Making progress? Eh, probably not

 Oh how the cuss words are wanting to settle in and fly out. I mean, if I break down my work pattern on the land, only being able to work there a few hours a week, I should expect to make a noticeable difference.....never. But I keep going back and trying, so I guess there's something to say for that! I am glutton for punishment, it's clear.

Each time we go back to the land we are both stunned at how much it has changed in just a matter of days. The rain, the heat, the season...everything is waking up and exploding. We just stop and stare, then put our heads down and trudge in. Some areas are so overgrown with raspberry and blackberry and all other things thorny, that it is painful to try and get through. Woodchuck brought his machete this time, which was very helpful!

For the first time, he decided to help me, and I am grateful for that because even with his help we were unable to finish the main task I had laid out. Finish pulling the Lily of the Valley. I found a few stray garlic mustard plants that I pulled. Although there is so much conversation on when it's too late to pull them where it will do any good, I always pull them, no matter what stage they are in. I also found the Dame's Rocket patch so that I could pull it. Luckily right now it's all just to the North of the pond, not too far into the CRP forest, so that makes it easy to find again. 

Many conversations again about this plant versus a native phlox. It seems the main deciding factor is petals. Dame's Rocket has 4, while phlox has 5. I had also read that they bloom at different times of the season, however that brought up more information in one of the nature groups I belong to and I was told that our native phlox is blooming right now. Then to add more confusion, someone else named a plant that seemed similar to Phlox and Dame's Rocket. I don't know, people, I just don't know. As the title of this blog says, I am already flying by the seat of my pants and I need some clear cut information to be able to know what I am dealing with. A group of people to help physically on the land that know their shit would be the ultimate bomb as well! I mean, I am already taking a chance pulling some plants that I don't feel certain of and my fear, always, is that I am going to end up pulling some rare and highly beneficial plant! Oh the anxiety!

Anyway, where was I? Ok, pulled the Dame's Rocket and went on search of the Lily of the Valley. Woodchuck remembered to bring the spade because I was trying to use a trowel and that was only prolonging my misery. I also got a quick lesson in the names of the tools. I remember when I volunteered at a friends farm in 2019, he would always tell me that using the right tool in the right way for the right task was crucial to saving your body and some time. What was a spade, I was calling a shovel. Huh. I have a lot to learn about being a farmer.

Found the patch! You could barely tell that I had pulled some out the previous time. Le' sigh.

Here's the thing about removing Lily of the Valley that I may or may not have mentioned in a previous post. It's a pain in the ass. If anyone tells you otherwise, they are big, fat liars. This crap is half mat, half devil rhizome and it's all connected. It didn't even smell good this time. Dammit. No luxury of sweet smells while yanking it all out. But with hubby's help, we finished this one patch and headed out to find another, which wasn't very far away, in the next row of trees.

I also ran across a patch of grass last time in this same area that I could not identify. Instinct told me to pull it, but I went ahead and posted it in several places on FB and didn't get any feedback. I waited several days, and since I was near it, I went ahead and pulled it. The root system, again, was horrid and very similar to the Lily of the Valley with it's devil finger roots. (BTW, I made that term up. "Devil Finger Roots".)

I also fear that I found a Tree of Heaven, though it seemed big enough that if that was what it is, I would expect to have already seen shooters and new babies coming up around it. I didn't have the time to really inspect and research it, so I made a mental note to check it out again next time.

There was no time, or energy, to just walk the land to walk it. We were filthy.....well, I was.

I really get into my work. Funny how when I worked at the bakery years ago, my apron also looked this way and my manager would get upset and tell me to change it out....only to have that one look the same way soon after.

It was 90 degrees, though the humidity really could have been a lot worse! But we still had some errands to run. Just never enough time in a day to get everything done that we need to. The plan was to spend the morning on the land, run errands, and then get home to just hang out together. Grill, bathing suits, beer. Nope, didn't happen. One day. One day we'll sit and relax again together! 

