Sometimes I just have to laugh at the things that happen around here. My thoughts always go back to the pioneer ladies. Though life was never as easy for them as it is for most of us, I just can’t imagine what it must have been like to leave the comforts of home, as they knew it back then, and head west to face the dirt and dust and rattlesnakes and spiders and everything else that seems to inhabit our land.
Yesterday I was getting dressed in my nice red sweater that I had just pressed. I felt a little prick on my shoulder and didn’t think much about it but as I was using the curling iron and moved my shoulder a certain direction, I got a good prick. My first thought was . . there’s a scorpion in my sweater, though I knew I would be getting much more than a little prick if it was stinging me. I looked and found this:
A big, fat, spikey cocklebur or spandspur!
How did that get inside my sweater? No, I have not been rolling around in the yard!
Sometimes, you just have to laugh . . and find a way to be thankful it’s not worse.
Michelle says
Sandburs are the bane of my existence. With 5 kids at home and one granddog going in and out they get dragged into the house, Kids are not good about pulling them out of their clothes and they end up in the laundry. I refuse to wash my underwear with the kids clothes, because those little prickers are hard to find when they break off and very irritating….
Carolyn says
Dang I would have been screaming…. such a woos! BTW I have the SAME camera!
Carol says
You are so brave and would have been a wonderful pioneer woman! I guess I’m really glad to live where I do 🙂
shirley bruner says
I remember those devils….i hate them. i find them here in the woods, too. they can really hurt…especially if you step on one.
Susan says
Much better than the scorpion option!
Lee says
Whew! Glad it was ‘only’ a burr! A friend’s husband’s boss is dealing with a bite of some time, probably spider, and it hasn’t been fun for him. That burr reminds of what we call “Goat’s Heads” out here, a very sturdy, and painful when stepped on, burr that gets brought in on the bottom of shoes and left behind in carpet to reach up and grab the unsuspecting – usually ME since I’m about the only that ever goes barefoot.
Donna Keating says
ahhhh stickers. the story of my childhood would not be complete without them. we had to toughen up our feet after winter to be able to walk through a sticker patch and on hot asphalt pavement. Love Texas
Pat Hathaway says
We have those brown recluse spiders that tend to hang around inside drawers and boxes and even closets. I shake all clothes out before putting on “just in case”. I’m always warning Hubs about not putting his jeans on the floor at night and not letting the bedding touch the floor because the spiders will crawl up it. Even with all those precautions Hubs got a bite on his foot when he took the dogs outside before bedtime one night. He felt a prick on his foot between the straps of his Keens and sure enough it was a brown recluse bite. He was lucky, no infection and it only took a couple of months to go away. But it was really ugly for awhile.
Diana in RR TX says
I had to pull a few of those out of the girls ears yesterday-poodle ears are a magnet- and I didn’t even see where they got them from. Had to be loose ones on the ground. But they can show up in the least place expected! By the way, the Eagles are back nesting just east of Llano. Galen got some great shots yesterday. They are sitting on the nest so there should be a chick or two come late Dec. early Jan.
Laura says
I agree – poodle ears are a magnet! Our little guy brings in bits of leaves, flowers, etc. on his ears after he’s been wandering around our suburban backyard.
Sherry V. says
We have similar things in NJ — I just call them stickers. They hurt like the dickens! Casey the cockapoo picks them up in the fur on her ears all the time & it is terrible getting them out.
Glad it wasn’t anything serious!
Margie Campbell says
Goathead stickers…ouch! Our dogs are always bringing them in the house. We can’t get rid of them.
wanda says
That would have scared me to death if I lived where you do. I hate those things and yes we have them here too..They generally get hung up in everything you have on if you get close. But inside your sweater. Wow are you sure you didn’t roll on the ground? Just kidding I can’t image how it got inside your sweater.
Wanda
Kathy Alden says
We call them goatheads or puncture weed, here in Idaho, a noxious weed! I stepped on one the other morning and said a few choice words! In the spring our extension office gives out killer for this. Had less this year, hopefully less next year!
carol c says
washing machine residue, someone’s clothes had it on his socks or somewhere-got left in the machine. I never go out in the area of them, but dh does and he does the laundry, and then i find them in my clothes-lol
myrna Sossner says
I call then a #$&&%%$ pain! If you get your fingers very wet with saliva they can be removed with little or no pain.
Mel Meister says
We have those soooo bad this time of year in Florida. And they hurt like the devil!! They come in on our shoes and pant legs.
Mel Meister says
We call them “sand spurs”.
Dawn Miller says
When we lived in rural Loomis, California we had a ton of those suckers! We called them “Goheads” though.
Mary L. says
We call them goatheads in Washington state. My dog sget them in their feet all the time.
Becky says
We have “foxtails” that show up this way!We once had a border collie that got one in his eye (the white part) and we had to pull it out. The foxtails are a real nusance.
Linda Steller says
I’m glad it wasn’t a black widow or brown recluse! I get lots of little burdocks in my house that ride in on Ozzie’s velcro hair.