Back and forth

 It's been on my mind for awhile to blog, but obviously I didn't get around to it and now it's December and UGH! So a quick update overall: I've been out of work (per my choice, or more like, my body's choice) since mid-November and have been in physical therapy twice a week now for a few months. My leg is starting to feel a bit better, but the pain and issues are still there and if I move the wrong way, sit on the hard floor, the weather is a certain way, I wear two different colors of socks, it all flares up again. I'm kidding about the socks, but it sure feels that way. Now that my leg feels a bit better, my back has flared up!

I have been spending my days cleaning, cooking/baking, and working on art! What I thought would only take me a couple of weeks to catch up on still hasn't been caught up on. I was so much farther behind than I realized by working, and working a job that physically and mentally drained me. I was grateful for the job though, learning new skills, and of course the paycheck, but I am grateful now to be home and trying to heal and to avoid another surgery

To the land! I had to look back again and see where I left off. Truthfully, we have not been back as much as we want to be because of Woodchuck working so much and not being able to get the contractor out there to do the clearing he was hired for. When we hired him he said September, but quickly changed that to October, and now it's the end of December and still nothing. Woodchuck is an angry Woodchuck. More so because the guy isn't communicating with us, and then there's the Government who's waiting on us to create that ingress/egress onto the Watershed Preserve, which is one of the things this guy was going to help do. What a shame too to not utilize the weather we've been having, i.e. no snow and no hard freezes. I really hope this all works out with who we hired. 😬

On one of our trips, I collected the majority of the Blue Vervain seeds since they were in an area that Woodchuck keeps running down with the tractor. Located right on the edge of the pond, there was no guarantee that they would survive anyway with the flooding in that area from the pond, and the heavy equipment from when we correct that issue. Best to get the seeds now! I do believe I was a little late in gathering them, as it looked like the seeds had already dispersed, but my hope is that there are still some!

It has been nice too see how the cold temps have cleared the pond of the watermeal! 

And we actually were able to get on the other side of the pond (where those tall, dark trees are in the above photo) and walk around. Though plants are dormant right now, it was still a mess and we could only get so far, but we were thrilled to finally get over there and see things from that vantage point! We also got to see our first snake on Das Zem and I can't believe that we didn't accidentally step on it on our way into the thicket! A beautiful, small and harmless Garter snake.

I was also finally able to get our oldest son out there to show him and land and walk him around! We fought our way out onto the watershed, and although still too overgrown to make it too far in, I did find that we have some Aspens growing out there. SWOON!

Shadow McGhee (I don't know who he belongs to, but he's such a good Boi!) stayed with us the whole walk, dropping every once in a while to roll in the leaves and get tummy rubs!

Somewhere along the way, and without Woodchuck, I ran across our beautiful Cedarwood/Juniper tree and it had berries on it. On one of our recent trips back there, I took him to it, and was trying to decide if I wanted to pick a few of the berries to try and utilize those (decided to leave them) and hubby leaned into the smell a branch and poked himself in the eye. Hard enough to land him in the urgent care emergency room a few days later. He's all mine, ladies! (and he has fully recovered as far as we can tell).

I also recently drove Ginny, hubby's Kioti tractor, around the property. Yes, you read that right! I didn't want to be afraid anymore to do it, and told him even if I started it and sat there, that's a step in the right direction. Not only did I start her, but I pulled her out of the storage container, drove her up to the prairie, and then BACKED HER IN to the storage container. I was very proud of myself!

On our last trip out there, we decided that we were going to transplant some of the white pine seedlings. They were in an area where they would be destroyed by heavy equipment and we needed a privacy screen between our prairie and the back of the neighbors house. But nothing was to happen until I shared a moment with one of our favorite pine seedlings.

Moment complete! This little seedling (and a few others) were popping up along the front ditch, in between the Poplars. Now it was time to move all of these precious trees! They came up very easily and while we only took what we needed for the privacy screen, we realized that there are more seedlings than we need right now. I am hoping that we can either think of other places to put those, or find others who can use them.

We also took a little walk to see how much of the Classified Forest we own. Turns out it's just a little corner pie slice of it, but that's ok. The owner had previously logged some of it, and I tried to count the rings on this tree stump. My eyes crossed at around 50 and then I lost track of where I was. What a gorgeous tree and look at all of the mushroom and fungi activity! So amazingly beautiful!

We are hoping to get to Das Zem one more time before the end of the year and while the weather still allows us to access the land. So incredibly lucky, and looking forward to moving on to the next phases of prepping the land for the ingress/egress, burning the ditches and brush debris piles this Winter, and eventually building a home. 💚

An opening!