On the bright side, we have a Green Heron that visits our pond, and we got to see some beautiful Common Whitetail dragonflies! No pictures, they wouldn't listen to hold still. The pond will be one of hubby's main projects. It's driving him crazy to see it like this and he wants to skim the top and get some sunlight into the water. I might need to put the wildlife to work in exchange for use of the amenities........

A little healing of myself along the way

 While it is typical for me to crave being outside, especially in times of duress, I had yet to crave being on my own land. Until recently. Pressures at work and in my personal life had to started to pile up on me and no matter what I said to myself to turn it around, or trying self-care options, I couldn't get out from under the pile. 

The weather on our last trip to the land had really wiped me out, so when I woke up the morning of our next trip and saw that it was cloudy, my heart sank. Well, at least if it was going to be warmer, I should be able to handle it ok. I had spent the previous 4 days at our sons house, helping him out while he recovered from surgery. While nothing much could have stopped me from helping him, I began pouring from an empty glass. It  is situations like these, surgeries typically, that show me how truly alone each of us is in the world. Always surrounded by noise and people and bustling about, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, it is only ourselves that we have to rely on.

My head had been hurting for days and I couldn't shake the brain fog. I began to get slightly more excited about heading outside, no matter the weather. And then the clouds started to break, the temps were warming up, and the sun made an appearance. Now I was ready to get back to it! A couple of stops before hand and we pulled up on to The Land. 

I always make a sound mixed with disgust and exasperation. What a mess! But I know it will not always look the way it does now, and we have to take it one step at a time. Well, that would be ideal, but truly that is not realistic and anyone that walks around juggling full plates such as I do knows exactly what I am talking about. You can make your plan, plans are a great way to start, but you had better prepare yourself for the monkey wrench or two or three. 

Pulling on to the land, we are met with a mess of honeysuckle, among other stuff that will get removed eventually.

The smells of Spring are strong in the air here! Almost too strong! The honeysuckle, Autumn Olive and Lilac are blooming and my sinuses begin to hurt very soon after arriving!

One of our stops was to pick up a table to keep inside the shipping container. We set it up as our command center, HA! A quick lunch while talking about the plan for the day, walkie check, and we went our separate ways. 

My plan has not changed over the past few trips, and most likely won't over the next few. Remove invasives from the CRP forests. I am still working on the farthest (what we refer to as "The Second" CRP forest) and each time I go I find more and more. I feel I have a pretty good handle on the garlic mustard now, and needed to start working on the Lily of Valley, which was most likely blooming and I may already be too late. 

I did see something that I hadn't seen before in my few years of working outside and with invasives. The Autumn Olive (referred to as AO to save some time and typing) was blooming. I was shocked to see how young and small of a sapling that could already be blooming and is just one reason that these invasives do so well. Did it smell lovely? Yep. Kind of a like a lilac. But that won't make me keep it.

I always try and take stock of the land as I am walking to my destination. What looks different, what feels different, can I learn something new? On my way into the fishing shack, I looked around and see this plant that I hadn't noticed before. My guess was a blueberry bush, as the seller had planted several on the edge of the pond (unfortunately, some are in the water now and that area is very, very wet from a leaking pond. Add it to the to-do list!). I snapped a couple of pictures to i.d. later and did indeed learn that it is a highbush blueberry!

Walking around on the land becomes increasingly difficult as the raspberries, and all things thorny, take over and start defend their territory against intruders like us. We are not due to get our tractor until sometime in June, when we'll then be able to mow down the path and keep it more accessible. Anyone wanting a tour of our land right now is warned that it is wild. 

I finally made it back to the area I left off in last weekend. Picked the rest of the garlic mustard, found some more citronella ants under plastic garbage left by the previous owners, and listened to a couple of frogs chatting. BTW, the citronella ants are supposed to smell like citronella and people are quick to tell me to smash them so see if they smell. Nope. What purpose does that serve? I can't stand the smell of citronella anyway.

