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The other day I saw my older daughter contemplating what I thought was the corner post of the paddock…..

My first thoughts were…..

Oh dear………….she’s having a bad day…..

…..something has gone wrong…..

…..or maybe…something died…..

I need to be supportive and approach this situation very carefully…and quietly…..

…..but not too quietly…because I don’t want to startle her…..

Maybe I should leave her alone………….(I’ll set the oven timer–and go back out and bring her in later)…..

****~~~This is just what Mothers do~~~Right?~~~****

But because I’m apparently deaf (at least my children keep reminding me that I am)…I wasn’t as stealthy as I thought…..

I made too much noise behind her…(when I was deciding how to best approach my daughter’s ennui)…..

…..and I must have stepped on a dried palmetto frond…because I roused her from her reverie…..

As it turned out…everything was fine…no internal turmoil…no tragic trauma…..

My daughter was just carefully dissecting a very weird new fruit…from a very weird new weed…..

This green “fruit” started seeping a sticky milky oozy sap…..

And when my daughter broke it apart…it had fluffy seed like pods…that were ready to hitchhike on a breeze and go airborne…..

It didn’t smell very good…its goo was glue-like…(maybe we should wash our hands)…..

I didn’t taste it…(mostly because my daughter was right there…and it’s important to act responsible in front of your children)…..

…..(I probably wouldn’t have tasted it)………….(probably)……

She went and got an empty feed bag…and collected all of the (abundant) orange-sized green fruity things…..

Later…she found more of these new weed vine thingies around Scott’s pen…(and she collected all of those too)…..

…..They were suddenly Everywhere…..

Later still…she and I tromped through the back goat pasture and collected still more of this weird new invasive whatevers!?!…..

We’ve kept them all in a (now almost full) fifty pound feed bag…which we intend to burn…..

*****(Latexplant (Araujia odorata))*****

…..(good thing I didn’t taste it, huh?)…..

We’ll keep on the lookout for more Latexplants…but I have to ask…what more weird stuff is Florida going to throw at us?…..

*****(Latex Plant Information)*****

We’re doing aggressive and constant battle with the now well-ensconced fireweed…burning nettles…whatever you want to call it…..

And let’s not forget the invasion of the Brazilian Soda Apple…which has now taken up a happy residence here…..

Plus we never did find out where Citrus Greening really did come from…it’s all been speculative guessing…..

Remember that citrus disease that devastated Florida’s Citrus Industry…(and Florida NEVER recovered from that)…..

*****(Citrus Greening Information)*****

…..And Sadly…..

Now all of those dead citrus groves have been sold to developers…who have quickly slapped up new houses and lots and lots of apartments…..

And…thus goes the evolution of Florida…..