The naming of Das Zem and the little old lady who thought I was nuts

 As promised in the previous post, here's a quick little story about how I came up the name of the land, and a resulting conversation with a most adorable German gal.

We are into naming things. Some of our friends are too. While I recently named  hubby's new tractor Betsy, hubby instantly said no, it's name is Ginny, after his late mother. (Love you, Ma!). If I get a small riding lawn mower, I will name that too. I have to meet it first though before I decided on what.

Every time we talked about the land, we'd refer to it as The Land. Kind of boring, doesn't invoke much about how that land feels to us, or anything about us. So we spent weeks kicking around names, and hubby even sent me several pages of potential names from the Internet. I wanted The Land to tell us what it wanted to be named, and I knew it needed to include some of our heritage. I am Native, Irish, English and German. Hubby is Slovak and Irish and I don't know what else.

I figured since we already call it The Land, maybe I could figure out a way to call it that, but in German and Slovak. A little Google search and listening to some words, and there it was! Das Zem. The Earth, or loosely, The Land. Me likey! Hubby likey! And so it was done.

Fast forward a couple of months to this past week and this adorable customer of ours comes in with her grown son. She's German, feisty, has a beautiful accent, and ice blue eyes that peg you where you stand. While I had her at the register ringing out, I asked if I could run a couple of words past her. I explained that we had recently purchased land and had wanted to name it, and I wanted to make sure that I was saying what I thought we were and not some cuss words, or craziness.

I said the words and she flared up. What? Why? What are those words and why do I want to name land?! She fires off at me. Her son is standing like a deer in headlights, probably willing me--obviously unsuccessfully--to shut the hell up. I explain to her why we wanted to name it, and that I am German and he is Slovak, etc. etc. etc. Anyone else in the vicinity has now stopped what they are doing and is listening with abated breath. I'm getting nervous.

This elderly German gal just can't understand what I'm saying or my reasoning for any of it. She asked if I was German, and I said yes and told her my maiden name. It was obviously said with a Midwest accent and not with a German accent, and once again she shook her head and couldn't understand it. She tried spelling it, and nope. Chances are, we are from a different area of Germany than she is. 

Why don't I just name my land Aufsland? She's exasperated now. How I've managed such stupidity and complexity in something that seems like it could be so much simpler is kind of my name of the game in life. Aufsland, while still sounding beautiful (when she says it), reminds me too much of "Oof". And here's the meaning of that:

Oof: expressing discomfort, as from a sudden exertion or a blow to one's body.

Um. Yeah. No.

So her son then speaks, and he's got a strong SOUTHERN accent, which is then pointed out by my manager who is standing beside me. His eyes get even bigger and before he can say anything his mother blurts out her disapproval of that accent, that he's 100% German with that Southern accent, and says that he's living in Tennessee. She also points out that they lived in Tennessee when he was growing up, but in Germantown. I looked at him with wide eyes and apologized for opening this can of worms. He says it's okay, it's the second time that day that he's had to hear it from her. 

Oops. Cough. So um, yeah, thanks for your time, have a great day! My beautiful slice of Das Zem in this crazy world means so much to us, even when nobody else understands its name. 💚

Losing track of time and how the hell is it already near the end of July?!

 It was inevitable. If I don't blog within a few days of being on the land, I'll lose track of what I've written about. Working 7 days a week in some capacity, and having my hands in many pots will do that. Even as I sit here typing this, I am up and down doing a few other things! So I had to look back through my pictures to kind of refresh my memory. Oh, okay! Now I remember!

We were taking the youngest boy to Das Zem on the latest trip. Hubby was going to teach him how to use the tractor, and I needed to be elsewhere because I was nervous about that! But I also wanted to check out the prairie, to see what I should save or harvest before it got mowed down. As much as I grappled with myself about just wanting to leave that prairie as it was the first year we owned Das Zem so I could see the stages it goes through and what all grows there, I understand our need to take it down and to see what kind of an area we were dealing with. 

So I ran out there while the guys got the tractor ready and began to harvest some more mullein blossoms. I really wanted to dig out the plants so that they were less likely to seed the area around them, but there wasn't time for that. As it was, I barely had time to save this beautiful spider that I found on one of the stalks. Not sure what she is, maybe I nursery web spider? Whatever she was, she was fast. I ended up cutting the mullein stalk and moving that whole piece, with her on it, to an area that wasn't getting mowed.

