Camping on Das Zem!

 Pinch me, I might be dreaming. Seriously. What a lucky girl I am! Woodchuck and I were talking about how great it would be to start camping on the land, get to experience it on a different level, and at different times of the day (and night) than we usually do. After we made a stop to the land on our recent date day to set up the tent, all we had to do was to wait for the night we could actually stay out there! Two days of anticipation before it could finally happen! We set up the tent on a Thursday and had to wait until Saturday to camp. We had a hard time figuring out where to put the tent, wanting it more in the open, but not wanting to deal with the wind tunnel that is created there and taking the chance that the tent would be damaged during our two day wait, or when we were out there. Hindsight now, when we went to take the tent down, we put it up precariously close to a tree that was not healthy and had been losing limbs. Rookie mistake!

We each had to work on Saturday, with me getting off later than Woodchuck. He had every thing packed and in one spot so we could load my car up as soon as I got home. I admit that I was a little leery about heading out so late, would it feel worth it? We ended up getting there around 7 p.m. and while we were losing light fast, luckily there was still enough for us (Woodchuck) to split wood and get the grill going.

Due to the ongoing drought, we made sure to clear even more of an already cleared spot on the prairie and had water available to douse things if we needed to. Much gratefulness was given over this beautiful place that we are now stewards of, and many beers were had. We finally ended up eating around 8 p.m.! We had always wondered what the night sky looks like on Das Zem, and I have to say that it doesn't look all that different from where we live right now. We are lucky to live in a tiny little farming town, with not a lot of streetlights. That makes viewing the stars possible! But the fact that were able to see them for the first time on our land couldn't be beat! I also am excited to eventually see a Full Moon out there!

We forgot something up at the front CRP storage container and walked back to get it. I asked hubby to shut the light off that we were carrying and this is what it looked in the trees. 

I had no fear though, but I thought I would. We feel so in-tune with this place. Like it is us and we are it, no separation. While initially overwhelming, between the two of us and people we know, there's nothing that we don't feel like we can handle. We made our way back to the prairie to our site and finally got to sit and relax for a little bit! 

Working 7 days a week between our regular jobs, finishing projects to get the house ready for the market in a few years, working on the land and preparing for our big art show, there's no time to exhale right now. But we are both losing steam and it was nice to finally enjoy what we have worked so hard for. We stayed up away past our bed time....until 10:30!

We were both quite interested to find out what kind of animal sounds we would hear. To date, the majority of what we hear is birds....and the neighbors barking dog. Seriously, peeps, show that pooch some attention! I did finally see two deer pouncing away when I pulled onto the prairie! So now I've seen deer, hubby has seen turkey, and we've found what we think is coyote poop. Oh yeah, and the ground nest of the yellow jackets. 

So off to bed we went! NOT a comfortable nights sleep for two people with various bodily injuries and arthritis. Woodchuck doesn't think I filled the mattress enough. All I know is every time my nearly 200 pound lumberjack moved I was bounced around and nearly right off the mattress. I'll fill it a little more next time. 

Did we hear anything that we thought we would? Nope. But the breeze would catch the Oaks and Poplars and the leaves would wake me up and I'd smile. That is one of my favorite sounds! I was uncomfortable. Too hot with the sleeping bag, too cold without it, and constantly waking up. Somewhere around 3:30 a.m. I heard a sound that I could not place, but it was loud and animal. I jumped and accidently elbowed Woodchuck in the back, but then smacked his back repeatedly when the sound became numerous and louder. Crows. After the initial one sounded off a strange call, a handful of them came screaming out of the forest. I admit it scared the shit out of me initially.

And then I started to think about if something had scared them out of the forest, or was this natural behavior for them? I was laying there waiting to hear or see something come out of the trees. But nothing ever did. After a quick look online, it seems that crows do tend to head out early in the morning. Will be interesting to see if they repeat that behavior on future camping trips there!

