Beau's FIVE minute romp ends in a TANGLE…now THAT is an understatement! Dogs and grass seeds, or grass seeds and dogs … however you look at it, it spells trouble!
Beau's Dad had done the right thing: the overgrown yard had been fenced off. The weeds were out of control…without a machete, you'd never find your way back out if you happened to venture in! There may well be warriors living in there since the Second World War, hiding, who don't know the war has ended!!!
So, what does any 8 year boy do? Where there is a fence, there is a challenge! And Beau was up to this challenge…or so he thought. Beau got in, he breached the barrier, he romped free in the unexplored jungle of weeds behind the fence…and barely made it out again!
The weeds have a few names, but they all mean the same thing: "we STICK TO ANYTHING". Setaria adhaerans is the botanical name, yes, Adhaerans means STICK! The common names are Clinging Bristle Grass, or Hooked Bristlegrass! Maybe if Beau knew this he would have viewed entering the bristly realm with trepidation…
FIVE MINUTES is all it took. Five minutes! Beau's dad litterally had to drag Beau from the clutches of the weeds. If you have ever had these weed heads stick to your socks, and I am sure we all have, you will understand how difficult it is to get them out again. They immediately stick and the weed head, which is a length of hundreds of seeds with multiple hooks on each, breaks up into the individual seeds making for a time consuming and frustrating time picking each and every one out!
Beau initially raced about, his energetic pace breaking the stems of the seed heads such that Beau soon looked like a hedgehog or porcupine, with the stems sticking out in all directions! I have to admit that I had a bit of chuckle as Beau looked hilarious. Beau didn't appear in much discomfort, although as matts worsen with time, they start pulling more and more on the skin causing a lot of pain. It happened so fast that this didn't have time to happen.
The clumps of seed heads had matted the hair over Beau's eyes so he could hardly see! He was obviously subdued when he came to the surgery…I am not sure if he was seriously embarassed, or worn out from the short lived romp. The matting was right down to his skin in many places already and he needed sedation so that we could clip off the matted hair. In fact we had to clip his whole body.
The look in Beau's eyes were "Oops! I think I am in trouble when Dad picks me up!". But as soon as Dad came to pick him up, this changed to excitement!
Dad had a bit of a laugh at Beau's new Number ONE, and they raced out the door, Beau pulling on his lead, obviously keen to find more Extreme Yards to explore!