I took some old lavender cuttings with me to burn to help keep the mosquitos and flies away. With all of the rain and humidity, I knew they were going to be a problem. Burning old lavender cuttings smells amazing, they still have a lot of oil in them! But as you can imagine, they burn quickly. There is something to raw and spiritual and right about doing this on my land. (Don't worry, no wildfire hazard here, plus I burned a very tiny pile on sand and had a shovel nearby to smother it with more sand).

 I could hear the tractor coming! I grabbed a couple of yarrow too, most of which are nearing the end of their bloom cycle. And all of a sudden there was my boy coming on the tractor with my husband walking beside him. He looked so comfortable, unlike his mama (see previous post about my panic attack). He proceeded then to practice mowing on the prairie, and also knocking down an autumn olive that was out there. The tractor doesn't go fast, and I was pleasantly surprised that he was okay with that! Once he was done, we finally got to see again how the prairie looks without all of the growth. It had been months, and it still even then had the brush of the dead and dormant growth in the Winter. 

As of right now, our thoughts for this piece of land, that is not on any programs, is to dry out the wood from the trees that we take down. Eventually, we'd like to plant a pollinator garden (thought they do have a lot to choose from in the meantime on Das Zem!), a regular garden (I'd really like raised beds. My knees and hip are really acting up this year!), a well, an outdoor shower next to the well and I'd love a platform eventually where I can put all of the bones and rocks that I find out there! It would be a great spot then to meditate or do yoga. We'll see what of that list pans out over the years!

Although I really didn't want ANY Mowing down across from the prairie on the land that leads down to the pond, it really was getting too overgrown. Hubby and I agreed on ONE path, the width of the mower and that was it. I showed him where not to mow, and reiterated ONE path. That one path was going to wipe out a lot of the native blackberries that had just started to ripen, but I am trying to get better at realizing that I can't save everything. 

The guys moved the boat that is on the rack they built and a field mouse scurried out. The smell of urine was SO strong on that boat! I believe it could be the same mouse that's living in the fishing shack. Cute, gray, and pudgy. I marked more of the blue vervain and we talked again about what is getting mowed and while standing there, a Monarch lands on the blue vervain!!!

THIS is why I do what I do. THIS is why I continually fight the hubs and try to educate him that we don't need to go and clear everything. I also found another honeysuckle blooming along this strip of land in an area that we will be going to town clearing out and hopefully soon. But I planned on harvesting the blossoms in the meantime and hubby offered to mow up to it. That didn't happen, but he did mow a SECOND path on the part that he wasn't supposed to, because, that's what he does. *sigh* But I continually digress..

While the guys moved on to other projects, I decided to walk the path that had been mowed by hubby the first time he was out on the tractor. I wanted to see how it held up with all of the rain, how much it had grown back, and just wanted to observe and listen. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it hadn't grown a foot (or really at all) and was only holding water on one little spot where it normally does and is of no consequence. I found more bee balm/wild bergamot, I checked the milkweed I could reach for Monarch eggs (didn't see any, but I'm not well-versed in that), flicked off the phragmites and MFR (multi-flora rose), and checked the elderberry. I managed a shot of this little friend too.

I would stop every so often and look around and listen. I cannot believe that this is mine to care for! 

Looking over the second ditch at the watershed preserve like I did the previous time I was there, I made the final decision to try and reach it. I really want to see what all is growing! It is so tempting to try and traverse this part of the ditch, but the water is high and I am not dressed to go in water (found a pair of waders for sale at work and grabbed them! Can't wait to try them out!) It's always my fear too about mucky bottoms and getting stuck. Until we get a bridge built going across here, our access is super limited and super difficult.

So I turned around and figured I'd go to the spot where the ingress/egress comes off the main path and enters the watershed. I had the heavy duty mosquito spray on, surely it will hold up? I make my way back, enter the overgrown access point and am immediately greeted by Brunhilda mosquito and her very large family members. 

OMG, I had somehow left Das Zem and entered an alternate realm that was straight out of the Twilight Zone where the insects were super-sized and I was clearly outnumbered and had no defense against them! They were attacking my ears and face, trying to fly up my nose! I turned-tail and got out of there fast, but not before I noticed more horsetail plants by where I dug some others out. I'm just going to have to be okay with seeing the native wildflowers from afar fright now and chipping away around the edges of the entry point when we can.

This was my haul for the day! Yarrow, catnip, mullein blossoms, honeysuckle blossoms, and bones.

Woodchuck had to follow up with the USDA the next day about the land we want to remove from the CRP program. There has been a bit of confusion about how to draw the boundaries for the piece that we want to remove and it seems that we learn something new each time we interact with or about Das Zem. What he learned was that the strip of land from the edge of the front CRP forest to the road that the land sits on is also part of the CRP program! We had no idea! It was not disclosed by the seller, nor seemed to be indicated on satellite or aerial views of the land.

