Another project, and year, on its way out

 We have been super lucky this season with the weather. No snow and mild temps mean we can get more land work done. There is a horrible downside to the weather not being what it should, ecologically speaking, and honestly, I don't want the way it is right now to become our new norm. But we are going to utilize it while we can!

You may remember that Woodchuck wanted to take some of the felled trees from the front CRP and make a foot bridge across the back ditch. Our initial attempt at that was quite the failure, but hey! Learning curves are important, especially out there. We finally got the chance this week to try again. I worked the tractor like last time, and felt bad at the all of the physical labor he had to do while I sat there.

But then I think about how he wanted it this way this time and all of the other times that I am the one doing the manual labor while he is on his tractor. So it balances out. 😉

His vision for the foot bridge sounded beautiful! I'll wait.....

Ok, I'm just being a jerk right now. I understand that this is only the first step in the project. Now he has to work it with the chainsaw, strap things, blah, blah, blah. In other words, it's nowhere near complete and I should not judge it for how it looks right now. It will be interesting to see if it turns out like he envisioned it! But as of right now? I'm not walking across that.

We went our separate ways for a bit after the foot bridge. He box bladed the fire break path on the watershed again to try and remove the big dirt lumps and some vegetation. I went and raked the leaves away from the part of the back ditch because rain was on the way.

Before 👆

                                                                            After 👆

I always forget how hard that is to do that each season because of the higher banks, my physical issues, the roots on the edges, etc. And honestly, I didn't rake the leaves super far away from the banks. So if they dried out enough and we got a wind, they probably ended up right back in the ditch. 😒 But just that couple of minutes of raking set off a physical firestorm for me. I'm really worried how I will hold up going back to work after the first of the year, but I have to at least try! (my GP prescribed a medication to try and help with all of the inflammation. I start it tonight).

I went for a quick walk on the watershed while Woodchuck finished moving the unused logs off of the path we walk. After a full moon the night before, the sun was equally as amazing on this day!

                                                    Full moon shots from the night before 👆

                                                Sunshine shots from the next day at the land 👆

  Notice the rainbow halo ring and clouds too? Apparently an indication of ice crystals high up in the atmosphere and that a storm system is on its way within 24-48 hours, and sure enough, we got rain, with a big, heavy snow flake here or there.

And off we went feeling all accomplished. It would be our last chance on the land in 2023. 2024 brings working on even more big  projects like hopefully getting concrete in the barn, continuing to girdle trees in the second CRP, start cleaning up the front tree line between the front CRP and road, clean up a tree area next to the shipping container that is full of bittersweet, keep burning the felled log pile that we can't use for anything else, and so much more. Ever closer to retirement and being able to be out there full-time! 

We want to wish you a safe New Year, and here's to us all having a glorious 2024! I feel good things are coming! Thanks for being on this journey with us 💚