Waking from a Winters Slumber

 Day One.....

Let's celebrate together the finding of my favorite rake! And yep, it was right where I left it. I'll overlook the scary evidence that I am becoming more and more forgetful and just be happy that I have the rake again!

With some sunny and warm days at our disposal, we kicked off the season with priming the handpump. Which kicks my ass. Because Woodchuck has it set for his height and I'm much, much shorter. To be pumping that thing practically with my arms over my head is near impossible! Then if I can only use one arm because I'm holding something in the other to be filled, let's just say that it is painful for others to watch me tackle that thing....I may need to have a step stool by it for me to use.

Woodchucks first project was to cut back and spray the weeds in the ditch we had been cutting bushes and trees out of when we had the drought. I pulled garlic mustard from an open area so that I could keep an eye on him. Didn't need him falling in the ditch! I should have paid more attention to my own surroundings though, since I knelt in stinging nettles. We also pulled a dead tree and some of it's branches out of the ditch before he treated it.

Then while he cut logs for the foot bridge idea, I raked out the back ditch. If you've been here awhile, you know that Woodchuck made a floating rake to get the scum off of the pond. Turned out there was just way too much on the pond and it needed an herbicide, but the back ditch is the perfect size for it!

                                                                                Before 👆

                                                                                During 👆

                                                                                After 👆

That was a productive! Time to grab a quick break before packing up to head home.

Day Two.....

This trip was really important (aren't they all, though?!). And I was really nervous about it. Today was the day we're going to treat the main pond. The plan was for Woodchuck to row while I sprayed. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but it is not safe to be in a boat with Woodchuck. He is an Aries and is all about, "Yeah, I know how to do that", and you believe him and then you find out in the middle of the shit show that he does not know how to do that. 😄

I think too that it freaks me out that he picks the highest bank to enter the water from instead of a flat surface. So, I'm in the front of the boat while the back end is still up on the bank and all it's going to take is one little dip of the boat and water is coming in. I hold on to each side for dear life, stare straight ahead and hold my breath until he's on and we are on our way. 

We've got a nesting goose couple again this year and we were not entirely sure how they would react to us being on the water. They have been great with us being on the land around the pond though! We left their area until last so they could acclimate to us being out there and we know already that they can feel out our intentions. They have always been super calm, they know we aren't there to mess with them in any way. On a side note, I don't think their eggs are going to hatch. They didn't last year either. We'll check the nest out from the usual distance the next time we are out there, and if they aren't hatched yet, we are pretty sure it's well past time for them to be. I didn't think to start tracking the days when we noticed the geese out there, so next year I will for sure. They are actually very fascinating creatures to observe and learn about their behaviors! How they sleep in the water, how they nest, etc. 

All of the green stuff in the water is part of the reason we are needing to treat it. Once the weather warms and we get into hot Summer time, the whole pond would be covered and it smells SO bad. I made sure to cover myself up completely, because I'm a little freaked out by the thought of any herbicide. I know it was a necessary thing to do this for the pond, but I still get all up in my head about it. I was covered head to toe, but could still smell the stuff and yuck. And while I adore being in water, I am a Pisces after all, I don't like not seeing what is in the water or how deep it is. I got the sensation of a thick, suffocating liquid in that pond, not flowing, caressing water like I get from Lake Michigan water. Maybe I just need to get used to it and get to know it better. 

I think it must have taken nearly an hour to complete the main pond, with us having to get out at the halfway mark and make another batch of the herbicide up for the other half of the pond. Then it was time to go to the watershed pond and treat that one! We got permission from the NRCS to do so! What I don't understand is why Woodchuck left the smaller boat for the bigger main pond and the biggest boat for the smaller watershed pond. I questioned him. He doesn't know either! 

The thing I like about the watershed pond is that even though it is also spreading, all of the edges are flat. Once we were out there on it, I could see the phragmite in all of its horrible glory as it was sending fresh green ones up on the waters edge, as well as up on land. It didn't take us as long to treat this one, one batch only, and I'm not sure that we did all that well! Time will tell! 28 days to be exact. 

Then Woodchuck wanted to start laying the logs across the ditch for the bridge. He asked if I wanted to run the tractor or hitch them up? I was not comfortable with either one to be honest, so he chose for me to be on the tractor. Now this bridge idea is purely all trial and error. Woodchuck is REALLY good about having ideas or executing ideas that I have, but we found out quickly enough that it wasn't going to work the way he was thinking it would. 

Luckily we had a sunny day to work in! 

As usual, we didn't have everything we needed with us and he has to walk back to the shipping container a few times to grab stuff, which wore him out. I was surprised though that he listened to me and the spin off idea I have to try next time we work on this project. Some times he can be very open-minded and other times there's no budging him! Once we got as far as we could with this, we still had daylight to burn and decided to walk a couple of rows in the forest to pull garlic mustard and honeysuckle. He will never understand how much I appreciate having him with me to work on that kind of stuff. I will plow through it alone when I have to, but I won't turn his help down on the rare occasion he offers it!

And yes, friends! It is that time of year again and already turning out to be a bad season for ticks! I've stocked up on spray for us to use when we go outside 😬

Day three.......

The weather was shit...again....and it was our last day of staycation! We spent it on the road driving to Portage, Indiana to pick up fish from Jones Fishery. Woodchuck ordered two kinds of minnows. Once again my girl (my car) traveled long distances to transport a unique cargo! They were so freaking cute!

We had to let them acclimate to the pond water temperature for ten minutes, so we tied string to the tops, placed them in the water and walked for a couple of minutes to look for mushies because: we are also entering morel mushroom season as well! I've only found a few so far, it was a nice treat to run across them! 

We went back to the minnows and began setting them free into the water. There were about a dozen that were dead between the four bags, and that is to be expected. The treatment we did on the pond will not affect them, and these are not something we will fish. They will however be the "canary in the cave" as far as the health of the pond goes. How exciting! 

We are back consistently into shit weather again, and I am so over it. I mean, I'll work outside in anything, but it gets old being wet and cold, or overheated. Can't we have "perfect" weather days and more of them, please? I guess I better get over that since I applied for an outdoor seasonal position at an agriculture research farm. I should find out by the end of this week if I got it! Now a friend is saying they are hiring at her place too. Lots of options for when I get healthy, as I'm in the throes of a yet-to-be-diagnosed health crisis. Never a dull moment! ;)