The seller was supposed to have planted that strip with trees approved for the CRP, and didn't. Our plans for that strip may have changed now with this new knowledge! We were going to remove all dead and non-native trees from right at the edge of the already verified CRP and then plant rows of sunflowers there for some color and to add some more privacy from the gaps in the forest. We were also going to use that strip as parking for when we have family get togethers, and we were toying with the idea of having a small produce and soap stand once we are living out there. Not only does this new information potentially change those ideas, but my interactions with the public the past few months really have me questioning if I want to deal with sales there. That land is sacred to me, it's going to be an emotional and mental reprieve for us, and to have anything other than peaceful interactions on that turf is not something that appeals to me/us.

Luckily we don't have to make a decision now, and need to wait anyway to hear from the USDA about the land removal, etc. (hoping to have the answer by the end of the month). It's been a nice year of just kind of going with the flow and see where things land. Our plans and lists are already made for the next time we get out there! And yep, you guessed it, it's going to be hotter than hell again after some more rain a day or two before. Note to self: fill up the kiddie pool and chill some beer. Prost! ("cheers" in German!)

Oh and keep an eye open for a quick, cute little story about the name of our land, Das Zem (The Earth or loosely The Land) and the adorable, elderly German customer that came into the store I work at!

Date day...turned tractor day. Same thing, right?

 Hubby and I rarely spend time together anymore doing anything other than him sleeping in his recliner and me on the couch in the evenings. We knew that once we got the land, that was going to dominate all, but I still think it's important to break away from that from time to time and just focus on each other. Friday was going to be that day!

We had planned on heading to Michigan for some shopping and lunch. He had some stuff to do in town first and then was going to come home to grab me and then we'd head out. Finances told us "no" and we listened! So I went with him to his appointments (a new tire, tire rotation, and allergy shot), and lunch was a greasy, though tasty, egg roll from a truck stop deli. The day started very cloudy and somewhat chilly. It's starting to look more Fall-like in the skies, while down on the ground it's still looking like Summer. The changes in weather make me hurt even more than usual, and the humidity really knocks me down. But I put on my big girl pants and went about the day.

My goal, once we got home, was to start cleaning up the workshop. Our art is calling and we have no space to work on it since I have the let the workshop go for months on end. I do occasionally get out there and try to make a spot to make soap in, but then it all fills back in again. My side of the workshop is closest to the house, and the catch all for everyone and everything. It's also got a small deep freezer, the washer and dryer, the dehumidifier, the boy's college stuff like his dorm fridge, dishes, etc. and then there's some of hubby's stuff and during the off-season, it also stores the window a/c's. 

Little by little my space is being chipped away at, and the boy made a comment to me one night over dinner that I should clean it up. I told him that was too bad, it's my space, with everyone's else's shit taking over, and he can stay out of there if it bothers him. Not to mention that between my job, my art, my home, and Das Zem, I'm working 7 days a week. But he's right, and my intention is to get in there and make it a different space.

Hubby wanted to go to Das Zem though. He was itching to get on the tractor again, and he wanted me on there this time too. I worked as maintenance at a county park that I was a nature center attendant at, to help fill in a suddenly vacated spot. I loved being outside, but I hated the machinery. I got a crash course in how to use a zero-turn, a John Deere tractor with a bush hog on it, a weed whacker, a golf cart, etc. I was not looking forward to getting on a tractor again.

I picked up more garbage along the road that got uncovered with the first pass of mowing the day we got the tractor. I picked a couple of honeysuckle blossoms from the bush that he knocked over (on purpose, it's all coming out) and took stock of what was still left to knock over. One honeysuckle already had berries, so we'll have to wait to knock that one down. Once hubby was ready to come and clean up the mowing up front, I moved my car out of his way and headed to the prairie to harvest mullein blossoms. He was going to be mowing that ingress/egress path, our main pathway to the second CRP, and the main prairie. Anything needing to be saved from those areas needed to be saved quickly.

We have A LOT of mullein growing on the land. While not a native to Indiana, which is why I am in the process of pulling it, it does have a lot of good medicinal properties. I've dried some leaves, harvested some blossoms, and cut dead blossom stalks to make Witch Torches with. I try to utilize as much as I can from everything I find. I do have some guilt about harvesting and mowing. I think of all of the tiny creatures being affected by our actions. I asked a Mama Wolf Spider carrying her egg sac who crossed my path on the little roadway that we had to mow, to move along faster and get out of the way. I found this adorable crab-like spider on one of the mullein stalks, and told it that the mower was coming and it needed to get away quickly.

