Slack-a-lackin'

 The heat wave and drought continues, and the only puddle around here is me. But life continues on, and stuff needs to be done. Seems like some times I am the only one available and willing to do it, but do it I do. What exactly did I do? Well, during the high humidity and temp days, I went over to my oldest sons house to pull weeds, because he had only done it once this year, and by once, I mean for about 5 minutes. It was the weekend of our towns "back to school" fest, and I made a promise to the elderly gal he bought the house from that we would make sure he is taking care of the house. That has been an absolute fail. But I digress. So, I got over there before 7 a.m. on a Friday morning, and instantly melted, but got three large garbage bags pulled. I left the violets. Because I'm a rebel, and spiteful, and they're pretty.

And this is where I left it on day one, hoping that he would be inspired, motivated even, to take over. I mean the weeds were already climbing up under his siding at this point. I get it, he some times works 6 days a week, but if you can't do the work yourself, you need to hire someone to do it and keep it done. 

But nope. He appreciated it, but it did not motivate him 😂 So I went back the next morning, even earlier, to pull the final three bags of weeds. Honestly, I am glad that I got eyes on it, because I found issues with his foundation and ground that will need to be addressed. I can only tell him about them, it will be up to him to make the calls to get it taken care of.

I rode my bike over both mornings, which was wonderful to be doing again. Freeing, and yet, painful. 😂 But with the weekend long festival, it was easier to maneuver the streets on a bike rather than in a car, and I really want to continue on increasing my physical activity, and get more variance in my workouts. 

The sun was coming up, but luckily I was heading to the parts that were in the shade. 

That is where I started more of the soil issues. His kitchen was an add on somewhere along the way, that ultimately sank, but I can see the soil around it too is creating sink holes/washing away. This particular hole is being caused by the tube that takes the basement dehumidifier water outside so that he doesn't have to go down in the basement numerous times a day to empty it. It was only meant to be a temporary thing, but he has not moved forward yet with any of the projects that need to be done. And time is running out. Because when we move and retire, we aren't spending all of our time on his house after spending nearly 5 years on our own, and the land. Some people might think that sounds cold, but if you're old enough to play house, you're enough to take care of that house and the responsibilities that come with it. Otherwise, get an apartment where those responsibilities are done for you. Woodchuck and I have talked numerous times that if we ever win the lottery, we would have the house fixed for him BUT, we also know that he still would not take care of it after that. It is a tough place for a parent to be in, but since I get accused by therapists all of the time of stepping in and doing too much, this is where I draw my line. I digress again.

Good morning, beautiful friend! I am sorry that I startled you and took away your vegetation cover! 

So 6 bags, close to 5 hours over two mornings. I charge him this time. $20 a day. I should have charged him $20 a bag 😂, but I don't because I hope that he would save that money to do the things that need to be done. I offered to mow, but was going to charge him for that too. I am glad that he realized that weeding was more than enough on my body and declined the offer. I have to stop pushing myself physically so much.

That white tube is supposed to be on a downspout somewhere. I left it right there. 

So I spent my Friday and Saturday mornings on his weeds, then spent Sunday at the outdoor market. I was grateful that there was a breeze and the humidity was a bit less! I also made two sales, though had to reduce my prices to make that happen. I loved the spot I was in, closer to the trees and nature. 😍

In between it all that weekend, and into the following week, I worked on art. I finally finished the first Evil Eye Protection mandala, and hope to make a few more in various colors. I listed it in the Big Cartel shoppe. This is a powerful piece! The frame is willow that I cut from our land and shaped so it would dry in this shape. The eye is crocheted with cotton yarns around a metal frame and attached with cotton cord. The webbing on the sides of the eye ball is cotton crochet thread. The tassels are suede, adorned with glass and plastic pony beads, feathers are crow that I found in my forest after something made a snack of a crow. The feathers have been hand-washed by me in a natural cleaner that has essential oils in it. They glisten! www.offorestandheather.bigcartel.com 

I also finished a few of the Halloween ornaments that I will be releasing October 1st! Witch's made from small gourds, with hand-sculpted clay hats, and hand-painted. These will be released to the Big Cartel shoppe. 

In preparation for darker days ahead, and my dimming eyesight, I snagged a free lamp from a friend to use at the spot I sit at in the evenings. 

Between all of the yardwork I've done, workouts, and the intense chiropractic appointments, my body rebelled and I have been in a lot of pain again. One day here at home, I was dropping things all day, running into things, and one of the things that I dropped was one of the blown glass watering bulbs. I almost dropped the one that I replaced it with too. 😖

Our time at the land is back to short trips lately because of the heat, and getting eyes on things that we can do in a short amount of time, or when it cools off a little. Fall is creeping in, made more evident by the plants that I am seeing. Not blueberries, but dogwood. This one is native, but grows kind of crazy, branches everywhere. I have left it here because for now it is acting like a wall to keep the phragmite from moving in this direction.

