Playing in the mud!

 I had to go to the land one day last week without Woodchuck. The first time ever and it felt very, very weird! He had to work and I was meeting the contractor that was coming with the excavator. He was going to take care of the front ditch for us and clear some of the vegetation for us on the North side of the pond. The guys felt it best that I be there to say what can stay and what can go, but literally just about everything went!

I got out there early so I could unlock everything and walk around and take it all in. I also went ahead and started tackling some small invasives at the front of the land, so I could get some work done while I waited for the contractor and stay close to know when he got there. The bittersweet is out of control in some spots, which I expected since last year was the first year we owned the land, and started finding and identifying things. But expecting it doesn't make you feel any better when you find it. All of those reaching tendrils are invasive oriental bittersweet, and there's more on the other side of the ditch as well.

Once the contractor showed up, it was go time and I needed to stay out of the way but close by in case of any questions. So I ended up working on the tree line of the prairie, but only held up a couple of hours due to the blazing sun, heat, and high pollen. So I sat in the shade in my work cart for a little bit to cool off. This is the before of the ditch leading off of the pond.

We had talked about leaving the good trees, but honestly, I saw how much easier it was going to be for him to just go down the line and pull it all out. With the way things grow out there, something will come back at some point, so I figured it was best to make good use the machine and the money we were paying while he was there. And the after shots!

One thing I didn't even think about taking my water boots, so when I saw the ditch water being dug out a little and placed on the hill leading down to the pond, I was scrambling to think of a way to walk in the mud. Why, you ask? Because I didn't even think about the muck being dug out and dropped, I wasn't prepared to see the tadpoles, baby fish, and crawfish that came along with it! So I ran to the shipping container and grabbed my ill-fitting waders! You remember those, right? If you don't, or if you're new here, here's the back story on those:

I used to work at a resale shop and a pair of waders came in. We had just bought the land and I was stocking up on things from the resale shop to help save money while giving us the supplies we would need somewhere along the line. I was in a hurry, grabbed them, and quickly put the boot parts on to make sure they fit.....not even thinking about pulling them all the way up to check that fit! Well, the day comes when I need to put the waders on. Woodchuck has his on and I'm so proud of myself, get my feet in the boots, pull the wader part up and. They stopped at my thighs. Well shit! I didn't even stop to think about that! Obviously. Can you tell there's a lot that I don't stop to think about until I'm in the thick of things?

So, we did the only thing that could be done at that point.

Now I'm 5 foot tall and somewhat curvy. I am sure that these waders were meant for either a small male or non-curvy female, but there I was trying to fit myself into them. Gotta do what works, and splitting the ass seam was the only way these were going to work! And I told the contractor running the excavator, who had stopped for a quick lunch break, that nobody was ever supposed to see me in those besides my husband. But I was too excited to be embarrassed! Why was I excited? Because I had creatures to save!

Except for the tadpoles, we had NO clue that we had fish or crawfish!!!! I think that last crawfish was the one that the blackbird got. 😬 I saved as many as I could, some times in muck up past my ankles, while trying not to get stuck in it or fall over in it. It took me back to the my childhood where we spent some time in Louisiana, playing in flood waters (ew. I know. NO WAY would I do that now.) and I remember we stopped by a friends house and they had a pasture with pigs or something in it and next thing you know all of us kids are wallowing in it. I don't know. I don't know how it happened. Don't ask me! I do know that my mother couldn't take her eyes off of me while outside or I was up in a tree, or in a mud puddle somewhere.

Time was winding down on the day and there was still the North side of the pond to contend with. How to get all of that vegetation out of there, without damaging my elderberry? That was my only request, was to save the elderberry. Don't touch it, and I'll be a happy girl. So off the excavator went to squuueeeze down the path to that area of the pond. If you'll remember, we had already worked on removing a lot of the plants from that area, but Woodchuck's tractor could only do so much or get so close. And none of us were willing to take the chance of falling in the gross drink to get any closer and do it by hand.

Before pictures of the vegetation on the North side.

The after pictures from two angles.

If that contractor could have run out of there, I think he would have. He was done, so done, but so was I, honestly. We will be using him again on the pond once he can get a long-reach excavator. It was kind of neat though, because they were genuinely interested in the work I was doing on the land pulling the invasives. They had never heard of that and I had fresh ears to explain it to. Is it easy or fun doing that work alone? Hell to the no. But it's necessary. 