I look at my drying screen that these blossoms are now laying on, and see the casualties of my harvesting. Tiny little beetles, now dead, and probably so much more that I can't see. I feel so bad 😔But if I do that to myself over everything, I'll never get anything done on the land, and it needs us. It really, really needs us to get it back to healthy. Hubby and I did talk about leaving this prairie next season for longer for the pollinators. I'm watching it now to see how long it lasts in bloom, and when the Spring/Summer blooms are gone, what comes next? I want to give the best chance to all of the creatures that need those plants to survive.

The other side of the prairie, which I have yet to name, that leads down to the pond,= was not going to get mowed. There's too much here right now to save. The Swamp Rose, Bee Balm, St. Johns Wort, and lots and lots of blackberries that I want to see ripen! There's plenty of other areas to work on in the meantime. The bee balm/wild bergamot is in full bloom right now!

I could hear the tractor coming, my time had come to an end trying to harvest and save. As feared, hubby said it was my turn to get on. I told him no, he said, yes, and we went back and forth like that for a few minutes. Okay, I'll sit on it and you can show me what to do, but I'm not driving it. That prairie is not level and I can't walk across it without tripping into divots, I don't feel comfortable taking a tractor over uneven land. Another crash course ensued about all of the levers and pedals, and then he tells me to go. Nope. Not happening. We argued back and forth and then he jumps on the side board and tells me to go. Sweet Jesus. While I felt a little better that he was on there with me, now I had to be even more careful to not get too close to the ditch and dump him.

I made that first pass, with him on board, and got just over halfway around the prairie when I had a massive panic attack. He tried to talk me into staying on and I told him I was getting off now and would jump off and stall it if I needed to. So he hurried up and hit all of the gears, levers and pedals and let me off. I think it's a combination of the noise, vibration, size, and uneven ground that sets me off. This is, absolutely, his toy. Have fun, honey! He finished the circle, made another pass around, cutting in closer to the outside edge and then left the rest of it for our son to practice on. A whole other sort of panic sets in at that thought!

With that area done, and hubby still not ready to put the new toy away, we headed out to start mowing the ingress/egress path farther in on the land, which is also our own path in most spots. This path, once past the first CRP forest, is one of the most difficult areas to walk right now. It's thorny, supremely overgrown, and it shows you who's your Mama real fast. I had to run ahead and pull the flags that the NRCS laid down to mark the path that they needed accessible, while also looking to make sure that hubby wasn't going to take anything important down (there's always going to be some casualties, sadly). There's a lot of milkweed in one area where the path branches off to follow the second ditch, or to make a turn onto the watershed. I know the monarchs are laying their eggs right now! UGH!

It was now or never, let's do it! Hubby looks so comfortable and natural driving that thing. I feel like an ant trying to drive it. He went all the way down the path to our land marker and then had to try and turn around without harming anything I wanted left. A couple of Sumacs didn't survive the adventure, but luckily we have lots of those!

There he goes! What an incredible transformation in just making this one pass through! It enabled me to see so much more of what was growing along the edges. The last time I was able to walk this easily was early Spring, and the Summer stuff isn't awake then, obviously! Lots and lots of bee balm! Indian Hemp! Sadly, I can see lots of MFR (multiflora rose) as well. Ugh. It's big and obnoxious too. I'll get to it, I'll get to everything in time.

Looking back at what he's already mowed, and OMG, the smell is so intoxicating!

I can *just* see the watershed at one spot over the second ditch, and some flowers blooming there. My goal next time out on the land is to get to that area. We were thinking about mowing a path around the perimeter of the watershed, so we can still access areas we need to work on, but I want to see what is growing out there first. It's not going to be easy getting to it, that's for sure! Hubby wasn't ready to finish mowing the ingress/egress onto the watershed access point, so we called it a day and headed the tractor back. I was happy with the progress! I think we achieved a lot in just one fell swoop! Time to head home and relax!

The weather on our normal day to head to the land again wasn't good, so we stayed home and THEN I was able to start cleaning out the workshop! I warned the guys it wasn't going to get done in one day, so I didn't want hear any comments about how it didn't look any different.

I know it doesn't translate well in pictures how different it looks, but the whole back seat of my car is piled with donations to take to a resale shop! And hey, at least I can walk through and access all key points of my supplies. Still not done yet, I need to get the table cleaned off, but for working on it for more than a few hours, I'm happy with the results from the first day.

