Dirt Crawler

 We finally, FINALLY, got to meet up with some friends out at the land to walk them around and talk about wiring up the barn with electric. We had been trying to coordinate for awhile, so not only was it nice to move forward on some shop talk, but to also show them around! It was chilly and wet, but we bundled up, walked, and then went out for dinner.

Unfortunately though the second CRP was not in as a good of condition as I thought it would be. Walking the whole thing made me realize just how far behind I am, especially in removing the garlic mustard. I tried not to let it bother me too much though, I'm doing what I can as fast as I can, but dang!!! I have been finding a few morels here and there, but overall the yield has been WAY down. None to be found at home and hardly any at the land. 

Life is in a such a weird back and forth out in nature, such a give and take. The goose eggs did not hatch and the goose mates were gone, but I did find one egg floating in the water just off of the shore of the pond. I didn't have anything with me at the time to fish it out, so I had to leave it. I figured worse case scenario, if something could get in the water and get it, more power to it!

I also found this dead bird in the clearing of the forest by where we'll be building the house. We are thinking it's a crow. The amount of blue jay feathers in the forests that I find laying on the ground has been insane lately, and now this dead crow. So much to observe and wonder about! 

On the next full day trip out there, we went our separate ways again but I stood in the opening of the forest and knew that someone had been on our land somewhere. I could not tell where, or what they'd been doing, but clues always get revealed in time and as you know, I don't take kindly to trespassers.

I headed out into the forest and immediately found a patch of lily of the valley. There are dozens of patches out there. As you can see, the wildlife (deer) have been munching on it already. While I like having food sources for them, I want them to eat natural and native plants. So this shit has to go. Most were not even developing flowers yet, but I caught some just in time.

Because a shovel is hard to pull around in the woods in my work cart, I opted for a hand spade and crawling around in the dirt. Still not feeling 100% made it a little hard after awhile to keep getting up and down, but getting up and down I did. Next time I go out though? I'm taking some thing that will let me dig larger areas out while standing. 

Only a few moments into the forest and I noticed that one of our wooden arrows had been knocked off of a tree. The wood split from the around the screw, and while others would have assumed the elements got to it or a squirrel launched off of it, etc., me? My spidey senses started tingling and I could feel that someone knocked it. And there next to it was a cigarette butt that had not been there only a few days previous and looked to be just days fresh. So that is where the trespasser had been. Not only do I not want them touching anything of mine, I don't want them setting any of that forest on fire. Because it has been divided up, all it will take is one person to set a blaze in theirs and all of ours will go up. It would be horrible to lose the back one, but a tragedy if it would jump into our front one where the barn was built and eventually the house will be too. Some thing I don't want to think about, but guess I should with all of the draught status we have been in over the past recent years.

I found a huge patch of garlic mustard that will need to come out on our next trip out there. Technically I would have preferred to have pulled it before it flowered, but I didn't know yet this patch was there.

I stopped again though to see the Packera! It makes me so happy to see something native and beautiful in the forest. It grows in a patch of sunlight and the color always makes me smile when I feel beaten down by the amount of work ahead of me.

I fished out the goose egg from the pond and was surprised at how heavy it was, considering it was floating! I left it on the side of the path and the next time we looked, an animal had utilized it, which was our goal considering the outcome of the nest.

On the very edges of the forests, there are some invasives still yet to take down. They're big because of the space and sunlight they have there, and some of them I need help from Woodchuck with, but I tackled this beast all on my own. The thorns on this Autumn Olive were no joke! 

As some bird found out!

While the top soil of the forest is super dry, underneath is nice and moist! So many worms, which is something I need to study more since there are invasive jumping worms making their way into forests and causing all kinds of issues. I was always enamored with worms as a kid, and my mother would just shake her head at me. After rains I would ask for a can and go outside and collect all of the little friends. I don't know what I did with them after collecting them though!

I saw a recent post on FB about day lilies and how they are invasive. Stopped me in my tracks. Wait! What? They are invasive? I had no idea!!! So I researched and found out the difference between tiger lilies and day lilies. Tiger lilies have the dark splotches on them, resembling the look of a tiger, and they are native. Day lilies are just the variations in shades of oranges (and some have yellows), have no splotches, and are invasive. We have day lilies at the land, by the front, that were there when we bought the land. Then when I worked at the resale shop before, a lady brought a bag of day lilies in to be separated out and transplanted. So I took them, planted them here at the house and then at the land. So now I have a new plant that I need to add to the list to remove. But I am grateful to learn it now, and to always be learning something new along the way! I don't ever want to stop adding to the correct information I can absorb and use!

Speaking of, I start a new job soon! Something I have never done before and but am excited to learn! Stay tuned!