An opening!

 We lucked out and got one more nice day! It was so nice that it felt like Spring, which scrambles the brain. Fall colors and Spring temps and smells. But I am not complaining one bit! We loaded up early and headed for the woods, ready to keep chipping away at the invasives. You know the routine by now, Woodchuck gets the tractor ready while I walk and say good morning to the land and all that inhabits it.

It looks cold and dreary in the above picture, right? It was very overcast and threatening rain, but it was warm enough to just wear a long-sleeve shirt! Our beautiful maples that were full of harvest gold colored leaves a week prior had dropped them all. I see a row of honeysuckle underneath them that I need to remove though. That will be on the next trip out!

The pond was full and overflowing, but we are at the time of year when the watermeal starts to clear away. I could stand here for hours and this may be my spot to sit on overcast days while working on dreamcatchers or beadwork.

Woodchuck made his way over to the area we are working on, with Ginny the Tractor. I fought valiantly to save the blue vervain plants between the pond and fishing shack, and now need to look up how to replant them, or start them from their seeds. I worked on cutting and treating more of the usual invaders.

 and when I looked up, Woodchuck was over by the blueberry bushes. WAIT! We didn't talk about that area and what might need to be saved! 😱

So I went running over there to see what his plan was and to make sure he didn't take any of the bushes down by accident. I couldn't believe how close we were to opening up this entire area. What was once a wall of thick crap vegetation that couldn't be penetrated by human body was now becoming a wide open and usable space.

Those little blobs of red bushes in the distance are some of our blueberry bushes. In need of a pruning, for sure! I can't believe we opened this up! It felt so daunting over the Summer to stand there getting shredded by thorns and eaten up by mosquitoes. While looking around, Woodchuck said, "15 acres ain't shit, I should have bought the 20." 😂

Once he had his fill of this area, he went and started chipping away at the edge of the main ditch. I kind of wish he had left most of it, as there was a lot of sumac there, but I know his reasons for trying to clear it. He ended up finding a couple of Woodchuck holes and talk about ankle breakers! I'll get pictures of them the next we are out there. The seller told us about the Woodchucks and the issues he had with them and what he did about it, and I know hubby's plans for them, but I can't handle hearing it. I guess I just feel like there is always a way to handle these kinds of things differently, it just depends on the amount of time and effort that you want to put into it. It's wild and natural land, creatures live in those places.

All of the dark ground is where he mowed. The picture doesn't do it justice in how much he did!

The breeze picked up, the clouds were racing across the sky, and what started as a few sprinkles quickly became a rain that had water dripping from the rim of my hat. I really wanted to walk in the second CRP. Something there keeps calling to me, and I haven't been in there in months. But it was time to call it quits. Woodchuck wanted to make a trip into the next town over before heading back the other way to home and other errands in other towns. While he went into the hardware store I ran into a resale shop that was next to it (corporate owned, not independently owned). I wasn't impressed. For as difficult as my job was at the resale I worked at, I loved it there. It was wide open, bright, and the resale shop I loved to shop at for years before I started working there. Yesterday was my last day working there and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. That job was 100 times more physical than I ever expected, we were all doing the job of at least 5 people, and let's keep it real, retail is rough. People are SO MEAN and entitled. I finally got smart and listened to myself that I don't want that, or deserve that. Time to manifest my destiny and surround myself with my future! 💗

Chipping away!

 I know, I know. Did I fall off of the face of the Earth? It has been c-r-a-z-y around here. The good news, at least in every way but financially, is that I have resigned from my job. This girl won't take it any more and I am SO excited to only have one week left. Woodchuck, poor Woodchuck, is still working 6 days a week and they have changed his off day from Sunday to Wednesday. We adjusted and still tried to get in as many trips to Das Zem as we could fit in before the weather turned, which happened this morning.

But leading up to this day, we were chipping away still at the invasives while we waited to hear back from the contractor we hired. But we didn't hear back. So that work is still on hold. We did however fight against bittersweet (there's still one massive growth of it wrapped around a large tree), AO and honeysuckle. Removing the larger bushes/trees of those revealed so many little saplings starting. It is just something that I know that I will have to keep checking on and keeping up with. It was mind-boggling to see how it all had taken over. But we are taking it all back. 

                            The top two pictures are before we started chipping away at the mess. 

All of that dark ground between me and the tractor used to be all honeysuckle and autumn olive. That tree that is by the bush hog deck is the one that is dripping with bittersweet berry clusters. We have decided in the midst of all of the invasive carnage that we will also be burning down the fishing shack. 1) it's too close to the water now with the failed banks and spreading water 2) it stinks. They raised birds in there and I can't stand that smell. 3) it's infested with mice and wasps and was never really completed anyway. 4) a tiny shipping container will solve my issues and give me a spot to store Pink. Speaking of!

Pink is now in her permanent home after being tested a few times here at our current home. That was nice to not have to spend an hour and a half push mowing! Because of my knee and hip issues, I wasn't able to use her because my legs are too short to reach the pedals without over-extending.

The pond is full and overflowing again, but we can see that the deer are making good use of the space we cleared. 

We also decided to start tackling the bittersweet and other invasive growth along our main ditch (we call it the front ditch, but it runs behind the front CRP.) We cut a massive bittersweet vine that had embedded and wrapped itself around a growing poplar tree. 

We also took down honeysuckle, AO, and the massive MFR (multiflora rose) that I found in the Spring. Before pictures.

                  Along the way and after pictures are below. All of the dark ground was where the                                                                         honeysuckle, AO, and MFR were.

As always, I/we took time to walk and take it all in. The changing colors, the sound of leaves crunching underfoot. There is much beauty and magick in this place! 

So what will I do with myself now that I am leaving my job? Hoping to work on the land as much as Woodchuck's schedule allows, keep cleaning my house out, get caught up on art projects, and take care of myself. Even though I was only at my job for over a year, I feel like I gave 4 years worth of energy and commitment to them in that time. I am one burnt out girl. A minor surgery may also be on my horizon, but I have a couple of weeks yet before I find out for sure. So in other words, I think I'm going to take a couple of weeks for myself and my family. We'll be starting baking soon...making sausage, pierogi, pagach, nut rolls, etc. We'll be making our Winter scented soaps this coming week as well. 

We have been consistently behind on our art this year, but we are starting to get caught up. Woodchuck just did this custom order of fixing this family heirloom.

I am just getting ready to finish up this custom bead order of an Indian corn pendant.

Once this is done, I have to move on to ferns, salmon, and beaded feathers. So grateful for the skills that the Great Spirit and my Ancestors have passed on to me! 💚 )O(