We found some more tick trefoil on the watershed while we were pulling Queen Anne's Lace on our walk. I found it originally in the front forest, looked it up, and it said that it wasn't not native, etc. But this current search said that it was. So I left it for now, bigger fish to fry.

The white meadowsweet is flowering all over the land and I am continually amazed at the variety of plants in the same color scheme out there!

I am still learning about thistles. Which ones are the good ones, which ones I need to get rid of. As far as I can tell, this is a good one called a Spear Thistle. I love the color of them!

Woodchuck was able to get a picture of the crane that we find often on the pond. Usually, when we disturb it by walking up to the area, it was fly from this pond to the watershed pond. Woodchuck keeps saying that he wants to pull this tree stump out of the pond, but I love that the wildlife uses it as a perch! 

Some work has been done on the pond, so stay tuned for updates on that. I think it's been an eye opener for Woodchuck on how projects progress when you hire others to do them, and the issues that pop up and destroy a projected timeline. 😂

You want blueberries?! We ain't got no blueberries!!!

 Actually, no blueberries, not as much willow, all of the beautiful and native plants gone. Look, I know it is necessary, I know they said I'd lose most of the blueberries when they started the pond, but DAMN! It was really hard to see it. I felt nothing emotionally, but mentally it was kind of shocking. 

The willow that I cut and use for my art is gone. This was always the plan for this spot because it is where Woodchuck eventually wants to build a pier, and I made sure to grab some cuttings a couple of days prior, but it's so weird to see it ALL gone. It will come back, it's an aggressive species, lol.

But ugh, oh ugh. The previous blueberry bushes that came with the land, the elderberry I found last year, all of the Joe-Pye weed that the butterflies love, and Jewelweed that the hummingbirds love, and the hiding places for the deer. All gone. I know it can come back, I know this important, and I am grateful to have found someone to help us fix the issues. I am also grateful for the nutrients that the blueberries provided us for a few years before having to do this to them. We can always start over and make this spot even healthier for them! One blueberry bush at the end of the clearing.

They did a fantastic job stopping at the watershed sign! I have to check out if something I see growing there is the phragmite spreading into this area.

It makes me think back to how it all looked when we first bought the land. All of the aforementioned plants, and more, that were chest high--even higher! It was SO hard to walk through it all, and SO humid. How we single-handedly changed the look of the layout. I really am proud of us and all of the hardwork we are putting in to getting this beautiful land back to native.

Woodchuck is so excited now, which is funny for all of the grief he has given me over the years about this project, and how long he put it off for. I guess everything happens in the proper time, and not necessarily when we think it should. 

We assumed that they hadn't done any work yet on the other sides of the pond, but we walked over to look anyhow. I found this single lily blooming, though there has been a few more at the land I've seen over the years. It's called a Surprise Lily (I call them Fairy Lilies because they sparkle and their leaves remind me of their wings), and is native to China and Korea. I did not plant these here at the land, the previous owners did, and I've been busy with other plants to have had the time to deal with them. I do have them at my house, planted by me. They were given to me by a friend years ago, before I began getting non-natives and invasives on my radar. When we go back to the land, I will be getting rid of this one, and the ones at my home too at the end of their blooming. I will make sure this little spider friend has another plant to call home. 

Woodchuck had worked in the heat all day, then we walked around in the sun and heat around the pond, and we were supposed to be trimming more branches from the pine trees. He did a few and had to stop, so he sat down while I did a few more. We left the branches this time where they fell and will get those the next time we were out there and it's not this stifling hot to be working outside. Before cutting the limbs about 6 foot up.

                                    After cutting them and letting them fall where they landed.

We also marked out the new house dimensions since this one is different from the original one. I have to say the guy Woodchuck hired has some great foresight, because it fit PERFECTLY in the space that was cleared. We will still be taking down a few more trees--mostly white pines that were damaged in the clearing projects, but also some other kinds that are leaning precariously, dead, etc. 

I worked outside most of the day too, but differently than Woodchuck. The morning was peaceful, but super hot already. The sun shot in through the bedroom window, which is one of my favorite things to see. 

I finished the evil eye mandala, and this thing was NOT easy! The frame is made from willow I cut from around the pond, the eye is a metal frame that was crocheted with cotton yarn, the web is white cotton thread, the items hanging from it are suede lacing in black, gold acrylic pony beads, a beautiful blue/purple glass pony beads, and crow feathers that I found in my back forest after wildlife had made a snack of it! I hand-washed the feathers with a natural cleaner that also has essential oils in it. I used those blue/purple beads in honor of the Mud Dauber who shared the patio with me on the days that I worked on this outside! I hope to make a few more of these, in different colors, and have the frames shaped and drying in the workshop. 