I found a previous undiscovered patch of Lily of the Valley and luckily had my spade on me this time. It was not easy, however, to remove them and I barely made a dent in the patch before we had to leave. They spread through a rhizome system. The dreaded rhizome system. It smells fantastic and I kept leaning in for a smell. I also disturbed a worm that was enjoy the root system of the plants.

Before leaving we walked the path of pink flags set up by the NRCS last week. These flags marked the path of the proposed ingress/egress easement that allows them to enter the watershed preserve. I was unable to be there with them due to the walk happening a day after our oldest son had his surgery, but they were kind enough to mark it for me and then call me afterwards to talk to me about it. It really was perfect, as the majority of the path already exists (just needs to be mowed) and what doesn't already exist, we were already planning on creating anyway.

Walking this path, I was able to find a rose bush (rose yet unidentified) and the coloring caught my eye. Snapped a picture to i.d. later and found that it has that coloring due to a disease. Add that to the to-do list of things to take care of!

I also found a good-sized patch of milkweed in the marked easement path and have spoken with the NRCS about it and saving it if the easement is approved. I am still learning the in's and out's about working with the government, but the first and most important thing to remember is to not touch anything on that watershed without permission, LOL.

We were finally able to get right at the edge of the WRP pond. It's always so much bigger than I expect it to be. Lots of willows at the edge of it. Usually when we say willows, I always just thought of Weeping Willows or Pussy Willow, but I know now that there are so many other kinds! We also have some possible black willow growing at the edge of the main pond. 

Found this bone on the edge of the CRP, tucked up by a tree. Fascinating!

Last but not least, I have a great job right now working at a resale shop and I run across some fabulous things that really help us out on the land! This was very comfy (a lightweight zip-up hoodie, though the repellant is likely already worn off), paired with my homemade bug spray. But the season isn't even at the start yet and we aren't sure what to expect about mosquitos there on the land. If I never post again, you know they are carried me off......

My own private weed wrangle........and unexpected swamp

 I am so, so very far behind in my land work both at home and at the new property. With only one day a week to get the work done at both, and the weather being all over the place, I keep freaking myself out that I will never make any kind of measurable progress. If Nature had a corner, I'd be in it sucking my thumb and whimpering.

But. I forced myself into the side strip of land at my current residence when I got home from work on Saturday. Being stuck inside a stinky, dirty space 4-5 days a week with lots of people that could describe as the same, I'll take fresh air and nature any time I can get it now. You may recall from a previous posting that this land is a bit of an easement. We can use it, but the railroad can come at any time and do what they want with it. It's not large by any means, but just large enough to hold many PIA (pain-in-the-ass) invasive plants and trees that then make their way into my yard. I took this project on in the Spring of 2020 while recovering from shoulder surgery. Regular physical therapy wasn't doing everything it was supposed to, so Mother Nature provided me with her own.

I got home from work Saturday and hubby was still mowing the yard because they had worked out first. I assumed that dinner hadn't even been thought about yet, and he was supposed to cook it. I wasn't going to. Nope. Best to just stay outside and pretend that I wasn't hungry. As soon as I stepped on the border, a neighbor lit up a huge burn pile. Some curse words left my mouth, but I wasn't going inside! I'm tired of always having to work what I want to do around others while they are continually doing what they want to do. Luckily the smoke and smell wasn't too strong, and since it felt like Fall, I just kept telling my body that fires provide warmth.

Hubby and I chugged a beer while standing in the cold, under the trees, smelling crap burning; and did a quick catch up on our days. Then it was time to decide what to pull. I am SO glad I made myself get out there! The Dame's Rocket will be blooming soon and I always prefer to catch plants before that stage, making spreading seeds a little less likely. Some of the plants closest to the train tracks were large already! Up to my thighs, if not higher. Here are some pictures for reference.

There's my foot at the root and glove laying on the plant. I still have more to pull when I can get back out there!