 We lucked out and got one more nice day! It was so nice that it felt like Spring, which scrambles the brain. Fall colors and Spring temps and smells. But I am not complaining one bit! We loaded up early and headed for the woods, ready to keep chipping away at the invasives. You know the routine by now, Woodchuck gets the tractor ready while I walk and say good morning to the land and all that inhabits it.

It looks cold and dreary in the above picture, right? It was very overcast and threatening rain, but it was warm enough to just wear a long-sleeve shirt! Our beautiful maples that were full of harvest gold colored leaves a week prior had dropped them all. I see a row of honeysuckle underneath them that I need to remove though. That will be on the next trip out!

The pond was full and overflowing, but we are at the time of year when the watermeal starts to clear away. I could stand here for hours and this may be my spot to sit on overcast days while working on dreamcatchers or beadwork.

Woodchuck made his way over to the area we are working on, with Ginny the Tractor. I fought valiantly to save the blue vervain plants between the pond and fishing shack, and now need to look up how to replant them, or start them from their seeds. I worked on cutting and treating more of the usual invaders.

 and when I looked up, Woodchuck was over by the blueberry bushes. WAIT! We didn't talk about that area and what might need to be saved! 😱

So I went running over there to see what his plan was and to make sure he didn't take any of the bushes down by accident. I couldn't believe how close we were to opening up this entire area. What was once a wall of thick crap vegetation that couldn't be penetrated by human body was now becoming a wide open and usable space.

Those little blobs of red bushes in the distance are some of our blueberry bushes. In need of a pruning, for sure! I can't believe we opened this up! It felt so daunting over the Summer to stand there getting shredded by thorns and eaten up by mosquitoes. While looking around, Woodchuck said, "15 acres ain't shit, I should have bought the 20." 😂

Once he had his fill of this area, he went and started chipping away at the edge of the main ditch. I kind of wish he had left most of it, as there was a lot of sumac there, but I know his reasons for trying to clear it. He ended up finding a couple of Woodchuck holes and talk about ankle breakers! I'll get pictures of them the next we are out there. The seller told us about the Woodchucks and the issues he had with them and what he did about it, and I know hubby's plans for them, but I can't handle hearing it. I guess I just feel like there is always a way to handle these kinds of things differently, it just depends on the amount of time and effort that you want to put into it. It's wild and natural land, creatures live in those places.

All of the dark ground is where he mowed. The picture doesn't do it justice in how much he did!

The breeze picked up, the clouds were racing across the sky, and what started as a few sprinkles quickly became a rain that had water dripping from the rim of my hat. I really wanted to walk in the second CRP. Something there keeps calling to me, and I haven't been in there in months. But it was time to call it quits. Woodchuck wanted to make a trip into the next town over before heading back the other way to home and other errands in other towns. While he went into the hardware store I ran into a resale shop that was next to it (corporate owned, not independently owned). I wasn't impressed. For as difficult as my job was at the resale I worked at, I loved it there. It was wide open, bright, and the resale shop I loved to shop at for years before I started working there. Yesterday was my last day working there and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. That job was 100 times more physical than I ever expected, we were all doing the job of at least 5 people, and let's keep it real, retail is rough. People are SO MEAN and entitled. I finally got smart and listened to myself that I don't want that, or deserve that. Time to manifest my destiny and surround myself with my future! 💗

Chipping away!

 I know, I know. Did I fall off of the face of the Earth? It has been c-r-a-z-y around here. The good news, at least in every way but financially, is that I have resigned from my job. This girl won't take it any more and I am SO excited to only have one week left. Woodchuck, poor Woodchuck, is still working 6 days a week and they have changed his off day from Sunday to Wednesday. We adjusted and still tried to get in as many trips to Das Zem as we could fit in before the weather turned, which happened this morning.

But leading up to this day, we were chipping away still at the invasives while we waited to hear back from the contractor we hired. But we didn't hear back. So that work is still on hold. We did however fight against bittersweet (there's still one massive growth of it wrapped around a large tree), AO and honeysuckle. Removing the larger bushes/trees of those revealed so many little saplings starting. It is just something that I know that I will have to keep checking on and keeping up with. It was mind-boggling to see how it all had taken over. But we are taking it all back. 

                            The top two pictures are before we started chipping away at the mess. 

All of that dark ground between me and the tractor used to be all honeysuckle and autumn olive. That tree that is by the bush hog deck is the one that is dripping with bittersweet berry clusters. We have decided in the midst of all of the invasive carnage that we will also be burning down the fishing shack. 1) it's too close to the water now with the failed banks and spreading water 2) it stinks. They raised birds in there and I can't stand that smell. 3) it's infested with mice and wasps and was never really completed anyway. 4) a tiny shipping container will solve my issues and give me a spot to store Pink. Speaking of!

