The short-lived Spring

 Once upon a time there used to be four very distinct seasons in Northwest Indiana where Badass Nature Girl has spent the most part of her 51 years. Now the seasonal lines are blurry and Spring runs into early June, speckled with a little Fall, then Summer hits like a brick immediately after. I can't say "Welcome to Indiana Weather!" anymore, because my siblings live in different states and their seasons are becoming the same.

 So now that Spring was short-lived, and Woodchuck is susceptible to heat stroke, we will be having to curtail trips out there to just a couple of hours first thing in the mornings, or not at all. As it stands right now, we haven't been able to get good time out there in over a week to work on projects, and with intense storms blowing through last night, we are antsy to get back out there to access how it held up. On our short trips out there as of late, it's been about mowing and pulling some invasives in the open areas instead of going into the woods. I'm also watching Woodchuck closely and if I see he's getting overheated, I stay near, help with his projects, and get him out of the heat and sitting down with something cold to drink. That's about all he will let me do for him at this point. 

If you remember in a previous post, I was running across Feathery False Lily of the Valley/Treacleberry/False Solomons Seal, and mentioned how I would post those pictures with the Solomons Seal so you could see the difference. One thing I have learned time and again is to have more than one way to identify a plant! These are the Feathery False Lily of the Valley/Treacleberry/False Solomon's Seal. 👇

And this is Solomon's Seal as it developing what I can its "dingle berries". Those dingle berries will turn a blue/purple color , and these plants can get tall! I'm only 5 foot tall, and they can reach my waist from what I've seen so far.👇

It is funny how the land seems to know what I am thinking about starting to research, or a supplement that I am looking into. Red Clover has been one of the most recent, and then I found two Red Clover plants! I am hoping to harvest some on the next trip out before it gets too old and fried from the heat. In the meantime, I've ordered an organic Red Clover Glycerite to take. 

 

I am hoping the oxeye daisies are nearing the end of their cycle now. I have pulled at least three garbage bags full. Have you smelled them? Oh my glob! Nasty, just nasty. Like a cross between garbage and dirty feet. Non-native. 😵👇

I continue to neglect the back forest while I focus on pulling seasonal invasives that are out in the open.

Because our cell signals are so weak out there, some times I have to rely on taking a picture and doing my research on an item once I get home, then hope I can find it again when I go back out there. This was one of those times that when I went back to the spot of the plant, it wasn't there. I had only found one, a European Pansy, so tiny was the flower that it was the size of my pinky nail! Non-native.👇🔍👀 

This is the kind of yard I want at the new house. I need to identify exactly what kind of clover this is, though we usually see a lot of white clover (non-native). The pollinators love clover, and it's something we won't have to mow (plus, it smells amazing!) 👇

I suppose that one of the perks of being short, as well as connected to nature, is that I see so many little things that people would just walk right past, or even step on. Tell me this isn't a fairy house and I will call you a liar!!! Look.at.it. So perfect, squee. 👇

Another patch of them nearby had one broken off and tipped over so that I could see the gills underneath. So magickal!!!! 😍👇

And again, as I was pulling invasives, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and there it was! Look at that beauty 😍 Hogna, Wolf Spider? 👇

So much falls away in this beautiful place. Stress from the outside (though this natural world does have stress of its own that it flings at me), feel bad emotional stuff. You step foot out here and exhale and all that was being carried on your shoulders lifts off, and all that was being lugged around on your back slips off. 👇

So I continue to just walk and observe and connect and I went into areas that we don't normally get into. You might remember the blueberry bush patch we found outside of the normal one, and we tried cutting back a couple of those bushes (which was all that we could get into with the overgrowth in the area). I went to take a look, only to find that some trees had fallen down around them. So eventually that will be an area that will get cleaned up and cleared better as we set the boundary lines, but right now, there are other areas that need our attention. That kind of work can be done in the off-season/cooler months when a lot of the vegetation has died back. 👇

I've been checking trail cams as often as I can, and luckily I have not found any human trespassers, though someone's dogs did come to play once. I've yet to identify them. But on one of the cameras, I saw this white dot. The camera took two pictures of it, the dot in the same place each time. I have checked that camera since and the white dot was not on there in the nighttime captures. There is a possibility that this might be a light pole in the distance at a big gas station/truck stop. When we camp out there one night this Summer, I'll be able to tell better. My feeling is that it not a light pole, as that is a bit farther South than the direction this camera faces, but we will see! For the first time ever, we got to see a fawn on the trail cam!!! Other things we caught but that I won't bother sharing are a black cat that keeps showing up for Woodchuck, a raccoon, a coyote, and the couple of dogs.  👇

I remember being so smitten with these when we bought the land and I saw them emerge for the first time! I have a picture of me that Woodchuck took of being down on my knees, sitting in a patch of these and studying them. Hares-foot clover. Non-native, and so adorable it should be illegal. 👇

The back ditch continues to drain nicely, and the side pipe coming from somewhere North of us, has stopped leaking into the ditch. With all of the rain we've had, I'm sure it is leaking again. We still have not been able to determine where the pipe starts and is it just water that is going into our ditch, or are other things mixed in with it? 👇

Such a vivid color, it stands out from all of the green and brown around it! 😍👇

Thank you for going on this walk with me! Big projects are coming! The pond will be fixed this year if finances allow, ditch edge clearing (I might check into renting goats to help with that), we will be tackling the adult Tree of Heaven in the front ditch, hanging more lights in the barn (we have the lights already, but this will be a cooler weather job! It's stifling hot in the barn right now with our temps in the 90's.) and more! If you would like to contribute to us getting the land back to native status, as well as ready for us to start building a home and living there full-time, you can donate at:

paypal.me/badassnaturegirl

You will be able to see on this blog where money goes to and the projects we are working on! Our land is home to many animals such as Woodchucks, Green Herons, Cranes, Woodcocks, Owls, Deer, Coyote, frogs/toads, turtles, and more! As well as many native plants that we are trying to save from being out-competed by non-natives and invasives. Plants we have found include native roses, spotted joe-pye, blue vervain, wild yam, packera, milkweed, jewelweed, fleabane, boneset, white avens, ferns, various mushrooms, and more! We appreciate you 💚