Answers

 As time continues to fly by, we are now making preparations to pick up our youngest from college in about a week and a half and have a list of projects he can work on to keep him busy while looking for seasonal work. We decided to rent a truck to help haul his stuff, since neither of the cars are feeling well this year and I think it would be too much on my car to pull a trailer that far. Hubby finally got the flooring done in the his bedroom and it's been approved by Pierogi the Cat....who supervises all indoor projects around here. We sent a picture of the finished room to the boy, and he greatly appreciated it!

I continue to sloth create.....which is a term I just made up and means that I may go days at a time without touching a project, or when I do, I may just spend a few moments on it. I did finally realize though that when I rush these things, I am producing versus creating. And producing goes against my grain. I recently had a meeting at an art vendor space opening up, but it was not a good match for me. I admit that I cried a few tears when I left the building (which is WAY old and WAY beautiful!), because trying to find a place for yourself in the world can stab the heart at times. But I let myself feel the feels and then moved right along. Keeping to my beliefs about the guidelines I will follow for selling my pieces will eventually work out in my favor. As of right now though, we have no shows due to work schedules and no Etsy sales for several months. I refuse to define my success by these traditional means though. I have a few pieces of cross-stitch to eventually get framed. 👇

Woodchuck finished two benches on the land...one on the watershed for resting when we are walking or working out there (it is removable, not a permanent structure), and one on the path of non-government contract land between the watershed and back CRP forest. They are super comfy and we watched the eclipse from one of them! 👇

We have been impatiently waiting for spring peepers and frogs and to see fish, oh my! Nothing yet though. What a sight to see spiders on the surface and bubbles under. 😎👇

As we were sitting and waiting for the eclipse to happen, I noticed a tree on the watershed that I hadn't before. I ungracefully crossed the logs over the ditch and began taking pictures of it...only to find out later that it is the dreaded Callery Pear! We cut it down and treated the stump and found a smaller one next to it that we did the same with. It will most likely sprout again, since Spring is the time that the sap is flowing upwards in trees and the herbicide doesn't make it down into the roots like it needs to kill it off. But I wanted to catch it early and it's now on our radar to check it again this Fall. 👇

I have had to rethink what I take into the woods to get work done, and how I get it in there. Because of the amount of things I take in and the weight of them, limb debris on the ground, and areas of standing water and mud, pulling the work cart is too much for me. So I just walk carrying a large contractor size garbage bag draped through the strap of my back pack, loppers, a chainsaw, a hand trowel, and herbicide. The hard part about that is the frequent setting down and picking up of it all. But again, I am one person handling invasives on over 15 acres and I am constantly trying to find ways to make the process more comfortable for me. 👇

While down on my knees digging out Lily of the Valley, I accidently disturbed this beautiful Nursey Web Spider. She was very docile and let me move her on her leaf off to the side of me so I didn't accidentally harm her. Once I was done, I put her back in the same spot I originally saw her in. 👇

So far I can really see a difference in the amount of LOV and garlic mustard and dames rocket that I am finding in the forest. I am hoping the numbers remain low, but we are early in the season yet. The LOV pierce right through the leaf litter to find life in the light! I am always surprised by how deep their root systems go, and the suckers that they send off. Now that I am an invasive/non-native plant fighter, I see plants in a completely different way now.👇

The bittersweet is waking up again and I have a large area of it next to the shipping container. Once again I am overwhelmed at all of the invasives exploding at the same time! 👇

We stopped after work recently to work on a project of hubby's (the theme continues of me helping him but not vice versa), and we took a walk to sit on his bench, listen to the birds, and watch the sun start to sink. 👇

I am seeing so many maple saplings in the forest! It's one of the reasons I am doing what I am doing. To give these hardwoods a chance to mature and have the forest be healthy again. 😍👇

I am reminded with each trip how it feels like the entire Cosmos is held in this place. 💖👇

But while I am spending so much time and energy taking care of the land and working so hard to make our future plans happen, I am also trying to take care of myself. Some times no matter what I do, I struggle physically, but I figure it has to be helping something. I am officially just over one year out from the massive allergic reaction to the tetanus booster and resulting SIRVA in my left arm (the one that I had the shoulder surgery on.) It no longer feels like it's being slammed in a car door every day, all day; but I do still have some side effects. I continue to working to get it, and my other issues, under control. I'm grateful for any amount of feeling better! 👇

I find many reminders that I am not alone in my journey even when there is nobody else standing on my path. 🪶💚

And Mother E reveals gifts along the way of my work. I know She appreciates all that I am doing to help her and the creatures, and to honor my ancestors and how they cared for the lands. 

