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!
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.
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! 💗
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