We woke up later than I expected we would in the morning, but after a crappy night of sleep, that was okay. The sun hadn't quite made over the trees yet when we fired up the grill for breakfast, and had the last two beers. It took the edge off and we wouldn't be driving for several hours. Breakfast of champions!

Ok, admittedly the eggs look disgusting, but they tasted great! We forgot eating utensils, except for one that I keep in a bag in my car, but had leftover burger buns! We shared the one spoon we had and toasted the buns so they could hold the eggs. Yummy!

We planned our day out as we watched sun come up over the trees, and said our Good Mornings to the creatures, including this Viceroy.

The plan was to finally, FINALLY get some help removing honeysuckle from the front CRP. It needs to be done before the contractor starts clearing the land, to lessen the likelihood of spreading the honeysuckle. Plus, some of them are too big now for me to be able to get out alone. I knew Woodchuck was going to hate it, but it needed to be done. We filled two or three large black garbage bags full and then to make it go faster, we laid the rest in the trees to grab next time.

I think next time I head out there, I'm just going to lop off the root system, throw that in the black bag and save the rest of the plant to burn since we are going to have several burns there this Fall/Winter.

Before we knew it, it was time to leave and head home. We knew we wouldn't be back for at least a week or two, with the temps skyrocketing again, humidity being high, and us trying to get ready for our art show. We finally got rain yesterday, after weeks without it, and it looks like it will be raining today too, with a cold front coming thru. It's right about now, even when I wasn't a land owner, that I start panicking internally. Harvest season signals the coming hibernation season. I feel a sort of frenetic energy internally, like how yellow jackets behave at the end of Summer. 

We have harvested all of the elderberry that we can from the land, and from our current home, we have a lot of grapes. Making grape juice and trying to make jelly is eating up any free time I might have and I'm about ready to offer for friends to come pick grapes if they want them. I finally got my jelly jars to seal (that's been an issue in the past for me), but the jelly didn't set. So I tried the remedy for that and they still didn't set. Maybe next year I'll just sell the grapes and grape juice and leave the jelly making in the past with my Grandmother. I clearly don't have the touch for it. Sorry, Grandma!

Harvesting and clearing!

 I thought that we were busy before, but things have gotten even more crazy! From trying to make as much headway with clearing areas on the land as we can, to harvesting and re-using as much as I can. It is always around this time that my seasonal internal clock starts ticking and counting down. Fighting off the hibernation gene that has clicked on, I am gathering, gathering, gathering in preparation for weather that is more conducive to staying inside.

After spending many weeks counting down the days until we could start working with invasives in certain areas, we are now counting down the days until we can do the burn along the ditches as we wrestle with the invasive plant species.

You might be wondering why we would burn versus cutting all of the crap down? Well, there's a couple of reasons. 1) Those ditches are steep and deep, particularly the front one. 2) We need the roots of the trees and plants to help shore up the edges of the ditch and to keep them from eroding. While we may be able to reach some of the plants to cut them down, we won't be pulling them out.

We started clearing some of the AO (autumn Olive) and honeysuckle out from behind the fishing shack and although we can see the progress, it's still slow going and we are finding that our tractor can't handle what we thought it might be able to. Please note that this part of the land is not on any land programs.

Because of the time of year, the AO and honeysuckle have their berries, so we have to be careful in how we handle the bushes right now. We piled it all next to where we cleared and will burn it all this Fall/Winter. I'll stay on the lookout for sprouts that I can pull or treat right away. This area will have to be something we continually chip away at and oh! I found a ground yellowjacket nest right in front of this spot. How we never got stung leading up to and on this day, I don't know. The nest has been marked and we are checking into ways of dealing with it. Add another thing to the list!

So far we have harvested about 30 ounces of elderberries from Das Zem! I made an elderberry syrup from the first batch and have frozen the rest of the berries to use over the Winter. We might get another ounce or so picked this weekend and than that will be the last of them. We have 3 little trees, one of which is very young and very close to being in the water. I'm hoping we can save it! Please note that this part of the land is not on any land programs.