I also noticed the most bizarre looking tree! Possibly cut, and not treated, when it was one trunk, it then most likely began to sprout again and grow into a few trees that are connected. Google Lens said it was a Siberian Elm, but I checked with a Nature group I belong to and someone mentioned that it might be a White Mulberry. HENCE, why I have said, please do not rely on one source to help you i.d. something! Don't be afraid to use several sources, it really does make a difference in getting a correct i.d. 

This tree is not a native one, and it has a grapevine wrapped around it as well that can kill trees. While it is not high on my list to take care of immediately, if I want this area to become more native, it will need to come down. And you know my artsy self, I can always use the wood for projects.

And yet another bizarre barked tree next to it that I still have yet to identify.

There's only a handful of trees/shrubs that I can identify with confidence. Familiarizing myself is the goal, and for me repetition is key. In anything I want to learn, I have to get exposed to the knowledge over and over again, and most times hands on situations are even better for me to learn. And then I have to keep that going or I will begin to forget what I have learned along the way. Don't feel bad if you can't identify everything you see, or do it at the drop of a hat. We all start somewhere, we all have different ways of learning and remembering. Just that we are willing to at all speaks volumes.

Sunday morning, Mothers Day, found us several hours into a wicked rain. It was in the forecast to possibly be mixed with snow, and 30 MPH gusts of wind. While I was really craving being outside, and on my new land, I admit that I was not feeling it being outside in that kind of weather. I don't mind the rain at all, but I can't handle the wet, cold weather. It makes my body hurt so badly, and frankly, I've had enough body pain in the last year and half. Thank you, very much.

We debated. Should we go? We both had projects to work on, and mine, in working with invasive plants, are always time sensitive. Mother Nature creates my timeline for me. Let's do it, I said. We'll last out there as long as we'll last out there. And so we donned our three layers of clothing, thinking that we had outsmarted the elements again. And found out soon enough that we are but mere wannabe's. 

Once again hubby went about his own projects, completely ignoring that I needed to show him some things in the woods that we might need to address. I am used to his Aries ways "ME! ME! It's all about Me!" and trekked out into the forest, completely drenched within minutes before I even arrived in it. I had wondered how much cover the trees would provide? None. They offered none in that particular forest. I knew my time out there on this day was quickly dwindling.

 I upgraded my gloves from a previous wet and cold day out there, only to have them soaked immediately and freezing on to my hands in the cold winds. It wasn't long before I couldn't feel my fingers, couldn't move them and grasp onto anything. Well shit. That makes working a tad difficult. I also don't have a metal yard work cart on wheels yet, so I have to carry the large garbage bags of weeds and garbage everywhere. Hard but doable in nice weather, but on this day? There was no way. 

I found the area I had left off in last time and began pulling garlic mustard again. The forest there was surface wet, but otherwise normal. I found the most precious morel mushroom. I can picture gnomes and pixies! I did not pick it, this one belongs to them. 💚

 

It didn't take long before the rain started soaking through to my second layer of clothing. It was so cold, I could see my breath and it became increasingly difficult to use my hands. A bit later hubby showed up in the row I was in and asked if I could help by standing at the next property line marker. He was working to clear the dead branches from around the perimeter so we could walk without getting bitch-slapped by the trees, which happens at least once a trip and hurts more on cold skin, BTW. or there's the ever fun branch thwack to the chest when you've followed too closely the person in front of you. I helped for a tad and then headed back to the area I was working in, but I still needed to locate the Lily of the Valley and see if I could pull it before it blooms. With my strength getting less and less, and now starting to shiver, I needed to move on.

There is what we....wait, what I refer to as "the path". My husband refers to it as the road, which causes all kinds of confusion because I think he's talking about the main road, traveled by car. This is a path on our land, that the seller traveled by foot and golf cart and that we travel by foot. I refuse to get a golf cart. Why, you ask? There's a story for that. Sit back, dear reader, and travel back in time with me.

Back to when I worked at the county parks.

