We also tore up ivy. The best part of the day? The LDSSA (Institute) made all of the volunteers lunch. I can point out 200 happy people that love Mormons. Thanks Institute! Oh, and I got really muddy but no thorns and scratches. Which since it was at Seward Park, those blackberries have gotten me plenty of times!