Rainy day treasures

 After running many errands in the morning, Woodchuck and I headed to the land on his day off this past week. Storms were in the forecast literally all day, so we weren't sure if we'd make it or for how long, but it ended up that the weather peeps were wrong and although drizzly and everything was soaking wet, we really lucked out while we were out there! The plan this trip was to start removing honeysuckle from the second CRP forest, assess how bad it was, see what else was going on in there, and to try one more time to plot the house and garage. It had been MONTHS since we stepped foot in those trees, and I wasn't expecting a whole lot of anything that would be time consuming. I need to stop thinking that way! 

I remember the first couple of times I walked in that forest, it seemed so...dead...to me, energetically speaking. Now it's usually reversed and it feels so wild and mystical! We found our first row in and right away were greeted with honeysuckle. So many that we filled the large bag before we even finished walking the first row! A new plan had to be formed, so we decided to stop with that and walk the forest to see what we were up against. 

Last year we had made some wooden arrows and sprayed them fluorescent colors and put them at the corner points. There's a bit of a cut-out that doesn't belong to us and I was always confused which way to go. Woodchuck did NOT want to spend the time on that project, nor seemingly any project that I need done, but he made the comment on our walk that he was glad that I had foresight to have him put those up because it makes it MUCH easier to know where to go. Point for me!

We found LOTS of honeysuckle, which was disheartening, especially when they are larger than I can handle on my own, but I am not entirely surprised. I am irritated, however, that the peeps that own the rest of the CRP around us have done nothing to eradicate the invasives in their portions. Not only does it make it harder for me to keep that shit out of my part of the CRP, but it is mandated that they do so by the USDA as long as those CRP's are in the land program. But I have already seen from the state of our land that guys buy that stuff up, accept in the tax-exception terms, hunt them, and then don't do the work otherwise. I told Woodchuck that maybe that's my new business adventure. Charging people around me to go into their portions and clean them up. Nah. I've got my hands full with what we own.

Here's the first spot we worked on. The before 👇

The after 👇 Though I can still some green in there....

I found a Valentine's Day Mylar balloon along our walk, so I picked that up to carry it out. Also found a couple of bones and 3 turkey feathers.

So, we found more honeysuckle than I anticipated to, some multi-flora rose (luckily just babies right now), and the garlic mustard is starting to pop up. It will to be a weekly thing to get out there and walk the land to look for those things, and to catch the garlic mustard and pull it before it seeds. We also found a very large grapevine wrapped around a tree and Woodchuck wasn't leaving until it was out, and he also macheted the vine near the ground.

We marveled at how beautiful the land is, how lucky we are to own it now, some of the projects that we need to think about getting started on, and when. Unfortunately, with all of the rain and not being to clear out the ditches yet, the second ditch is now full and the drain pipe to the pond is blocked. We used branches to try and clear the opening as much as we could to get the water flowing again, but we already knew that every spot that holds water out there needs work. I hate relying so much on Woodchuck, but I just don't have anyone else that can help me.

For the first time, we saw a Hooded Merganser on the main pond, along with a nesting pair of geese. I couldn't get a picture of the Merganser, but this is what they look like.

What I thought was the female goose is actually the male! Woodchuck had to show me where she is nesting, so perfectly camouflaged! Male 👇

Can you spot the female on her nest? 👇

One added bonus gift from the land? Lots and lots and lots of wild garlic/onions, though they are usually mowed over before it can continue to grow. Every once in a while I pop one out and nibble 😉

Over the next couple of weeks I would love to get out to the land as much as possible. Once May hits, things likely are going to get crazy, especially at the beginning of the month. Woodchuck has some health issues going on right now, one of which we'll find out a longer term plan for on the 4th, then he has surgery for another issue on the 5th and I need to pick up the youngest boy from college on the 6th. I'm in the process of making a back-up plan for picking up the youngest on a different day, but our options are minimal due to the dorms closing on a specific date and when he has finals. I also want to get a large amount of art ready for the next art drop that will happen THIS month at my friends shoppe so that there's enough to get her through most of May without me having to fit in working on art. I have a feeling that month is going to run away with us, because how is it already May anyway?!?!

The ups and downs

 I can't complain, life has been good to us during these past few years, considering the state of the world. But this year? It's already been a whirlwind! And I've already been angry more than I would like. I can only imagine how the rest of the building process is going to go based off of these past several months. Did it work out? So far yes and I am trying to focus on that! So let's get caught up about the past couple of weeks.

