Time has flown and we are already halfway thru this year. How is this even possible? Halfway gone and am I really making any progress on my goals of this year? Our timeline for things changed quickly when we found out that Woodchuck needed shoulder surgery and we only had a couple of weeks to tie up loose ends at the land and get him prepared for it. He had a couple of things out there that he wanted to get done and I wanted one more day in the forest to keep chipping away at the invasives. While out there this year too I've noticed the health of the CRP declining, likely due to lack of thinning. The tops of the trees are heavy with greenery while the rest of the tree down is lacking sunlight and green. They are starting to snap in half.
On my last trip out there to knock out as much invasive removal as I could, I got lost. Woodchuck didn't finish putting signage up, and the illness that I suffered from early to mid-April has left me unable to think well, concentrate, or remember anything. And I didn't make a turn where I was supposed to, and I ended up in a neighbors portion of the woods and I didn't realize it. I mean, I wondered along the way, because the invasives were horrible and I was wondering how I could missed them, but then I'd see something and think, "Oh, this looks familiar! I'm good, I'm in my portion!" I worked someone else's portion of the CRP all day before having it confirmed by Woodchuck that I was lost and not in our forest. I was so mad at myself for not figuring it out on my own earlier, and I was irritated with him for not finishing the signage. I wasted my last day doing the work someone else was refusing to, and not even on my own land. But I couldn't dwell on that, it is what it is.
What I did manage to get done in OUR part was right along the CRP edge where I took down many honeysuckles, autumn olives, multiflora rose, bittersweet and grapevine. Here's a before and after of one spot where at least three trees were being threatened with death by one invasive (which was a large multi-flora rose).
Remember our pond treating escapade? Well, it didn't work. The main pond is still a swamp. I haven't checked the watershed one, though Woodchuck says "it's crystal clear". That's what he said about this one too and I think our definition and criteria for "crystal clear" are different. 😂
We made one last trip out there before his surgery so that he could get the tractor ready for when the youngest takes over mowing out there, and I wanted to mark some plants that I didn't want mowed down or stepped on. One of the most precious to date is this Thwayblade orchid that I found in my second CRP. There is only one so far that I've found!!! It is so tiny and I don't know how I even saw it 💜
It was time to leave and to prepare for something other than land work and projects. Woodchuck was in a lot of pain and was ready to have the shoulder fixed. He didn't go as long with his injury as I did with mine, and his injury was different, but our surgeries were the same. We had a lot of talks leading up to it about what to expect and that he was to behave. I had JUST accepted a second job offer when we found out that he needed surgery and that it would be happening soon, and I was worried about taking a couple of days off the week after I started there. But my boss was very understanding. I thought about only taking the day of surgery off, like Woodchuck did for mine, but I have to make decisions based off of the kind of person I am, not the kind of person he is. So I took three days off between my two jobs and the fourth day was a Sunday.
He is understanding extremely well now what I went through and my surgery was much harder on me physically. He's understanding the physical pain, the antsy-ness of having to just sit around for the most part (we do go for walks when I get home from work or we run errands), and the lack of true rest that comes from having to sleep upright in the recliner to keep the pressure off of the shoulder.
I think I was more nervous than he was! I didn't want him to have the same difficulties that I had. I was constantly fighting back tears in the waiting area. I like that they move quickly from the time that you get there and it helped immensely that we were at the surgery center and not the hospital itself. Woodchuck and I had a friendly competition about the nerve block. Mine was terrible, excruciatingly painful. I still remember what it felt like. And when I got "sick" a few months ago, the spot that they put the nerve block in was one of dozens previous injured or messed with areas that was hurting. Turns out that I'm just a wuss and he breezed right through his nerve block AND EVEN WATCHED THE SCREEN AS THEY PUT IT IN. Weirdo.
An hour later he was done and he was so awake and moving well so quickly, they let me see him sooner than was expected! But I noticed that his coloring wasn't normal for him, and I couldn't say anything yet because they were all about getting him to the next phase of recovery and there was lots of talking and movement and I didn't want to interrupt. They moved him from the bed to a recliner and that is when I knew I couldn't wait. He kept saying he was tired, he couldn't stay awake while the nurse was talking to him, and he was ashen color. I told the nurse something was wrong and she noticed his heart rate had plummeted.
She took his blood pressure and pulse rate dozens of times before finally consulting the anesthesiologist who came in and grimaced when she told him Woodchucks numbers. They reinserted an i.v. and gave him fluids and he was asking for coffee too, and he started doing much better after that. We were told to monitor his numbers at home for the evening as well. Flash forward to his first shower, and he knew even more how I felt having a hunk of meat arm hanging at your side for it.
One steri-strip never held on, but it looked amazingly well! It was at that time too that he realized the surgery center put his sling on him wrong, which means it had been worn wrong for two days. 😒He got the bionic sling that holds his arm slightly away from his body to take that pressure off of the healing areas. He tore his rotator cuff, another spot, and had arthritis. When I had my surgery, I got the Walgreens, blue fabric, cheap-ass sling that held my arm against my body and between that and the stuff used during surgery I ended up a with a MASSIVE rash under my arm and down my side for weeks. But I am glad that this going better for him than it did for me!
My new job has been amazingly hard in so many ways, but I am loving it! Mentally, as we are taught that every.little,detail.matters and should be recorded since we are working at an agriculture research farm! And there's LOTS of things to learn and to keep track of. Physically, I will not be surprised if I don't need to bump up getting my left hip fixed to later this year once this seasonal job ends. I can't even touch my leg there it is so tender and sore. I'm crawling around or sitting on the ground for hours weeding, doing heavy lifting, lots of squatting and bending over and doing it full time. Between this new job and the store I work at, I'm working 6 days a week now, 47 hours. Then taking care of the housework (to the best of my abilities), Woodchuck, errands, etc. But a girl has to do what a girl has to do to take care of the family. I'll deal with my injuries once this is all over.
On the farm recently, a milkweed plant was pulled from a greenhouse where we were going to be planting cucumbers. My co-workers and I left it, mowed around it, not realizing it would be in the way and pulled by the boss. She mentioned that I could take it if I wanted to (neither one of us knows much about the plant and how it might survive if transplanted.) Turns out there was a Monarch caterpillar on it and I was at a loss of how to proceed! How do I take care of this little creature and help it to survive?! I tried transplanting the milkweed, but it wilted immediately. The boss said there was milkweed in the other greenhouse, so I grabbed the tallest one on the next work day and brought it home, only to have it wilt as well.
Woodchuck said he saw lots of milkweed at our land, but I couldn't remember (because brain is not functioning still) and I needed it to be in a place where there was more than one plant of it, and where it wouldn't get mowed down, stomped on, or get herbicides on it. So instead of going for a walk last night after I got off from work from the store, we drove to Das Zem to take Marvin the Monarch Caterpillar to his new home. There were several milkweeds along the front ditch, all nestled in the ferns. I thought that might be a lovely place for a Monarch to emerge. Good luck, Marvin!!!!
Woodchuck has been taking over making phone calls while he is home recovering and I had asked him to call the forester that came to meet with us at our land previously. Long story short, we got some shocking information about what we need to do with the forest and we are still trying to wrap our heads around it. I'll blog about that more next time, I am still waiting on some information to get sent to me about it from the USDA and NRCS. We can kiss the 5 year plan we had to prep the land for building a house and living out there goodbye and double it! 💋
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