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.