On March 28th, Woodchuck and I took a trip out there the day that the driveway was finished. I donned my hip brace, but it was too muddy even for a cane to make sure I didn't slip or fall. Prepping land for construction is a messy, messy business and is not for the faint of heart when you take a wooded land and clear it for building. The driveway looks fine, but will have to be touched up again after building and having all of the heavy equipment and trucks going over it. Honesty alert here: I always see long driveways heading into trees and think, "How the hell did they afford that?! And have fun plowing!" and now look at me. 😏

 It was shocking to see the rest of the trees down and moved, leaving an open space where we plan to plop ourselves down for the rest of our lives. My sadness over what we'd done to the trees turned to anger as the little privacy we had left was gone. Completely gone. Looking back at that moment, I can't blame anyone now. How were we to know what it would look like? Had the trees been thinned out along the way by the previous owner, they would have grown and filled in the whole way down the tree. But because he didn't thin them, they only grew their needles and "fluffed out" at the upper most portions. I felt a sense of sadness for them, those trees. Still beautiful to me, they had never reached their grandiose and intended growth because they were crowded. I've had a lot of people ask me if they will grow now, at least the ones on the outer most row where there isn't another tree on its side closest to the opening? Truth is, I don't know. I'm still learning about all of this, but my guess would be no. I also felt bad for us too. We bought a forest to live in a forest, only to have to take most of it down to build, thus removing the forest AND our privacy. Here and there in the white pines is poplar and juvenile oaks, and I love them all.

The more we walked, the more upset I got. Woodchuck was silent. He was probably afraid to say anything and make it worse! As we walked, we heard the contractor still out working on the ingress/egress road and we made our way over there. I let them talk, and I continued to walk down towards the pond and to just keep feeling the chaotic energy from the land being disturbed. I can always feel when someone else besides us has been out there. Liken it to a stone thrown in a pond and the rippling that ensues. 

I made my way back to the contractor and hubby and the guy looks straight at me and says, "I swear this land is cursed....Anything that could go wrong, did." I smirked. Serves you right you s.o.b., for taking 7 months to finally get to this job that you took on and it still took you over a month to get it done when your original quote was 3 days. I don't feel bad that you had equipment issues, rain, mud, etc. and frankly, I applaud any land that fights back against its demise. Now climb your ass back in that machine and get that road done. And he did.

He cut it close. I was hoping everything would be done by nesting season (typically April 1), and although I've been reading about some early nesting taking place, he did finish it by the first of the month. When you remove entire big trees down to the even pulling the roots, you create pockets, voids, divets, and the land loses even more ability to "process" or hold water. Pair the removal of those trees with weeks of getting rain nearly every day and that road became 4 inches of gonna-eat-your-boot-and-make-you-like-it mud and puddles of water deep enough to go over my foot. But that is where the NRCS deemed fit for that road. The contractor called later that night and said he had to stop, his machine was just maker deeper ruts, and he wants the NRCS to look at it before he does anything else. We were told after the fact by the NRCS that the road needed to be close to 20 foot wide. Well, it'll fit a vehicle, so we crossed our fingers and waited for the day to come when we met them out there.

As usual, learning about what we have, and the plants, heals and soothes me, so that's what I focused on after the fact. We left for that day, vowing to come back in a couple of more days when we had the day off and more time to take it all in, and we were going to start plotting where the house and garage would go.

On March 30th we returned.

Once again it was rainy, but warmer and that felt so much better at least! Woodchuck had appointments in the morning, and it was raining, but then we had a window open up in the afternoon when he got home, so we hit the road. We spent two hours walking in circles on the cleared plot, measuring, flagging, only to find that it wasn't going to work and we'd do it all over again and again, and again. Two.freaking,hours. 

This where we thought we were putting the garage. 👇

And this is where we thought we would put the house. 👇

My phone camera skews things and makes them look bigger or smaller than they are, or farther away then they are. Based off of what we were told about the septic and boar holes, we couldn't get the house and garage to fit where we wanted them! I contacted the home designer right when I got home and told her to hold off moving forward because we may need to lessen the square footage or switch rooms around again. In the picture above, you can really see what I was talking about with how the white pines didn't green from halfway and down. Only the parts that got the sun were able to.

My hip was starting to hurt, my brain just couldn't try and figure out one more thing, we were both getting tired, and another storm was moving in. So we called it quits and just walked around for a little bit, taking in everything as it's waking up and the warm Spring breeze that you get before a Spring storm on a warm day.

We found a decent sized pussy willow that we didn't know we had in the area of the new road and downed trees. I've never tried rooting anything before, but we grabbed some branches and placed them in water and we'll see what they look like in a few weeks. We also got to see and hear an Eastern Towhee, a first for us both!

                                                            Here is what they look like 👇

I also found enough volunteer baby white pines from an area along the front CRP and road to fill in this front corner along the driveway that was cleared of dead trees. These babies will grow tall and lush and filled in because we won't plant too close to each other.

It will really help to fill in and give some privacy, but also help to utilize what we already have on the land and that would normally just get trashed because they are in an area of other dead trees and invasives that we eventually need to clear out. I mentioned in the last posting about some rows of sunflowers then between the newest white pines and the road. That option is still on the table and one that Woodchuck really likes! 

