Strange Plants in my Yard

Yesterday I spent the evening out in the yard. I started out cleaning out from under my sandplum thicket. I neglected getting this properly done last year and now I'm paying for it. I've got several trees coming up in it and they have GOT to GO. My thicket is over the area that my sewer line runs through and the plum bush roots shouldn't be that much of a problem, trees certainly would be. At one point I got a little sidetracked when I went to get the push mower. I decided to mow and area on the way to the thicket. Anyway, I came across the now up-rooted plant below. Anyone have a clue as to what it is? (Edit: It looks like I might have pulled up a young Russian Thistle, more commonly know as Tumbleweed. I had never seen them at this stage. See end of post.)
It has no leaves and, at this point, no buds or flowers. Just long, smooth, rounded, branches. The plant itself was practically round the way that it stood.
I love the one below, reminds me of something from Dr. Seuss. This is the seed head from one of the volunteer chive plants that is growing in my yard.
This one just happens to be growing in my sandplum thicket so it's safe from the mower.
They look like little aliens peeking out from the bushes, don't they?
I only got half way through with the thicket cleaning and then it got dark and I was hot and sore. Not sure if I'll get to the rest of it today or not.

Edit: A little confusion on my part. This picture looks to be the same as what I pictured above. It is labeled on this page as one of the Russian Thistle photos. Pretty much all the Russian Thistle pictures I find via Google look like this, all spiky looking. So is the first picture and what I pictured an immature plant of the same variety. Or is this something else? I KNOW Tumbleweed once it's all grown and scaring the heck out of drivers on the highway. I've seen them as big as the little import autos. I just never lived out in the country where they grew to know their different stages. Matter of fact, my ancestors were probably responsible for bringing a good portion of them over here with their Russian Turkey Red Winter Wheat. Got any Tumbleweed stories? I've heard of families that used them as Christmas trees because that's all there were.

Sandplums

Anita of Prairie Dreams mentioned that her grandma used to make sandplum jam all the time, but I can't seem to find that post at the moment. I wanted to take a break from my OR - CA post to share pictures that I took April 18 this year. Below is a shot of the sandplum thicket in my backyard...
Many years ago my neighbor/friend and I decided that we wanted to make some homegrown jam. I had picked sandplums with my ex's grandmother as a newlywed so had a brief encounter with the thickets in the wild. My friend and I found out that there was a large thicket on the property of a mutual friend that lived on the river in the country north of us. We asked and were given permission to pick all the sandplums that we desired. She and I spent an afternoon filling plastic buckets with nice, ripe, juicy sandplums. For those of you that are not familiar with sandplums, it appears that technically they are called Sand Hill plums.
One thing unique about sandplums is that they are a natural for jelly making. By that I mean, the only thing you need to add to make a marvelous jelly is sugar. A lot of juices require pectin to properly thicken, but sandplums have enough naturally. Here's one woman's recipe for wild sand plum jelly. My friend and I cleaned and cooked and set up jelly in every jelly jar, large and small, we could get our hands on...
...and everyone we knew wanted some. The kids ate all we had in no time flat. Mention sandplum jelly/jam to native Kansans and you will see people perk up and pay attention, if not flat out start to drool. After all our work, the peels and pits were tossed in the compost bin in my back yard and not thought about till around three years later when bushes began sprouting. This is how I came by having a sandplum thicket in my back yard. Maybe this year I'll have enough sandplums to make some jelly.