Pink is now in her permanent home after being tested a few times here at our current home. That was nice to not have to spend an hour and a half push mowing! Because of my knee and hip issues, I wasn't able to use her because my legs are too short to reach the pedals without over-extending.

The pond is full and overflowing again, but we can see that the deer are making good use of the space we cleared. 

We also decided to start tackling the bittersweet and other invasive growth along our main ditch (we call it the front ditch, but it runs behind the front CRP.) We cut a massive bittersweet vine that had embedded and wrapped itself around a growing poplar tree. 

We also took down honeysuckle, AO, and the massive MFR (multiflora rose) that I found in the Spring. Before pictures.

                  Along the way and after pictures are below. All of the dark ground was where the                                                                         honeysuckle, AO, and MFR were.

As always, I/we took time to walk and take it all in. The changing colors, the sound of leaves crunching underfoot. There is much beauty and magick in this place! 

So what will I do with myself now that I am leaving my job? Hoping to work on the land as much as Woodchuck's schedule allows, keep cleaning my house out, get caught up on art projects, and take care of myself. Even though I was only at my job for over a year, I feel like I gave 4 years worth of energy and commitment to them in that time. I am one burnt out girl. A minor surgery may also be on my horizon, but I have a couple of weeks yet before I find out for sure. So in other words, I think I'm going to take a couple of weeks for myself and my family. We'll be starting baking soon...making sausage, pierogi, pagach, nut rolls, etc. We'll be making our Winter scented soaps this coming week as well. 

We have been consistently behind on our art this year, but we are starting to get caught up. Woodchuck just did this custom order of fixing this family heirloom.

I am just getting ready to finish up this custom bead order of an Indian corn pendant.

Once this is done, I have to move on to ferns, salmon, and beaded feathers. So grateful for the skills that the Great Spirit and my Ancestors have passed on to me! 💚 )O(

What a lacking of water uncovers

 We've had some rain this year, and even days of it recently, but we are still in a drought status that has carried over from previous years. But it hasn't been enough to prevent drought conditions that we can't always see (underground water table), but also what we can.

As Woodchuck was oiling and greasing up his tractor, I took a walk down to the pond and was shocked to see that the water had receded enough that I could walk in areas that had always been under water previously. I could see where the pond banks should be, I could see debris laying that would have normally been under water. I was geeking out! The thought of being able to stand on an area that would normally be under water is absolutely fascinating to me!

In this picture above, I am standing where there was a patch of black willow. We've been working on taking it down and getting it more under control. 

Muddy and squishy in spots, but I was able to walk out nearly to the waters edge.

In this picture above, you can clearly see now that there is a blueberry bush in the water. That tells us that this side of the pond has failed by several feet.

I had the thought that we should take the boat out. We struggled to find a good spot the first time we went out there to assess how bad the water quality was, and why pass this opportunity up? So, we grabbed the boat and started dragging it towards the water. One pudgy, gray mouse abandoned ship! They are nesting in the Styrofoam in the boat seats! And the smell! OMG. 🐁😵 Hubby drops the boat, kicks it, rocks it, and another pudgy, gray mouse jumps overboard. They were so cute though, I have to say! But I don't want them in the boat with me when we hit the water. Hubby drops the boat, again, we are now right at the water, and a larger, fat brown mouse jumps out! Hubby drops it and walks away to get the oars while I take over shaking it to see if there are anymore in it. I think it's safe to go in the water now. I didn't think to ask if the boat was water worthy until we were already on the water. Panic attack ensues.

Lots of little Kermits in the water, as usual! Lots of algae and watermeal too and between the stagnant smell of the pond water and the mouse piss smell in the boat, it was like being stranded on a tiny island that has a zoo on it!

Even the entry to the ditch had dried up and I was able to get down in there and walk around. SO overgrown, and many logs laying there. I'm wondering if the previous owner placed those in there? So much to learn!

While I don't want a drought to continue, us cleaning up and prepping up these ditches will be a whole lot easier and safer, for us if they aren't filled with water. All we can do is watch and wait until it's time for us to start working on them, and then we'll see what they look like then.

The monster multi-flora rose that I will be taking out has its rose hips now and I've been debating on harvesting them and utilizing them. I'm tired of making jelly and jam though, so I want to do something else with them, but can't decide on what. Adding it to the list....

We also had a creature recently on Das Zem! It was sitting quietly and patiently in the front CRP forest, ready to pounce and make us his own!

He sat and watched to see if we would just walk right by, but as soon as I noticed him I called to him and he came to us for some loving. We hadn't seen him before, and haven't seen him since 😞 He was a very sweet and loving boi! I've named him Shadow McGhee.

That's it for now! Our contractor is a few jobs behind schedule due to lack of workers, so we are working on all of the other things that we can in the meantime. Big changes are coming soon and I wish the pictures could capture better how it all looks! Stay tuned....