cursed weeds

In an attempt to rid the pumpkin patch of the copious amount of weeds I tried hand picking some of the larger ones. Obviously this went nowhere fast.  So I grabbed a hard rake and attempted to move the soil around, but all that really did was destroy the weeds that the prongs actually hit. Again, this would take way too long for my taste.  I flipped the rake over and used it like a bulldozer. It destroyed every weed it came across, but I had to put a little elbow grease into it.  I became very excited at my success and increased my pace. Weeds were being obliterated by the hundreds and I was in mad frenzy, delighted that I found a cure for the gardeners bane.  That's when it happened.... In my haste I ran over my precious pumpkin plant ripping the leaves from the stem.  The poor thing didn't stand a chance.  If you look at the larger image, you will notice a small leaf that has just started to grow. It is in this single leaf that my hope for the future pumpkins rests.  I have never had the heart to just rip healthy plants out of the ground...especially if they flower or bear fruit/vegetables.

I have always had a respect for life and all living things. I am not opposed to hunting, I just don't do it myself.  I would try hunting with a bow given the opportunity, but I would have the thought that it was for food, not just for fun.  I remember in college I worked for a moving company.  They didn't have an actual moving job for me that day, so the boss sent me into the yard to clear the fence of weeds, bushes and the like.  No problem, but 3/4 of the way through the fence I became aware that a bird was screeching at me in her angry tones and did "fly-bys" of my head.  I started looking around a bit more carefully and noticed a nest in one of the more dense bushes I was clearing away.  Not wanting to destroy the babies inside, I contacted the humane society and they told me there was nothing they could do about it.  I turned to my boss and he suggested just leaving the nest alone and leave the bush growing into the fence.  Upon returning to the nest, I discovered that I had already inadvertently knocked one of the babies out and it lay dead on the ground.  I attempted to cut the branch with the nest on it and move it to a safe location so I could finish my job with the fence, but I was unsuccessful as I found the nest abandoned the next day.  I felt awful.  That feeling was only compounded when driving home a bird smashed into my windshield leaving a fuzzy white outline of where it had hit.  From that day forward I have done my best to avoid causing damage or hurting mother natures gifts.  While a pumpkin plant is hardly a family of birds, it still brings a negative feeling to hurt it. Regardless of how one looks at it, it's still a baby(seed) that I nurtured into a plant and was helping to grow.  The good news is that there's still 6 more out there.