Woodchuck and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary earlier this week, 26 years together. So long and so fast, depending on the situation and time of life we were in, lol. 😂 We were able to celebrate over two days, which was such a nice change of pace for us since he works 6 days a week. I admit that when we get days where we have possibilities to do stuff, we get overwhelmed with the options! We agreed though that we would not run ourselves into the ground and we would slow down, take our time, enjoy the time together.
Day 1: we went to the lake! We typically only get there once a year, and have to make the decision for that one trip between working at the land or going to the lake. It ended up being the PERFECT day for it! Recent swim bans had been in effect because of water quality, high waves, and rip currents, temps in the 90's and high humidity. But we always go bright and early, to avoid the crowds and the stupid $20 (it increases every year, and they say it is to keep the riffraff and out of state peeps out. It doesn't work.) fee to get in, and the water is smooth and calm at that time.
We went on a Monday, which means the weekend crowds likely left a mess, and we weren't wrong. If there's garbage in the parking lot, that doesn't bode well for what the beach itself will look like. 👇😬
Oh wow, that first view of the horizon, past the sand and to the water and beyond. It gets me every time! 👇😍
We like to set up near the water, so we can hear the waves (when they are there) and get a good view! The juvenile gull also likes the shoreline! 👇
Once we set up the blanket, I go for a walk to pick up garbage. Woodchuck came with me this time, though he gets bored with my constant stopping. Unfortunately, the dog owners on this day had their dogs off leash, and none of them bothered to clean up after them. Luckily, I picked up a plastic to-go coffee cup along the way and used that to pick the poop up. It is stuff like that that is the reason I don't like to go out and do stuff anymore. I am always losing faith in humanity. I filled a store bag full of garbage, and also had several sand toys that I picked up along the way. The bulk of the garbage I found on this day was: cigarette butts, food/beverage packaging, toys, and unidentifiable micro-plastics. It really, really upsets us. How people can take such a beautiful and natural place and just treat it like a garbage dump. A bit later in the day, half of a Styrofoam plate, that looked to have been used as target practice, came floating along the shoreline. I was not in the water at the time that I saw it, and everyone that the plate went by that was in the water, and everyone out of the water that saw it, ignored it. So I got up and went in and pulled it out. I just couldn't imagine seeing something like that and leaving it. I also found a bubble wand, and lots and lots of holes that nobody bothered to fill in before they left the beach. 👇
Gulls get a bad rap, but they are there and partially because of humans leaving their food waste or even feeding them deliberately. Humans are to blame for so much that is going wrong and I am trying to be part of the solution. Yes, I am bitter and resentful that every year the fee goes up to get in to a place that, at the time I am there, I am the only one of the public cleaning it up, but I can't imagine not coming here to pay my honors and respect to this wonderous place. 👇
The clouds have given way to sun, a nice breeze, and waters that have stayed calm all morning. It was absolutely perfect! 👇
As the years have gone on, the waters of Lake Michigan have gotten more clear. That posed some issues to the eco-system of those waters. I remember seeing a booth set up at an event that had rangers talking about it. The suspect then was the invasive mussels coming in on cargo ships. I don't know the status of the situation now, but I can't imagine it's gotten any better. The waters here when I was growing up, and even into when my kids were very young, were much more murky. 👇
We went for a walk while I looked for pretty rocks. I have a whole technique that I do while looking for them. I'll post some pictures of what I found later in this post so keep reading until the end! We also spent what felt like a couple of hours in the water! He cannot swim...you know, I think it has something to do with him being an Aries! And I LOVE swimming and being in the water....I am a Pisces. So he kind of stood in the water, going up to this neck, and I would tread and swim and float and we would talk, and it was so relaxing. We never relax and some times it feels like we have forgotten how. Once he was fed up with being in the water, we got out so he could take a nap, and I was trailing behind him (because I didn't want to get out of the water, lol) and when he sat down and turned around, he said I had a duck following me. Once I acknowledged it, it turned and started towards Woodchuck. Most likely, people have been feeding it. We did not, and it went on its way swimming, drinking water, and cleaning itself. 👇
As the lifeguards showed up, and began testing out the speakers, the gulls got spooked and flew farther down the beach. 👇
We typically get to the lake around 6:30-7 a.m., pick up garbage, go rock hunting, go in the water, and spend some time drying off in the sun before heading out. That usually puts it around 10:30-11:00, and that was spot on on this trip too! I hadn't really eaten breakfast, and after all of the walking and swimming, I was getting hungry. Our plans had always been to go out for lunch, we just needed to figure out where! I had saved two gift cards that we got at Christmas for our anniversary so that a lack of funds would not prevent us from being to do things that cost money....like go out for a lunch or dinner. Those cards will pop up again shortly....
I remembered that just around the bend was a little place that an acquaintance and I went to for lunch some years prior. It's a teeny tiny place, kind of a hole in the wall, right off a creek/canal/waterway. I thought it would be nice because we could sit outside on the upper deck and have view of the water below us. The place outside kind of has a cabana feel to it. He was really into it when we got there! I ordered us two mocktails, but had to switch our drinks because he didn't like the herbal one. I liked the both, but I'm a sucker for anything coffee! That's okay though, I wanted him to like what he was drinking.😂 We also got to see a train go by!
We don't get appetizers because it's just too much food with our entree, but were hungry and got one and it was too much food with our entree, lol. I mean, too much for us to eat for real because we don't usually eat fried foods, or big portions. We were MISERABLE after we ate, lol! He got the burger and sweet potato fries and I got the salmon burger with a ginger sesame sauce on a gluten-free bun, with sweet potato fries.