Having to switch gears to another area, we started clearing the vegetation along the North edge of the pond. This side has the healthiest bank, and is in the most open and accessible area. We need to get it cleared so that the contractor can see the pond better in order to know how to fix it. It also enabled us to see what all was growing right there.

Found lots of spotted touch-me-nots, a little bit of milkweed, a smoking tree, a barberry, a boxwood, lots and lots of raspberry, etc. We will burn what is right at the edge of the pond since we don't have a way to get to those plants. We are anxiously awaiting the contractor coming to start prepping the land and fixing the pond within the next month! Many battles were fought on this day.

I am still finding and gathering bones as well on the land usually found while pulling honeysuckle from the CRP's. 

Pulling honeysuckle, especially the larger ones that I can't get on my own, from the front CRP is the plan for the next trip out. We need to get them pulled before the contractor starts clearing the land. But we are also trying to relax on the land a bit more, after spending a little time recently cooking out and relaxing on the prairie (after working out there, of course! Work and then play!), we are preparing to spend our first night out there this weekend.

We have had this tent for over 3 years now and haven't used it. We did set it up once in the yard to air out and so I could clean it (we traded a friend for it, so it was used when we got it). It was...an adventure putting it up again. First, we had to figure out where to put it. There's kind of a wind gully coming from the North, over the pond and through the prairie, so decided to put it off to the side and tucked along the tree line instead of out in the middle more where we really wanted it. 

Second, I had to save the life of this feisty toad. He was not happy about being moved, but he would have felt worse getting stepped on by hubby. Please note, handling any type of wildlife is frowned upon when not necessary. Handling toads and frogs, especially with bare hands, pulls their protective coating from them. I did have my gloves on, and I would not have handled him if it wasn't necessary to keep him from getting harmed.

Being out on the prairie can get very warm with the sun blazing down on you. So since I had on a sports bra, I took off my shirt (I had a pair of jeans on). Lately, insects are loving my right hip. A yellowjacket started to sting me there a few days ago until I jumped and startled it off of me. Then yesterday, something that I couldn't identify, kept landing on my hip and chest. I absently swiped it away, accidently hitting it, and all of a sudden I smelled like a pooped my pants! It was on my hand and hip, but there was nothing visible! Hubby could even smell it, it was so strong! It was not a stinkbug, but I still have not figured out what it was. That was my intro to camping. Wait, what? You didn't now that I've never been camping? Yep. This nature girl has never been camping in her life. Mainly because of allergies and asthma. And with hubby's sleep apnea and needing a CPAP machine when he sleeps, we may both be up all night! Fun times! I may be up all night anyway, afraid of the inky black darkness out there and what will be moving around in it. Even more fun times!

Back here on the home front, things have been even more crazy. Trying to finish the kitchen update and running into all kinds of snafu's with the flooring. Always the flooring in this house. My goal is to have the flooring done this weekend so we can move on to the other little things that need to be done in there and I can get my house cleaned back up in time for Halloween decorating.

I recently harvested our white grapes and juiced them. Next up will be the concords, which we need to check this weekend.

I am also very nearly done using up the black willow frames we made from what we harvested on Das Zem. Woodchuck seems like he's ready to start getting more out, so hopefully we can and then make more frames and other items to use over the Winter.

I've also started working on the witch torches. Dried mullein stalks harvested from Das Zem, vintage hot pot bought at my job, beeswax pellets found at a resale shop, freezer paper scraps are leftovers that I keep from when we make soaps. I'll be burning this one on Das Zem tomorrow night to see how it goes. I wasn't sure how much beeswax needs to be on it. The only thing I know is it should be burned outside and will making little popping sounds as the seeds burn. I used the biggest stalk I had because that would not be one that I would sell. Smaller is better, I found.

Woodchuck and I are getting ready for a big oddities and curiosities art show coming up at the end of the month, so pardon me if things get even more...weird....around here.