I worked various positions, initially starting with a Nature Center attendant at one of the three parks, then as a fill-in for the maintenance at the main park and then also a fill-in in the office at the main park. How do you get around quickly? Loud, obnoxious machinery. While I preferred to walk, distance to cover and time was a factor. One time, when I was filling in, again, for the park at a 5th grade field day event, a co-worker had driven the golf cart there to a little ways out by the pond....and ran over a beautiful, young snake. The kids saw the snake alive and panicked and instead of using the moment to teach them about nature, what species the snake was, etc. it was poo-poo'd. And then at the end of the day, I saw her accidently run him over. My point being that when you're on machines, you can't see what's underfoot. You can't side-step creatures or plants. 

I was so heartbroken for the little thing and when I was by myself at the end of the day, I placed it on a little dirt hill, surrounded it with flowers, and said a little farewell. Any time I find creatures killed, I try to send them off, just in case they didn't make it on their own. Hopefully another creature was able to benefit at least. But I never could understand such noisy, intrusive machines in places that are so beautiful. Humans have such an odd way at times of fighting everything and "taking care of" and interacting with nature. I eventually left that job. For various reasons.

Memory field trip complete! Let's get back to the land.

The path was holding a little water in spots, to be expected. Ruts, possible natural topography, etc. But the farther along I got, the more wet it got. No big deal. The land needs to be what it needs to be and if there are time that we can't walk it, so be it. For some reason, the back part of the ditch is always holding more water and I can't figure out why and if that's ok. This ditch is less deep than the front one, but it keeps making me think that something is blocking the waterflow somewhere. I'll have someone check into it, at least if this one overflows, it goes onto the watershed on one side and the 2nd CRP forest on the other side, not where our house will be, but then that brings up a whole other set of questions: is that ok to happen and healthy for the watershed to have the ditch overflow onto it? And down the rabbit hole we go!

 This second picture is me standing on the path, looking towards the watershed. You can see an animal path that has been used to cross. 

And then I turned again into the CRP forest, farther West and North from where I had started. And was shocked.

The CRP forest had turned into a swamp, a bog, something other than it was at all other times we've seen it. It was holding water like you wouldn't believe. So deep in some spots, it was up to my ankles. Thank goodness I listened to hubby for once and wore my rain boots. I was completely unprepared to see that. We have walked that land numerous times, before and after purchasing, after rain, snow melt, and it has never even had a puddle in it. Funny how the seller and realtor were trying to talk us into building a house in that particular forest. For various reasons, we would not even entertain that idea, but imagine if we had planned on that! The Lily of the Valley that I needed to pull? In inches of water, and a couple of them are getting ready to bloom. I had to keep moving though. I was now soaked down through my underwear and needed to get out of the elements.

One up side to being out there on this day and in this kind of weather, is that it enabled me to see that several trees are foaming at the base. The downside was, I didn't think to mark those trees until after I got home. But I will give the forester a heads up and then mark them when I see them foaming again. It can be a sign of bacteria in the tree, possibly brought on my drought stress that caused a crack somewhere and the bacteria got in. Referred to as fluxing or alcohol flux or frothy flux, it is said that you can smell the scent of beer. I did not, but I was distracted by how freezing cold I was. Mmmmm, beer.

So I learned a lot about the land on this day, in uncomfortable circumstances though it may have been. We were so cold that I had to sit in my car with my hands on the heat vents in order to eventually wrap them around the steering wheel to drive. We have a very large Marathon gas station around the corner, on the main highway, and we'll stop there for gas or snacks on the way home most times. They carry Fingerhut bakery items, pricey, but yummy. I was too cold to even stop for those.

And then I found a pair of waterproof, insulated work gloves that I bought from work to be able to use on days like this. A lot of good they did me sitting in my library bag at home. Lesson number million six hundred and thirty nine learned! 😉

Let the invasive plants battle begin!

