My first interaction on the land with the NRCS

 I have to admit that being the new owner of 15 acres feels a little daunting, but being the new owner of 15 acres-nearly all of which is in land programs-is slightly terrifying. I had to meet up with the NRCS there on Wednesday to talk about viable options for an ingress/egress easement. What does that mean? Simply, a way for them to get to the watershed. Because the watershed is a bit land-locked and there's a ditch that runs through the center of the land, access to the watershed by vehicle is tricky. But I am here not only to learn from them and take care of the land as best I can, but to also make it easy for them to do their job there as well. We all have the same goal.

I picked up some more garbage while I waited for them to arrive, and checked out the shipping container that we had delivered last week. I was struck by the temperature difference though this land is only 20 minutes from my current home. I left home with a fleece-lined sweatshirt and was chilly, but then I got to the land and it was humid! By the time we were half way on the walk, I had sweat dripping down my back! The watershed, although breezy, is SO hot when the sun is out.

 Although the NRCS wasn't there just to give me plant i.d.'s, they did their best to help me out along the way of things that I had not been able to identify yet on my own. They are really awesome people, wanting the same goal as those of us who choose to have their land in a land program. Although that was the initial decision of the seller, and the program is permanent, it is a responsibility that we gladly took over. They confirmed that I do have a lot of Autumn Olive growing on the watershed preserve, and there's a couple of small flowering trees out there that have not been identified yet. I am a standstill on removing large invasive plants/trees from anywhere on the land until June when we get our tractor.

They were able to help me identify this flowering dogwood, something I had been waiting anxiously to find! Sadly, it is not on my land, but right on the border next to land the seller stills owns. So maybe some day. 

Because we don't have a tractor yet and Spring is upon us and making things wake up, some areas were difficult and painful to walk through. Many things with thorns! Though, I nearly walked right past plant when one of the NRCS managers pointed out that this is bee balm. Although I would have been to identify it once it flowered, I never would have guessed it now. So interesting to see how different plants look along their growing life, but it can lead to a lot of frustration as well.

I took them to the patch of the Golden ragwort. There really was no reason to other than to share my excitement. They were gracious enough to allow the little detour. As you can see, the deer--or some other animal--walked right the center and broke the tape. I will clean it up when I am there next. The tape was just to keep humans from tromping through them. I have found a couple of strays of these plants along a walking path in a spot far away from these as well.

This crazy thing, I caught just out of the corner of my eye! Located in a small tree growing out of the ditch along the main pond, I was really hoping it was not a spiders cocoon of some sort. I'm a nature girl, but that would have been terrifying. Turns out it could possibly be Tent Worms and there was a bit o' debate in the Nature group I belong to as to remove them or not. The tree they are growing in is a volunteer (meaning, it wasn't planted) black cherry tree, a native tree but considered by some to be of low quality use to humans. I wasn't planning on using the tree or it's fruit, so I wouldn't take out for that reason. The location they are in makes it darn near impossible to remove them unless we want to use a tree pole saw and pretty much kill the tree. This is the only nest of them I have found so far, so I am not worried about them killing off our forests. The worms, once emerged, are a good food source for birds, and so for those reasons, they get to stay. And thank Gawd it wasn't spiders. Could you imagine?! 👀

And I noticed a lot of violets coming up there, though not as many as on my current property. Most of what I see is the dark variety, but this new property of ours has a light lilac colored variety and they are lovely little bits! 

It was a great time, again on the land! I learned a lot, got some plant i.d.'s, met a couple of great new people, and although I'm still overwhelmed, I am ready to tackle this! Turns out that I can start to remove invasive plants from the CRP immediately, so that is on my plan for the next trip out! Who am I kidding...removing invasives is probably going to be on my plan every time I go there!