Witness

 With many short trips to the land available to us, we were able to knock out a lot of the smaller projects! The cracked collar of the open/close handle on the water pump was removed and a new regular collar was threaded on. Funny when how when you do these little things, they can feel so massive.

The rising water temps are bringing back a lot of the aquatic plants. This is one of the areas that I really am not knowledgeable in. We've looked up online, through books, and pond/fish hatchery magazines, and I am not confident in my identifying capabilities. If I had to guess, I would guess that this plant is an invasive, just based on the health of the pond to date. However, there are TONS of tadpoles in the pond, hiding in this plant, and the fish are jumping, so those are good signs. Just one more thing to add to the list to research! Amazing that you have to know about so many different things in such a natural setting as this land!

We also made it out on the watershed to cut down the Callery Pear (also known at a Bradford Pear). While work on the watershed is not permitted from April 1 to August 1, we were only taking down one tiny little whip of a tree, but it was already in bloom (which is how I recognized it). I cannot, in good conscious, leave it out there until August 1 and take the chance of it spreading even more. There is already one good sized one on my neighbors property adjacent to my watershed, so I will always have to be vigilant even more so in looking for them and removing them from my land. While yes, they are lovely to look at, they are a horrendous threat to our native eco-system (Northwest Indiana) and there are so many other native options that bloom white blossoms, if that is what you are looking for. These don't even smell good! They literally smell like rotting fish. Even this small whip of a tree, that was maybe 7 foot tall at the most, and literally just a whip in girth, already had so many blossoms and they smelled so bad! Unfortunately, this is a go-to tree for many landscapers! Take a look at business complexes, apartments, and neighborhoods at this time of year and you will see a lot of these. It's important to know too about the trees you are buying from local nurseries and landscape businesses. One organization that I follow that is tied to a University, is having a fruit tree sale. That's all the post says. Dozens of various kinds of fruit trees, but they don't identity the species of tree. Just "pear". Sadly, right now I can look along roadsides, out in fields, and into forests, and these have moved into them and there is nobody taking them out, just like the various forms of honeysuckle and the Autumn Olive. Can you even imagine what these natural and wild spaces would like with all of the invasives removed? 😍 

I found handfuls of opened Oothecas! Did you know that there lots of wildlife that will eat these?! Birds, rodents, ants, chickens, etc. will open them up and eat! Some of these don't necessarily look to have been eaten as much as just broken open. I am honestly surprised at how many I have found on the walking path because I tried finding oothecas out there and only found a couple. Whatever found all of these was a really good hunter AND since these are the invasive Chinese Mantis ootheca, they helped from growing the population. These mantis can kill our smaller native species of carolina mantis, as well as hummingbirds.

Our Earth Day at the land picking up garbage from the front and flagging the Arborvitae we planted up there. I wanted to flag it with a biodegradable, eco-tape, but Woodchuck couldn't see the color well (he's color blind and has macular degeneration in one eye), so we went to Menards and had him pick the color he could see well. I also found a really cool looking hole, that I suspected is from a spider, but I didn't know what kind! I love how they built walls up around the rim! 😎

On walk around we can see that the pipe in the back ditch has sprung another leak and we are no closer to getting this situation rectified. Is the muck on that ditch from the vegetation, or is it being facilitated by what is draining into the ditch? I need to order more Barley Straw Extract this week.

The wild strawberry plants are all over, though I've yet to see them fruit. And I found what I think might be a Serviceberry on the watershed! How did I see this Haploa Caterpillar is beyond me, but I am glad to have seen it! Being witness to the lives of so many things is such an honor 💚

On our latest trip to the land, it was on a warm and sunny day with big, puffy clouds coming in towards the evening. All creatures and plants were coming alive, reaching for the warmth of the sun! Jewelweed sprouts 

A volunteer elderberry (one of many that I am finding sprinkled around the pond) 

I spied this wolf spider right after finding a baby snake (who was much too fast for me to get a picture of, lol!)

Even just seeing this photograph, I can feel the warmth on my face and feel my soul relax.

When we were flagging the serviceberry and elderberry trees, we came across this Chorus frog! The elderberry are starting to leaf out!

I am still trying to identify this tree on the watershed, and will continue to watch it. 👇

And of course, I will always continue to watch the clouds and the sun. What wonderous things they are!

I just never understood why people consider dandelions a weed? I loved them even as a child, and still leave them as long as possible to this day for the pollinators. Unfortunately, I didn't see a lot of those this early Spring.

I checked out what is potentially a chokecherry tree, and saw the male goose floating on the serene pond! Although I haven't gotten a picture yet, the black cherry trees in the front CRP that have been opened up to sunlight, are really leafing out!

It feels like such a struggle to find the time and energy right now to get here as often as we need to. I know I have probably said that numerous times, lol. It will be such a game changer when we can be there full time and just walk out the door into all of this 💚