When that was done, I worked on the next step of the Halloween ornament I am making. Woodchuck made the hats, because he is the sculptor, not me, lol. They are made from air dry clay that a previous artist co-worker gifted me! They have been slow to dry completely with all of the humidity, even though we have a dehumidifier running in the workshop, and a box fan. I made the hanger loop from scrap wire I had, and the hat band was from supplies I also had on hand.

I appreciate you being on this journey with us and I am excited to get back out to the land to see what else has been done! In the meantime, there is more than enough to keep me busy! 

Does this chainsaw make me look angry? Asking for a friend

 I can feel the wind-down that comes with the transitioning to the later part of Summer. We had a week with no humidity (this past weekend was BEAUTIFUL) and I tried to get out and enjoy the patio as much as I could. We were trying to sneak in more quick trips to the land while we had it more comfortable, and to take stock of what it looks like right now before the excavator and mowers take over and transform what the pond area while look like. It's going to look, and smell, horrible initially, but you have to trust the process and professionals, and we know this needs to be done. 

The late Summer plants are starting to show now! The milkweed is starting to get its pods, the Boneset is starting to bloom. Native and medicinal. 👇

And I don't know what it is about Blue Vervain that strikes me so. I take a picture damn near every time I go out there. The color, the height, all of it makes me stop and notice it. Native and medicinal.👇

I also found something that I either hadn't found before or don't find often enough to remember. Old Field Balsam, a.k.a. Rabbit Tobacco, Sweet Everlasting, and other names. Apparently has a maple scent when dried and was used by the Native Americans/American Indians for things like coughs, colds, fevers, etc. I don't think that this will be damaged during the pond work, but I might cage it anyway to see how it fares and to make sure I can't find it again. Native and medicinal.👇

I did cage the Whorled Milkweed that was flowering and went back to check on it, and the other one that I found that wasn't blooming. These are coming up in a very messy area between the front CRP and road. I have attempted to clean up this area a couple of times, and the bittersweet is INSANE up here. At least the taking down of the honeysuckle helped clean it up a bit more, but there is definitely a lot of work to be done still. At quick glance, the Whorled milkweed flowers look similar to Yarrow, don't they? Whorled milkweed is native! 

I pushed mowed a lot of thick, wet grass over the past few days and am really paying for it in everything from my middle back up to the base of my skull, but taking breaks to find the flora at various times of year makes me forget about my pain. Common Evening Primrose. Native and medicinal. 👇

I have still been pulling at least one garbage bag of invasives each trip. Queen Anne's Lace being the biggest one I am getting right now. This crab spider was cheering me on! 👇

This grass spider asked if it could hitch a ride on my rider, but then decided to stay in the barn. 👇

But this mantis was chewing me out because of the patch of bittersweet taking over again. I'm trying, little friend, I'm trying. Stagmomantis California, the California Mantis, native. 👇

The contractor we hired for the pond work stopped by so we could pay him half, and I got pictures of the pond and what it looks like now (this was the only picture to turn out). I am still looking for work to help Woodchuck not have to finance all of this stuff on his own. I've applied to three places in the past few days. Most jobs that I am evenly remotely interested in expect you to be able to lift 50 pounds and I can't do that without assistance. For now, am still selling our belongings on eBay. I guess I am right where I am meant to be at this time! 👇

We had a beautiful experience with a hawk on one trip out. I heard her right when I got out of the car, and she was very, very close! As it turns out, she was in a large tree at the front ditch, calling out and chattering. She was within about 30 feet of us and what an amazing experience it was! She would fly back and forth from that tree to other nearby trees, and we could hear at least two others close by as well!

While the goal on one of the trips was for Woodchuck to finish mowing and I would pull invasives until that was done and then we would team up and start working on invasives in the back forest, that didn't happen. His back was sore, so I told him to just stay on the tractor and do his thing and I would do mine. So I grabbed my chainsaw, and Pink, and started working on a project of cutting the dead branches from the white pines, and picking up the branch debris from when the clearing took place. I am tired of tripping, rolling my ankles, getting slapped in the face. It was time. I only cut about 5.5-6 foot high. If you want them cut at the height for you, then you need to be there helping, is how I see it. This is a project that I can start and stop on, work on it when it's just a quick trip out, and chip away at it. I will also need to do the back forest as well, which is much larger than this front one. I only worked on several trees in this trip. I would load up the trailer on Pink and drive them over to the burn pile. When Woodchuck got done with his work, he came over to help transport the larger branches and to weight the burn pile down.👇

 I know it only looks like a couple of feet up, but again, it's about 5.5-6 feet up. Doing this also helps me see trees that can be taken down to help free up the hardwoods, take down any that look to be dead or dying or leaning too much and might fall on the house once that's built, etc. I don't want to cut trees down right now though, since it's still baby season for some species. Taking the dead limbs off will keep me busy enough! 👇