 It was time, on this last trip to the land, to start tackling the invasive plants in the CRP forests. During each walk we took when we went there, I was making a mental note of what was where and thought I had a pretty good plan on how much time it would take, in what order I should work, etc. Nope.

It was a beautiful day on Sunday! Close to 80 and sunny, light winds. My guys had their projects they were working on and not only did I not want to be anywhere around that, I had my own goals for the day. Specifically garlic mustard and Lily of the Valley removal. Anything else outside of that was just bonus.

Because the land is large and we are still learning its boundaries and our way around, we all make sure to have our cell phones on us. Luckily, so far, we've always been able to have a signal out there. We also tell each other where we plan to be, how we plan to get there. That way if we don't come back, the others can come looking for us. My goal was to hit the CRP forest first, since that's the most important to upkeep, but got sidetracked by the little area that skirts around the pond that we have to struggle through to get around to the other side of the land. Way more garlic mustard than I thought there would be, as well as purple dead nettle. I just could not take the time on this day to pull the dead nettle, I have to pick and choose my battles when it is only me tackling these things. Because the garlic mustard was already blooming, I needed to get it out. And carefully.

I have read various techniques and protocols that people have used to remove it, especially while it's blooming, because you don't want to spread the seeds. But I was taught to have a black bag with you to throw it into right away, and handle it gently. It is typically super easy to pull, especially when you grab at the base, but the larger it gets some times the root base gets thick and is a little more difficult. Garlic mustard changes the soil chemicals where it grows, making nothing else beneficial grow there. A non-native from Europe and parts of Asia, it can be eaten, potentially has some medicinal effects, and has spread like wildfire. You may have noticed many park system holding "weed wrangles", where they ask the public to help pull it. I consider myself that I will likely only have a few bags full.

 With the recent rains and humidity, the purple dead nettle is standing tall. This spreading ground cover is up for debate among nature and wildlife lovers. It's extremely invasive, but also provides some of the first of Spring foods for pollinators. I just couldn't take the time on it today.

While in this area next to the main pond, I was able to find some interesting things, which of course captured my attention and kept me even longer out of the CRP forests. A new den, yet to identify who lives there. Very small though and I got one tiny foot print. Mink?

I am also still finding garbage throughout the lands. I had to crawl and struggle through various thorns to reach the edge of the pond and remove a couple of plastic beverage containers. This one was left by a fisher, notice the fishing line?

I needed to stop what I was doing in this spot. Time was ticking and I needed to get to the forest. Things were so much more rampant there than I had expected. I ended up picking two large lawn and leaf bags of plants, and then some more garbage.

The guys found me to take a walk around the land so our son could see it all. I warned him that it was wild, not easy to get through in some spots. Hubby was in such a hurry to walk that I kept getting left behind. My little legs can't go fast through all that theirs can. The watershed is so humid and hot with the sun blazing down that I got overheated, vowing never to walk with hubby again out there. I did manage to finally get a decent picture of the WRP (watershed preserve) pond. The frogs really like this one.

Once the walk was done, we went back to our projects and I was unable to get all the plants pulled and found more patches of the Lily of the Valley than what had been there before. I also cursed at the large barberry that was planted by the main pond.

I did allow myself moments of peace there on the land. There are certain parts of the forests that feel alive and so good, other parts feel barren. Even though this spot doesn't look like much in the photo, it felt so alive and intense and made me feel wonderful and at peace.

I found many feathers along the way...blue jay, crow, cardinal...lots of various kinds of fungi (which I always get excited by! This one is cup fungi, pezizacaea)......and I foraged for gifts for a friend. The first I found on the land will be dried and worked into a piece of art for when we build our house.

Of course, my next trip there has already been planned out. More invasive removal, check for more garbage and evidence of human trespassing, and then if that gets done with time to spare, I need to start marking invasive trees/shrubs/bushes on the non-program land for removal once we have a tractor. Again, so far it's just little ol' me figuring this out, but I am guided by my ancestors and the nature spirits! 💚