Insane in the drain-brame

 As usual, I am behind in posts. Many quick trips to Das Zem make for many pictures to go through, projects to write about, and notes to take. My poor phone is choking it's so full of pictures! I made reference to doing a post about the guys working on replacing the drainage pipes from the back ditch to the pond, so let's see what they did!

First of all, I admit that I had no faith in Woodchuck's capability to do this project, even though we had notes from the pond company that came out and walked us thru the process. Because Woodchuck doesn't read instructions, but to his credit this time, he did ask for me to send him, and he LOVES watching YouTube videos to learn how to do things. Historically, there is always ONE detail he will leave out that is really important to the longevity of a fix. I voiced my concerns, he voiced his confidence that he and the boy could do it. So okay, but I will be in the forest removing invasives and I can't come running every time something goes awry.....let's just hope that it won't, right? 

A contractor down the road was able to get the pipe for us that we needed. We are always incredibly grateful to the people we run across that help us out in ways like this. While we want to be completely self-sufficient, it's just not possible for us to have every single piece of equipment/machinery/trucks that we would ever need, and so reaching out to locals like this is imperative. A win/win, actually! We get done what we can't do, and they make a little extra money! The size on the new pipe, 12 inch diameter, is a far cry from what was used originally, which was three 4-inch pipes. 

                                                                            New pipe👇

                                                                            Old pipe 👇

A view from a farther distance of the old pipes. 👇

Woodchuck hired our youngest son to help with this project, and I have to say that he is a natural on that tractor! He ran the tractor, jumping off occasionally to help dig, while Woodchuck did most of the ground work. 👇

The old pipes were completely submerged, but Woodchuck said it's best to have it float a bit. I have no idea, so I'm trusting in him and all of the research he did leading up to doing this project. He said we can always cut the pipe down shorter later on if we need to. This is the pipe on the pond side. 👇

                                                       This is the pipe on the ditch side. 👇

                                                        And how it looks overall now. 👇

There is already erosion happening at the edges of the land around the pipe due to animals going there to drink water. So he put down some grass seed in all of the soil for now, and then later this Summer the entire pond will be fixed to help prevent the slumping. The back ditch drained out quickly with the appropriate pipe. It took two days of work (not entire days. So one full day, and then a couple of hours the next day.) 👇

Speaking of pond fixes, I cannot deny that my idea of barley extract treatments failed. Honestly, everything will until we got that water moving with a fountain. While I would love to get the pond fixed this year, and get the fountain right away, Woodchuck's plan is to get the fountain for next season. Then I will continue with barley extract treatments every month or two, depending on drought status. The plan as of right now to fix the pond is to have its banks built back up, especially on the South side where they completely blew out and a pond leak is taking water into the area of blueberry bushes, then we will add stone to the edges. The company is ready to do the pond at anytime, but we don't have all of the money saved up yet.👇

So what exactly was *I* working on while the guys took care of the culvert? You know it. LOV. I think I have filled 5 contractor bags so far this season, and there's still more to go. This is the before of only one of the areas recently. 👇

This is one is going to take numerous trips. So you will pardon me when I don't get all excited about your beautiful LOV that smells divine and reminds you of your grandmother? I have spent 4 years (and counting) getting this crap out of my forest.👇

Did you know there is something called Feathery False Lily of the Valley? Also known as False Solomon's Seal and Treacleberry, it is a native and medicinal plant, though I have never gathered it myself for that use. I rarely find enough it to warrant taking any and am just know getting to learning more about it the past couple of seasons. Solomon's Seal will get what I call dingleberries that hang down from under the leaves and are a blueish/purple color, similar to a concord grape. Treaceleberry gets a pike of white flowers that look similar to elderberries, in my opinion. I think I have a picture of those to share in a later post.👇

Let's go for a walk outside of the forest and see what we find! Will it all be bad? This wall of AO (Autumn Olive) sure is! It's in an area we haven't even had the chance to touch yet. 👇

While the Autumn Olive flowers are HIGHLY fragrant, they are so strong that I get headaches and aching sinuses and a runny nose from them. The berries can be edible as well, as I saw Creek Stewart made a fruit leather with them. I have never tried it, but Lord knows, I would have enough for a lifetime with how many of these things we have on the land. AO are extremely invasive in Indiana, taking over the forest floors of numerous forests, and can also be seen along roadsides, and in our case, on our watershed too. It is another thing that we have spent four years working to eradicate on the land. 👇

Woodchuck was getting tired of finding poop on the foot bridge and kicked it all off in frustration....and there has not been any since, lol. Whatever left these was eating a diet high in grain. 😂👇

One of my favorite things to do is to hold hands with the trees and acknowledge them! Pin Oak, native. 