We ran to town to grab a few things from the grocery store, then came home and worked in the yard for a few hours. Woodchuck did a little weed whacking while I cut out mulberry and other things from where they shouldn't be growing. I was rewarded with seeing the beautiful blue jay feather. 👇

Then I got down on my hands and knees and started cleaning up around the green house. The fairy lilies are popping up, and the patio pavers were covered with mounds of dirt and old grass clumps. The rocks I have found along the way were no longer visible, and some of the pavers were not laying flat any more. So it all came out and I cleaned it up and fixed it right. I also found a few holes in the greenhouse siding that the weed whacker made and asked Woodchuck to plug them up when he fills the hole in the side of the shed too. Once it cools off, I will clean out the inside of the green house. 👇

I got the bright idea to make another fountain. Woodchuck bought a tiny solar powered one a few years back, we used it one Summer and then it got put away. So I grabbed a metal bucket, some broken pavers, and lots of the granite rocks that I've collected along the way! It was a bit farther from the table than I would have liked, which meant we didn't get to hear the water, but it used up things we had around, and maybe provided a cooling spot for the birds. 👇

Unfortunately, I found out the next day that this wasn't going to work with this bucket. We had set the bucket in a large planter that has a basil plant in it, and we were wondering why the sidewalk under and around the planter was wet. We thought originally that it was from the wind blowing the water from the fountain, and dropped the fountain lower, but when I got home from the grocery store the next day, the water level had dropped significantly! I filled it, and within an hour, it dropped again! So the bucket wasn't holding water. Lesson learned to check that first next time 😁 Woodchuck took it all apart, found another bucket, water tested it, and I will start over. I am glad that I had this idea at this moment though, because when I grabbed the watering can, there was a cabbage white butterfly laying completely splayed out in it! I know these get a bad rap, but this one was lucky enough to fall in MY can and therefore, was saved. I didn't realize it was alive until I felt it grab a finger and then it would move a leg here and there. I just let him catch a ride and dry those wings off until he was ready to fly! 👇

While I worked on the original idea of the fountain, he edged the sidewalk. I wanted to do it, it hasn't been done in a very long time, but he refused. It was something he used to do often when we bought the house, and it was a nice flashback to see it done again. 💙 When he was done, he used the leaf blower to blow all of the dirt around, I mean off, the sidewalk. I'm a sweeper myself, but I know he loves to use his tools 👇

I am continuing to go through pamphlets and pictures to put in the new house binder. Woodchuck changed his mind about the exterior stone, which was nice because it's a blend of the kind of stones that we both like, and we got to see what it would all look like next to the barn colors we used. The cement siding looks gray in the photos, but is actually a lovely green.👇

I am thinking about the Bone White for the whole interior. I am over each room being a different color, and I think this would pick up the natural lighting well. 👇

In the meantime, I continue to be the Domestic Gremlin that I am. Laundry, dishes, vacuuming, mowing, grocery shopping, selling on eBay, etc. And I continue to try and live my dream of working on, and selling, my art. The Domestic Gremlin thing is working out better, unfortunately. I always thought that my art had meaning, feeling, healing. But then I question that in times like these. My mushie-themed art release for August did not go well at all, and after a couple of days of being depressed and questioning my place in it all (damn full moon energy!), I just have to move on from that place. I will eventually have to make some hard decisions once we get closer to moving, and I will have to let go of the supplies that I felt drawn to at one time, and still feel they are usable. But for now, I keep working on the art, and trying to sell it. My recent work in progress in the workshop as has been this Evil Eye dream catcher (it will have webbing on the sides of the eyeball), and it has turned out to be MUCH more work than I anticipated. Made from willow from my land, cotton yarn, a metal ring, suede lacing, glass and acrylic pony beads, cotton cording, and cruelty-free, found feathers. I found these feathers in my forest, some wild animal had made a snack of a crow! This is a powerful piece when you combine the evil eye and crow feathers. 👇

I signed up to do the market this Sunday, and of course the heat and humidity have returned for it. I am still in the hole concerning those markets, and quickly running out of money in the business since I had to purchase some supplies recently. I continue to believe that this will work out, that I will receive the abundance the Universe has for me, and to share the healing energy of my art with those around me. )O(

Remember, you can find the mushie art in the new shoppe, and I will be taking any unsold items with me to the market this Sunday.

                                                        www.offorestandheather.bigcartel.com

You can still some other various pieces in the Etsy shop, and most of those will be at the market with me as well. 

                                                        www.offorestandheather.etsy.com

Thank you for being on this journey with us! Hopefully in a posting in the near future, we will have figured out doors and windows for the house, and maybe the roofing?! So much to think of! 😱