Since this day, I've taken Woodchuck out there to see the changes and so he could mow, as well as our youngest son and Woodchuck's sister and brother-in-law. I kind of feel like though that the more we try and work the land, the worse it looks, lol. Kind of the same concept of when I organize my house. It always looks worse before it looks better. And then once I've organized it, I can't find anything. Woodchuck has a weeks vacation coming up though and we are hoping to get out there often and keep chipping away at it.....all while in some more 90+ degree temps. Seriously! We go from too cold for the time of the year straight into the bowels of hell! He did get the vents put into the shipping container, so now we need to finish spreading the stone that is piled on the driveway and start chipping away at the vegetation on the West side of the pond, and along the front edge of the property where it faces the road. The fire department keeps pushing back when they are going to show up to burn the debris pile, so that keeps growing and we keep finding new areas to pull from to add on to the pile. Chances are we won't be able to utilize the prairie this Summer, but we are hoping to this Fall to camp at least once.

I just finished up two weeks of helping an acquaintance on her farm and have been handing in job applications. Interview this morning and I'm not sure how I feel. Mixed emotions, I guess. I need to make sure that I make smart decisions, and good decisions. I want to work, but not so much that it wears me down like my last job did. And I don't want to be taken advantage of. Is that even a possibility anymore? I guess I only have myself to blame for allowing it to happen! I do so much better out in nature than with the dynamics of people. Wish me luck!

In preparation

 Going a week or two without going out to Das Zem feels like going months without being out there and I get kind of sad. On my last trip out there a couple of weeks ago, Woodchuck needed to mow. Part of this was it needed it and the other part was because there are areas he won't be able to get to for awhile because of work that an excavator will be doing this morning. In the picture below you can see the once dark dirt and watery mud ingress/egress path is already starting to fill back in with green. It still can't be mowed, no vehicle or piece of equipment can travel on it without getting stuck. So we had to go around it on the original path we took before this road was cut, but that is on the neighbors land (we have permission from the owner).

I went ahead of Woodchuck and pulled the flags marking the ingress/egress, unlocked gates, and cut away at an Autumn Olive and Black Willow that were overgrowing the path and took out one of Ginny's (Woodchuck's tractor) turn signals already. The Autumn Olive fought back, but it was my fault for not having gloves on.

While he cut the grass, I worked on cutting some more grapevine and oriental bittersweet. I had been in the area before, to the side of the ingress/egress, but always find stuff I missed with each venture in. And these vines were beasts!

The wreath below was made with some black willow branches. It's much more sparse and loose than something I would usually make, so it's just taking some getting used to working with that material. I'll take it back to the land with me, as well as one of the previous oriental bittersweet wreaths I made a couple of weeks ago, and add to them as I find more.

This picture below shows what oriental bittersweet does to trees. The bittersweet starts growing at the ground and looks very sweet and benign, but as time goes on, it thickens and it wraps around and embeds itself into the tree trunk and limbs, working its way to the top of the tree to compete for the sunlight. If let go unchecked, it will kill the tree. You can see the mark in the tree bark where it loosened after I cut it. Unfortunately, I can't reach too much of it to pull it out, but I did cut it at the ground and remove what I could.

This wreath is made from the bittersweet vine that I cut. Unfortunately, I did not have any treatment with me, so I'll have to go back to this area and cut and treat it.

This wreath below was made with the grapevine. While native grapevine is not thought to wrap itself around a tree in a harmful way, it does still get up in the canopy and compete for that sunlight, so I was taught it was just best to take care of them.

From left to right, grapevine, oriental bittersweet, black willow. The grapevine wreath weighed in at 4.5 POUNDS, and the bittersweet one at 2! You should have seen me wrestling these vines! I was out of breath, grunting, cussing, sweating, putting my all into them and it still took me what felt like an hour. I told Woodchuck he needs to record me next time so that people can see the strength these things have and what they do to trees.

Normally I give the black willow leaves back to the earth, but this time I decided to soak them in the olive oil that we'll be using for the next batch of soaps we make. I've never tried it before, but it just makes me feel better about not wasting them. They are a week and a few days into soaking now and I check them every day and stir them. 

I also recently tried our dehydrator out for the first time and did organic lemons! And I'm kicking the art out left and right for my friends shoppe and to prepare for shows this Fall. All while trying to find work and keep up with the house and land. Preparing for retirement, especially in the last 2-5 years of being in the workforce, is no joke!

I am heading to the land this morning to meet the gentleman who's coming with an excavator to clean out the ditch coming off of the pond, as well as the around the edge of the pond that he can reach. I'm on my own on this one since Woodchuck has to work today. I feel pretty "eh" about it, because when a girl is left in charge of men, it is viewed that she's being bossy, demanding, overbearing, controlling, etc. as compared to a man left in charge who's viewed as knowing what he wants from the job done. Le' sigh.