I can't help but smile when I see fresh, native life emerging. I shook hands with this darling Poplar leaf and welcomed it to Das Zem. 

 Now for the answers! On our most recent trip out to the land, we had a meeting with a pool/landscaping company that has an employee who also deals with ponds, ditches, etc. The flooding on the back ditch and pond, as well as the dysfunction in the ditch flowing out of the pond continues to worsen. Hubby finally agreed to have someone access the situation, and boy are we glad he did! Our problems are numerous, but also, we learned that we can control the water level in the pond by creating a dam situation. Our minds were blown, that was never even on our radar as an option or how to even go about it! He said when we are in drought season, use that dam to keep the water in the pond. He also said not to put minnows in it, and what did Woodchuck put in it last year? Yep. Minnows. 😣

We started the tour at the very beginning of the ditch where it goes under the main road, next to and behind the house next door, and then to our pond and ditches that are on our land. Issue #1). It turns out that some kids a couple of houses down put rocks down in the ditch to create a waterfall kind of effect, and narrowed the water pathway at the culvert to less than an inch wide. Hubby stopped over and explained that while it was beautiful, it's creating flooding on our land and the rocks need to be removed. Issue #2) the neighbor next door bulldozed his back yard, and filled in the ditch while also putting in a culver pipe. He did this for safety of not having anyone fall in the ditch and to also extend the yard space. But the professional found several issues with that as well. The culvert pipe was one size too small, and he could tell from sink holes in the yard that the pipe isn't level. Issue #3, now on our land, is we are having issues with our culvert pipe coming off of the ditch. It's the one that got a little crushed during excavating and hubby had to go down in the ditch to get the water flowing again. 

And then the back ditch, where the most recent flooding is going on. He recommends digging out the land on the crossover, letting the water go directly into the pond, then laying new culvert piping, etc. I took notes, but honestly, I think we are in a position on this one where we need to hire the professionals. We are hoping to have a quote within a weeks time and then can decide how to proceed.

I'm in the position now of trying to decide where to put my income? Towards tuition, or towards getting this fixed? I am actually hoping that the boy can find good Summer work to  build up his money to pay for his final semester of college. He graduates this December!!! With FAFSA being confusing, glitchy, and no help at all, I am sure that we will be paying full tuition again. I am working 45-50 hours a week, but at $12 (not including tips), it wipes me out every month to pay the tuition bill. I have been trying to sell my unwanted belongings on eBay and FB Marketplace, but it would be even more helpful to be able to sell the art! It would bring in money, free up space in the workshop, and be less to move when that time comes. Help a girl out, would you? Take a look at what's available, share us....it's free for you and would help us get noticed. TIA. www.soapwoodartstudio.etsy.com

We have to forego our usual weekly trip out there next week due to weather and needing to making some road trips, so we have decided to make a couple of trips out after work on nice days to utilize the longer day light. My goal on those shorter time frames is to walk the forest quickly looking for garlic mustard, which is flowering right now. The honeysuckle and LOV can wait another week until my next long day. I can completely relate to farmers now and the rush of the season and utilizing as much daylight as possible! I am hoping that all of my hard work now will enable me to one day relax on the land more and enjoy the fruits of my labor. But for now, I have to keep wearing the BadAss Nature Girl cape. 

It finally happened....but now what?!

 Just when we think we have something under control, we find out quickly that don't know shit. I didn't think that we'd had a lot of precipitation, or at least here at our home we didn't. But when we showed up to the land yesterday, it was very evident by the puddles everywhere, including the driveway right when you turn in off the road, that it had rained a lot. As Woodchuck got the supplies ready for the day, I walked over to see if the blueberry bushes were budding and was shocked by how much water there was around them again. It's a wet area to begin with because of the leaky South side of the pond, but holy cow! The pond completely overflowed into it this time. We are loosing land at a very fast pace to the water. The only upside to looking at this area today was that I got to see a hawk nearby, sitting in a tree.

As we walked to where we would be working on projects (him on a wooden bench and me pulling garlic mustard from the forest) the water issue became even worse. The North side of the pond has holes in the land, where the water is undercutting and the slumping is becoming worse. It's also a risky endeavor to stand on the bank too near the water, as it's very unstable. Slumping ponds are no joke. But the worst was when we rounded the bend of the pond.....

