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......
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