cholla

today a friend posted a picture of a cholla cactus, the kind folks call jumping cactus. well it don't jump. cowpunchers mostly call that variety a number of names, some don't stand repeating.  those of us who made our living a horseback know that stuff to miserable for cow, horse and man. man being the least important of the three. ive ridden many a old pony who would hit a cactus patch full bore in pursuit of the forked toe bovine. and the bovine who REALLY want his freedom will not hesitate to run through it. the cowpuncher who wants that bovine just has to grin and bear it. chap legs nailed to your thighs by the spines, or how about a cluster stuck to the back of your denim jumper? with no one to knock it off your usualy stuck trying to use a long stick , which just rolles it over to stick you in a new place.  this little stickkey, miserable piece of the good lords handywork  usually grows in the poorest soil, catches the least amount of water and propagates by catching onto what ever brushes by .  where ever you knock it off it usually sp0routs and grows another clump of misery.  but even the worst, most miserable thing on gods green earth has a use for man. during extreme dry times you can burn the thornes of with a propane burner and a cow will get some nourishment from the hot juicey mess. and where you burn it none will grow back. but due to the folks who protect the environment from those of us who have to actually make a living in the areas where this devils flower garden grows , we cant be irradicating it because we may have no more!! imagine that?   most folks who arnent familiar with this plant , when they get their horses into don't have a clue on how to get the spones out. most resort to pliars and pulling them out one at a time!! and in dry cases that is usually the one way left to do it. but years ago when I was a button  a old Mexican/papago cowboy showed me a real easy way. we rode through a thick of the damn stuff in pursuit of a wild ox. when we had tied down that rascal our horses looked like pin cushions. I was gonna pull them out when manuel stopped me and told me to follow him. we rode about a mile to a big dirt tank and rode our horses into it until it covered our saddles. in a few minutes the spines started to float away. seems thos spines on that variety are hollow and when they fill with water they soften and simply fall out. ow not all cactus spines will do that, but type are the worst to deal with and the most common.  years ago folks got the smart idea they would use two crawler tracters with a anchor chain tied between them. this would pull the cholla down and break it up.  but what happened was everywhere the broken pieces landed it took root, creating some massive thickets of the stuff that a javalina would dare go into.    so folks , the most miserable piece of desert flora has a use, and is hardier than most humans give it credit for. I don't think we need to worry about runnin out of it!