Rain and a warmer wind, and the last of the ice blew out. One loud clap of thunder this morning and the power went out, too, frustrating my plan to do projects. To kill time, Pax and I walked down to the Thomson's to see if they had hydro (which they didn't). Murray and I looked around and decided there was no better time than a power outage to attack phragmites, and that became the plan.

Phragmites is mighty, but Murray is mighter.

We spent nearly 3 hours whacking away at this 60 foot diameter patch. Hard, frustrating work. Scythes didn't cut it. And with even the heaviest string, the weed-whackers needed re-stringing every few minutes. We actually ran out of string with just a few canes standing, so it's back to whack tomorrow.

Ice in the morning, but not a trace remaining tonight.