We can't eat any more, and we still need to go to the grocery store on our way home, so we ask for the check and I about had a heart-attack when I saw the total. Nearly $80, without the tip factored in!!!! 😩😱Plastic flatware and cups, food that was brought out in baskets, in a teeny tiny hole-in-the-wall place to eat and an $80 bill. We just stared at each other with our mouths hanging open. Yeah, I know. Should have paid more attention to prices, and the mocktails weren't even priced on the menu...that should have been a dead giveaway. So I bring out a gift card, thinking I'll pay for the majority of the meal with it and put the leftover on the debit card. She brings back the gift card and said it must not be activated, so I give her the other one that has the same amount on it. She brings that one back and apologized and said that they must have gift cards blocked in their system. So by the time I put a tip on the payment, we spent nearly $90 from the bank account that I had not budgeted to spend from and needed to ration that money to get us through until payday. But the deed was done, no sense in getting stuck on that. This is part of why we don't eat out much...too expensive and we like my cooking better!
So we leave, go to the store, go home, and Woodchuck wants to go to the land and start mowing. Sigh. Okay, sure thing! At least I will get some more exercise in! But. This is kind of doing what we agreed we wouldn't do. Driving all over, wearing ourselves down. Ah well, bad habits die hard. So home and to the land we go!
The contractor still has not started the pond, so it is still slumping and overgrown and....green 😂It'll get there!
This trip was going to be fast. A little mowing, and I would be pulling some invasives as I found them. You know the routine, right? It's time for a walk, so let's go!
Isn't nature amazing?! The detail on even the smallest of creatures! 👇
Harlequin, Asian Ladybug? Identification uncertain.
Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly. The one I posted previously was green, this one was a lovely blue! 👇
A friend of mine was interested in collecting Sumac Drupes to make lemonade with! The ones at the land weren't viable at the time I checked, except for this one and it doesn't even look healthy. She found some down the roadside of the little town we are currently living in and I am so excited to hear how it goes for her! Just another thing to get on my radar when we are living at the land. Have you ever tried it?!👇
I did find more of the St. John's Wort and it seems that I have a couple of different kinds. This one *might* be the non-native kind because I don't see spots on the buds. 👇
We checked the area of Tree of Heaven, and more are sprouting back, so we keep cutting and spraying, or just spraying the juveniles. We have heard from the NRCS that there is a new paint-on treatment on the market, so I am excited to learn more about that! Of course, the ankle-breaker Woodchuck hole makes me stay vigilant in where I am walking! 👇
Up front, between the forest and the road, I push mow around the Arborvitae that we planted, pick up garbage, and pull any invasives that I can grab before they get mowed and seeded. Plants with yellow flowers on them tend to my bane in identifying them, so when I found one right along the tree line, I figured it would be an invasive. Upon closer inspection, it was a St. Johns Wort, and when I took the picture and used the plant app, it said was the Spotted St. Johns Wort! That would be native! So, if I can still find it again when we go out there, and it didn't get mowed down on this trip, I will cage and mark it! 👇
Working my way back to the prairie, still pulling invasives and taking stock of things to work on removing, I noticed the bittersweet coming back under the River Birch and reaching up to strangle it. Right next to that, where the pears once stood, fleabane as made itself at home as an Oak starts to mature. 😍👇
I am finding all kinds of berries, and more St. Johns Wort, most of which seems to the non-native one (though still medicinal). 👇
Areas I can no longer access at this time of year are just walls of Autumn Olive and I am dropping a bug in Woodchucks ear every chance I get that we will need to work together to start clearing these larger patches. We can just imagine what the landscape will look like without them! 👇👀
In an area that has been cleared before, but is a mixture of dead trees, trees fighting for survival against bittersweet, and native plants, the American Pokeweed is coming up again. This is one of those plants that people either love or hate. I don't mind them, but haven't had them in difficult spots.....and honestly, I don't care if I get purple bird poop on my vehicle. These will grow and ripen into beautifully dark purple berries. Did you know that you can use those berries for dying fabrics? Right now, they remind me of tiny, green pumpkins 👇
Next to it is Dock gone to seed. Edible, medicinal (various parts of Dock plants), I have yet to try them. I believe that they are non-native, and have heard they can be difficult to get rid of. 👇
All of this sleuthing around has earned me the sight of a Hawk feather stuck to a plant! I am always on the lookout for Hawk and Owls (and now Woodchucks) above my head, but have yet to see any (except for that one Woodchuck that outed itself because of its nails on the bark as it was climbing down!) 👇
There were several of these Butterflies, either the Northern or the Pearl Crescents. 👇
And so many vines, mostly of Bittersweet, but this one came up as some sort of Indica, which is UGH. I am really going to need Woodchucks helps cleaning this particular section out and subsequent maintenance. Some of it is on the property belonging to the North neighbor, and is part of an area we've been wanting to buy. I will at least check in with them that I can work at cleaning it up. I find that most times when it comes to property lines like these that are at the very edge/end of their land, but closer to mine and areas we frequent often, they are just fine with free labor to make an area healthier and more native.👇
At the very end of the property, closest to the pond, I noticed saw dust on the plants close to the ground. A tree snapped there not too long ago, and in looking up, something is utilizing the snacks it has to offer. 👇
On this trip out, I pulled two bags of invasives. Those bags consisted mostly of Queen Anne's Lace, Deptford Pink, and Hares-foot clover. 👇
But I can't leave without one more picture, and I choose the Red Clover. Flowers, flowers, rows and rows. Just captivating! 😍👇
We've done it. We ran ourselves into the ground again. Sweaty, dirty, hot, and tired. One of these days, when we have more than one day a week to spend together, we will be able to spread out everything we want and need to do! We will still stay active, and busy, but we will be together and having fun more often! 💘
As promised, here are the pictures of the rocks that I found in the water of Lake Michigan. It is ok at this location to take them, but please make sure that you know that ahead of time at any location you may be at.
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