Woodchuck and I went back and forth about if we should go to the land this past weekend. With heavy rain and powerful storms off and on all week, I wanted to see how the land held up. Woodchuck wanted to go too, however, he has been struggling with an onset of vertigo episodes lately and being out in the heat isn't helping! Not a great time for this to kick in with the tractor being delivered in about a week. 😬
Running later than we planned on, we headed out. Woodchuck threw a last minute request at me to stop at the Home Improvement store and knew I wasn't going to say no when he tempted me with the idea of looking for a tool to pull out invasive saplings with. So we made the trek to the town just past our land, dealt with many an idiot driver along the way, and then got in to the store where there were hardly any employees. I can't hold the store responsible, we are struggling with that where I work too.
We found a tool that we thought might work, (update: it didn't, and bent the first time we tried it) he proceeded to add to his mental list of what he wanted to look for and we must have wasted a good 15 minutes just trying to locate the stuff, only to waste another 15 minutes trying to locate an employee who could climb the rolling ladder to get something off of the top shelf. We waited 5 minutes and true to his Aries nature, Woodchuck grabbed the ladder and did it himself.
Back out on the road again, and heading to the land, we talked about how hard it is to leave there now. It's not even the case of always having something to work on, it just feels good to be there. The only part of it that I wasn't looking forward to seeing was the pond. It's already essentially overflowing, and with the several inches of rain we've gotten, I was worried it had taken over areas it wasn't meant to be in. We had no plans to do any work at all, we just wanted to walk around and check things out. I am so glad that we did!
I've mentioned before that being out on the prairie is my favorite place to be out there! Good energy, wide open, kind of the central spot where all of the nature gathers around. The skies were ominous and the turkey vultures all took flight above our heads. We checked the tripod frame hubby put together last time (see previous post), and it was still standing! We checked the blueberries, which are getting more plump.
We had to wear our rain and wader boots to get to them. Every time I made a step, pulling my boot out of the mud made a sucking noise and I wondered if that would be the time that it came off!
But HUZZAH! Finally saw a great plant and I am glad that we found it on this day because this area will be mowed soon!
Swamp rose! A native! And I have three or four plants of them that I was able to see! So, in order to save them from being mowed down, I will be taking some chicken wire and making a cage around them and then tying some survey tape to that cage. I was so excited to find and photograph them that I forgot to smell them! On the list for next time!!!
We did make the decision to walk to the watershed preserve. I can't say that Woodchuck was all that comfortable with the idea. Going to it from the side that we were, it's the one spot on the land that he's always worried he'll get lost on. It's so overgrown, with no real clear indicators, it's easy to get turned around and confused. It's also another spot where we have to walk a small amount of it on a neighbors land, to be able to get around to where we can enter the watershed. It's on our radar to clean up once we get the tractor, but right now it can kick your ass.
So I lead the way, stopping frequently to take pictures and ohh and ahhhh about plants and insects. He was much more patient with that this time than usual. He probably needed the break to let his head settle down! After climbing over some downed trees, we made it out on the watershed preserve. And holy sheep shit. You could totally get lost out there! Ferns and grasses as far as the eye can see, with a multitude of Autumn Olives standing tall above them. And an occasional MFR (multi-flora rose) mixed in. And right there, where you step out on to the preserve, is lots and lots of deptford pinks. We worked at pulling them, since I always try and carry a bag with me now anywhere I go on the land.
We could hear the ground was a bit squishy out here, but the dense vegetation kept us from sinking in anywhere. No standing water though, it's been so amazing to see how everything responds to the water! We didn't go too far out this time, it was making Woodchuck nervous, so we turned around. I had to lead the way again, though got a little a confused in one spot right off of the preserve. Do I keep straight or go a little to the right? We got it all figured out and made it back to civilization. Obviously. I'm not sitting in the weeds typing this up right now.
Next up? One more trip out before we get the tractor! I feel like we've waited so long and now it's going to be a mad dash to get things prepped for it! We each have our lists of things to get done before its arrival, so stay tuned!
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