The back ditch finally did it. It overflowed. This is an issue for various reasons: 1) The intersection of land allows us to access the back pathway that runs between the back ditch and the 2nd CRP forest. We had to bypass this part and walk thru the forest to the area where he would be working, and this was so flooded that it was even heading into the forest. 2) This area also leads to the ingress/egress of the watershed, which was supposed to have remained drivable for the government to have access. At this point, it's barely even walkable. 

If you remember from the last posting, we put up a screen to keep debris from blocking the drainage tubes. That screen is now nearly completely under water....that's about 2 foot of water. We can't see any blockage on our end, and we can see water flowing FROM the pond in the front ditches. We don't know what to do next other than put bigger drainage tubes in, but I think we just need to admit that we don't know what we are doing and call in the professionals for this issue, as well as the pond slumping. I have to admit that I was proud of myself! I didn't freak out or panic like I would have when we first bought the land. It's an issue that needs to be dealt with and Woodchuck refuses to listen to me and spend the money to finally get the issue under control professionally. He'd rather keep spending the money on stocking the pond and losing the land. At some point he'll regret that and I'm just standing back and letting things happen. 

We went our separate ways. I have several acres of forest to take care of alone, he can handle his own stuff for now without me. The garlic mustard popped up a couple of weeks ago and is developing quickly with this wet weather we are having. Although my back was killing me from work a couple of days prior, I slapped on some pain rub and crawled around on the forest floor. 

For now, a lot is concentrated in a small portion of the forest. Once I get this pulled, I can start walking the whole forest and looking for stray plants and taking care of the honeysuckle farther in. I picked two garbage bags full on this day and I was rewarded by Mother Nature with so many moments of wonder and intrigue! I nearly cried, what an honor to witness all that I do there! Sandhill cranes flying over! A huge migrating flock of red-winged blackbirds! A tiny chattering squirrel up in the trees! The biggest red worm I've ever seen that startled me coming vertical out of the ground!

While Woodchuck took no notice of my work, I went to look at his before we left. While my back felt much better because I grounded, his felt worse because we was bent over building a couple of benches. I keep planting the seed with him that we should try and utilize as much of the fallen trees as we can. Keeps costs down and honors the spirit of what we had to remove. I think he's doing a great job!

It's not quite finished yet, but will the next time we go out there. I got to sit on it and it's quite comfortable! He was able to get two benches out of one tree length. This one will stay here, looking across the ditch to the watershed, and the other one will go on the watershed. We cannot have permanent structures out there, so as long as he feels we can easily remove it when necessary, we can go ahead with having one out there. He's looking to build a picnic table too, as we have access to lots of wood pallets but I've yet to get him to jump on grabbing them and start building things. We just found out our youngest will be coming home for the Summer in about a month and I'm hoping with that extra set of hands, he'll start jumping on things then. I'll have my hands full moving forward now with keeping up on the invasives in the forest, and we still have to finish girdling the trees in said forest now that we have them all marked. 

The concrete contractor has had to back out of showing up twice now, but is hoping to be there this week or next at the latest. Woodchuck and I will be heading to a Home Expo this Saturday that's being held locally so we can start gathering contact info for companies and seeing some trends that we'd like to incorporate into the house. We thought for a split second about temporarily abandoning the idea of building and just buying the house next to the land that is up for sale. But it's a lick 'em, stick 'em and it's WAY out of our price range. For now we will move ahead as planned.

Woodchuck is still trying to finish the new floor upstairs in our youngest sons room. Funny how what used to take us a couple of days can now take a month. Getting down on the floor is hard for him now and he won't let me help. The main floor is laid, he has to lay it down in the closet and then put quarter round throughout. Pierogi is the Supervisor and she approves so far of the work that's done, but walks him up there everyday and meows her disapproval that it's not done yet. He has one month and one day to get it finished and I am sure she will remind him every day.

I have slowly been getting back in to working on art projects as I continue to clean out, sort, and pack up! I finished another cross-stitch project, and started another Third Eye Fox dream catcher. It felt weird, almost wrong, to be working on things again. It had been several months, but I stopped to re-evaluate, to heal, to drop any false energy that others had projected on to me. I turned my Light inwards, I cried a lot (SO MUCH), I came into myself more, and continue the journey. So many great things on this path, and so many more dreams to come true. 💜

The rat pattern is by Lindsay Swearingen, and I have other patterns of hers I'll be working on!

This was the first, and so far the only, Third Eye Fox dream catcher I made. I have several of these, and bear frames, to use up. Time to put myself back out in to the world little by little. 🦊 You can find ready-to-ship works by me and Woodchuck in our Etsy shop: www.soapwoodartstudio.etsy.com