I remember one year finding what looked like a dandelion head that had gone to seed, and it was huge! I was just beginning my journey in the plant world then, and found out they were Salsify/Goatsbeard, non-native. I try and pull them before they go to seed! This one had not even flowered yet. 👇

We have many, many common milkweed plants this year that are being protected from the mower. Most are doing really well! Nestled among the new tree plantings, and Indian Hemp, and ferns, the strip along the back ditch is a no mow area until late Fall/early winter.👇

                                                The life of insects are present and visible! 👇

                            A large bittersweet that I tackled once and will need to again. 👇

A beautiful sea of sensitive ferns! One of my favorite things to do is to watch them waving in the breeze. When there's a lot like there is right here, they create hypnotizing rolling waves. 👇

While I am still against using noisy equipment, my physical limitations are grateful to take some pressure off of my ankle. But. Being only 5 foot tall comes with issues that regular height people don't have to contend with....like reaching peddles. Even with the seat pulled forward all of the way. Not only being able to reach them, but to also engage them fully, which I could not do and stretching to do so was making my wonky hips angry. And some times, I would have to stretch so much, and come forward so far on my seat, that the safety feature would engage and shut the mower down. 😞 So Woodchuck put wood blocks on them for me, and it is better, but we may need to get a thicker piece of wood for the clutch. 😂👇

Normally I would be carrying all of this to my work spot, or pulling a work cart. Using the cart on Pink now helps to save my strength and energy for the actual project. You may remember that we got this cart from an auction. Faded blueish green, rotted tires, etc. Woodchuck did a great job of hooking me up! 👇😍

I'm a clouds girl. I loved laying on the ground, or hood of a car, with my brother when we were growing up and looking at the clouds by day and stars by night! Das Zem has wonderful sky views! 👇⛅🌞

The amount of Wolf spiders on the land is bonkers, and that's just the ones that I've been able to see! I also didn't realize there were so many types of Wolf spiders until I started getting pictures of them and looking them up! I moved this one so she would be out of the way of the mower that was coming. Did you know that if you shine a light on the grass at night, you will see little glints and twinkles, and those are the eyes of the spiders! 👇

If I have found these before while working the forest, I don't remember it! After some research, we think they belong to the Black Oak tree? Which would not be native to our area. We do see cotton floating around each season, and that we have some cottonwoods, but I see when these break open there is a slightly cotton floof inside. I will need to do more research about this. 👇

Work, work, work; it's all we do while we are on the land right now. Every moment counts when we can't be there every day. So while we stopped to eat lunch, we throw the poles in the water and I caught the first ever fish at Das Zem. This is a minnow, which was surprising because I am used to seeing them small! These can get 6 inches long. We released it. (P.S. The pinkish hue is from the red chair I was sitting in). 👇

I was also able to start checking trail cams, and saw this adorable bird with a grub! 👇

But my work doesn't just end at the land! There is a railroad owned tree line next to my yard that is full of invasives that keep trying to spread to my yard. I have spent the past 5 years working on it and am seeing Sweet Sicily coming in strong! While I am still removing Dame's Rocket and large mats of Cleavers. 👇

I always hear my ancestors debating in my head when I pull cleavers. There is some debate now over them, the native status, the invasive status, etc. I tend to leave them at the land right now because I always have more pressing issue plants to deal with. From what I am reading, they are considered native, but aggressive, and here's my experience so far with them. As with a lot of plants, it's about watching, and keeping them in check. I have spots of these at the land where they kind are kept in check on their own, and other spots where I feel they are getting obnoxious. If I am already working in a spot that has a large matting of them, I pull them. But here at home, they are bonkers! Large, sticky mats that not only hide some bad things lurking underneath, usually I see it hiding Creeping Charlie and small Garlic Mustard sprouts, but good things, like Sweet Sicily and Solomon's Seal. And they can get really tall too! Part of the debate is if they actually out-compete other good plants. I can say that even when the mats cover the plants, the plants seems to do just fine. Cleavers is edible, and is good medicine. That's where I hear my ancestors debating with me in my head! I don't have the time right now to use most of the plants I find as medicine, and am hoping that changes once we can be out there. Side note of the Cleavers, its leaves are like velcro, and it has little velcro balls that stick to clothing, fur, etc. Highly annoying.

Lots and lots of Sweet Sicily! 👇

If you would like to contribute to helping us fight invasives and get large projects done at the land, you can send a donation through Paypal to paypal.me/badassnaturegirl. I do not monetize this blog because I know how frustrating it is to get through the ads that continuously pop up. You will be able to see the projects unfold here and where your donation went to! Thank you for being here on our journey with us!