Oh and, the boy had a box of electronics on this side. It is now in his bedroom. Tell Mom to clean up her workshop and she does! Get yer' shit out of my space!

The tall brown cabinet came out of our kitchen since we are getting kitchen new cabinets next week, and a dear friend came by to pick it up so she can use it in her home. I love being able to pass things along!

So before the cleaning started, Woodchuck and I had a "business meeting" over coffee about some art projects that we are wanting to do for our next show. I won't post any pictures here about that, at least right now. The big show is at the end of September, so we are running out of time! Funny how last we checked we had months and months to prepare and now we are down to 2 months and didn't finish anything along the way! Not like we haven't been busy or anything............

A day of rest and a day of machines.....two posts in one!

 I have suffered from arthritis my whole life, and a yet undiagnosed auto-immune disease. They go hand in hand and it has been a long road to get some relief. The humidity the past few weeks has been nearly unbearable, and this coming from someone with a very high pain tolerance. My shoulders, my hip, my hands. Ugh. Working 7 days a week between my "real job", the land and my art catches up, and I needed a day of rest.

So while Woodchuck and the boy made a ramp into the storage container (for the tractor when it arrives), I rolled my work cart out to the prairie, intending to do some work at a very slow pace. I managed only to harvest some wild garlic, and tag the plants that I don't want mowed down. And then, I had to stop and rest. The energy on the prairie can be disorienting for me, all of the energy from the surrounding lands meets there. But I love it, because it's wide open, and when it's sunny, you get the sun full force! I pulled a wall from my cart and laid down in it. And then a green heron flew by to the pond. I could get used to this.

On this day I tagged swamp rose, which I finally took the time to smell and it was so intoxicating! The bumbles loved it, going into a frenzy and practically rolling around on them!

I also tagged the St. John's Wort, Bee Balm, harvested some more wild garlic, and identified more of the Yellow toadflax, which has now exploded around an Autumn Olive. I checked the blueberries, but they still aren't anywhere near ready and I just relaxed and enjoyed the land. It was too hot and muggy to force myself like I usually do. Once we got home, I did more of the same. Hubby filled up my kiddie pool, I mixed a drink, and lit my incense. I spent my 4th of July alone, nerdy and Indigenous. A-HO!

Fast forward two days and hubby and I went back to meet the company delivering our tractor. A much anticipated day! It was like trying to breathe thru pea soup, it was so muggy, and just standing still we were dripping sweat. The company was running behind, so we picked up garbage along the front by the road. I also found some animal bones in Das Zem (The Land). Just call me HexenKnochenjager (Witch Bone Hunter). I like that name! Spooky. Badass. Yet natural.

Also found a precious little snake that looks like I may have driven over when I pulled on to the land. RIP, little death noodle. 💚🐍

But the tractor finally arrived and a crash course in learning how to use it ensued. I let hubby have all of the fun, I was too sore to try and wrangle with a tractor. And I had flashbacks of my time working at the county parks, using all of that loud, obnoxious machinery that just seems so out of place in natural, quiet places. I know it's necessary to have it, and it will make our lives much easier, but my mind and heart still go to that place of feeling like it's wrong.

I haven't named it yet like I've seemed to name every thing else on Das Zem. But if I did name it, I'd name her Betsy. Welcome to The Land, Betsy. I'll try to keep hubby from breaking you....though I was a little slow about warning him to not try and take down that one tree....and then he stalled your blades...welcome to my life, Betsy. Welcome to my life.

On a side note, we are finally, FINALLY remodeling our kitchen at home. We've lived in this house 20 years and the kitchen was outdated when we moved in. The builder also used a lot of reclaimed materials when he built this place. It's been an adventure full of cuss words, let me tell you. So why are we working 7 days a week? Well, our youngest is in college, so there's the main reason; but also to be able to do work on the house that we never could when all of the money was going to raising our boys. Family first. 

After leaving Das Zem the other day after tucking the tractor in to rest, we stopped at the place that we ordered our cabinets and countertop from. It had been so long since we ordered them that we couldn't remember precisely the colors to be able to pick flooring out that would look ok against it. So we stopped and got pictures. We had already decided on the paint color, a light sage called "Jitterbug". Not thrilled about the name, but the color is exactly what I hoped for! Hubby started painting the walls yesterday while the youngest and I were at work.

Once the kitchen is done, nobody is allowed in there! Well, okay. They can go in there and stand, but they can't touch anything, cook, eat, etc. I've waited a long time for a kitchen where we didn't have to rinse out a pot or bowl before using it because it had wood splinters in them and the guys will just mess it up! 

Until next time..........