It started raining, we were withering, and it was time to go home. We would return again the following week for meet with the NRCS and pond biologist.

April 6th, we returned.

We showed up early, during more rain, so that Woodchuck could dig out the culvert that was collapsed when the contractor pulled out a dead tree from at the top of it. I questioned, numerous times, why we were left to fix that issue when we did not cause it. I got various answers, silence and ultimately, he climbed down in there in the rain and dug it out himself.

I offered to stick around to make sure he didn't get stuck or injured, but he refused, so I went wandering on my own. I went down by the pond, completely flooded on a couple of banks...but what else is new.

And we have a goose nesting on the tree trunk that the previous owner couldn't get pulled out when he made the pond.

And all of my pussy willows are covered in ice, but I was told that's not a bad thing.

Speaking of, I can't identify (yet) pussy willows at any other time of year. The cats (that's what I call them, but they are technically called Catkins) that they have this time of year make them very easy for me to see what they are. We have one in the ditch and two nearly in pond, plus the one I am trying to root that was knocked over to make the ingress/egress road.

I checked on Woodchuck here and there and it was getting close to the time of the NRCS to arrive, so I grabbed my grabber and a 5 gallon bucket and headed to the front to pick up garbage that people throw or it gets blown into the trees there. I filled the bucket twice, plus had to carry some back to the garbage bag because the bucket was full.

Then the NRCS and pond biologist showed up at the exact same time, because of course! Woodchuck told me that we had a couple of hours after the NRCS came before the biologist showed up, but he's a little liar pants. 23 years and I still haven't broken him of fibbing. Guess I'll just have to break his knee caps now. I mean, talk to him again about it!

So he went with the biologist to the pond and I went with the NRCS to the ingress/egress and watershed. She took pictures of the road and will be bringing flags soon to flag it for the surveyor. We got on to the edge of the watershed and talked about how we'll (Woodchuck and I) make it even more accessible to enter it. And then we talked about the phragmite that I found and how I will take care of that with an idea that I had last year, and when is the best time to do it. Then it was time to start pointing out the invasives and the natives. And I got some surprises along the way!

We have dozens, DOZENS of pussy willows out there! Not just surrounding the watershed pond, but also out on the watershed itself. Again, I couldn't ever tell what they were because of not seeing the catkins. A small spot of aspens, a small bundle of birch (my grandmothers favorite tree and therefore very close to my heart), coneflower, native grasses, juvenile oak trees, some baby junipers, etc. But sadly, the invasive species will always show up to the party. Multi-flora rose (MFR), and lots and lots of autumn olive (AO), and lots and lots more of horsetail (though native, it's a noxious weed and will completely take over). So a plan will be created once we get approval, and then we will be able to go out there and start the process of getting rid of them, and it's not going to be a quick and easy fix. There's was also a lot of confusion of what I had identified as the AO because these had thorns and I don't usually see them that way. Woodchuck laughed and said that he got torn up by them last year when we cleared that area behind the fishing shack. They most definitely can have thorns, he said. I learn something new every day!!!

Coneflower family of flower on the watershed ☝

Woodchuck started calling my phone because we forgot our walkies, and I assumed that meant that he was looking for me. I was drenched and now getting cold anyway. 5 hours on the land that day and most of that was spent in the rain. So we made our way back and found him already changed into warm, dry clothing and ready to hit the road. But before we leave the land, I check on the hole of the woodchuck and it looks like someone is awake now...that's fresh sand!

The road that the land is located on is one of the main roads into a lake town North bound. Woodchuck wanted to stop and talk with the fire chief about helping us to burn the trees that were taken down so that we weren't waiting on the contractor to get it done. And a reminder here that we are keeping some of the good wood trees to utilize in projects on the land. Those trees to be burned are now laying on my prairie, where we will eventually plant the garden, but will sooner camp again. So we hit the road, after I changed into something dry and warm, and found the chief and then tried to find some place to eat that wasn't a bar that allowed smoking. Ended up at a pizza place in the downtown area, and both of us with hair in our separate pizzas. 😝 They didn't even serve alcohol, and we both really could have used a beer at that moment.

We left there and headed back to the town the land is located in to a store that I LOVE to shop at and now have Woodchuck hooked on too. We got our food bargains, then headed back to home to stop at the library to look for books on building pole barns. Who knew that would prove hard to find! Woodchuck built one once, and that was right before we got together, soooo.....23+ years ago! He needs a little refresher 😉

Once we got home I contacted the home designer and told her to go ahead and move forward, that we approved the main floor design--aside from the direction of the stairs to the upper floor. So now we wait again on that part of things too. Overall though, a lot was accomplished in that one week! Meeting with NRCS, a pond biologist, got the culvert flowing again, the land is done being prepped, the ingress/egress is created, we are on the radar of the fire department to burn those trees (should be happening in May). When we go out there again tomorrow, we will be plotting the placement of the house and garage. Even if it takes us two more hours. 😵