Uh-one project, uh-two project, uh-three project, ah, ah, ah....

 We were ready to hit it! Beautiful morning, storms forecasted later in the day, and a long list of projects to get done before they did. We had to drop my car off again at the garage down the road first thing in the morning and then Woodchuck drove us to the land in his car. I admit that I sometimes miss being the passenger, as I do 99% of the driving when we hit the road. It was a welcomed change of pace!

As soon as we got to the land, we were greeted with the most adorable trespassers. We think they might belong to the family a couple of houses down who have a very tiny homestead. They were chill, adorable, and very hungry for all of the little bugs. I asked them to please eat as many ticks as they could! I wasn't sure of the sounds they make, as I tried various ones to get them comfortable, but they ended up making a sound between a duck and a chicken and are very quiet. They got within a couple of feet of us as we made our way around the land. And their feathers? Absolutely beautiful! I hate that I have seen them for sale at the craft stores :( GuineaFowl!

We tend to get a lot of adorable trespassers and hitchhikers at or from the land. This jumping spider hitched a ride on me recently back to my car to get in the air conditioning! 

                                                            He's cooling his little butt, lol.

Thank goodness for the wind, because it was humid and the sun was HOT!

While Woodchuck opened the storage container, I walked the area. Salsify needed to be pulled.

And I saw a lot of white blooms high off of the ground that I needed to investigate. Unfortunately, a massive Multiflora Rose :( This is an area we haven't touched yet in the clean out of invasives, so I'm really not surprised.

On to the first project! Creating a fence barrier in the ditch coming off of the pond so that when Woodchuck puts the fish in, they can't escape. He ordered some Tilapia after finding out that they can help clean up the pond. All that money he spent on chemicals and they didn't make one bit of difference. I have to admit that the sound of him sloshing around in the water sounded very refreshing, lol. For the first time ever, I put my hands in it to wash them, and it felt so good! He's worried about snapping turtles (as he should be), but honestly, I hate being afraid and just want to be smart about how we interact with natural places.

And done! We didn't know if Tilapia jump, so we made it two fence panels high just in case. It's anchored at the bottom with large pieces of stone and brick. 

Project number two, which I don't have pictures of, was us trying to transplant some volunteer elderberry babies. They didn't like it much, immediately went into shock, but it was honestly worth a try since where they were growing gets mowed and they would never mature there. I watered them well, and I'm sure we got the storm at the land too which watered them even more.

Project number 3 was capping off one of the drainage pipes in the forest. I am not 100% confident that this was a good idea. When we bought the land we were told that the start of the pipe had been capped off, however, we could see water flowing from it, so unless there is a break somewhere in it, or it has drainage holes in it along the way, that information was false. So we sawed off the broken part, capped it, placed a brick against the cap incase of pressure build up, covered it and marked it with a flag. I'll keep an eye on the forest to see what happens, but we were told the beginning of this starts at the house North of this pipe. It was where the previous owners mother lived. There is a family with some farm animals living there now and we honestly don't know what is going into that pipe and then draining on to our land. We tried stopping there recently, but nobody answered the door.

Before we went our separate ways to work on our own things, I walked around a bit. I found this tiny and lovely Parasola mushroom. 😍

And look! Some of the flooding has gone down in the back ditch! I would say it was a good 4-6 inches shallower now, though it was still very high.

It was time to head into the forest! Because I keep going in at the same spot and getting stopped at the same spot, I decided to go to the very end and work my way back. I didn't care if there was standing water, I needed to at least get my eyes on what was going on. I was greeted with a new patch of Packera! It is now dappled throughout the forest.

I did my usual pulling of cleavers, and babies of honeysuckle, bittersweet, multiflora rose, dug up lily of the valley, cut troublesome grapevine and inadvertently would dig up critters. I couldn't get information to load on this guy while I was in the forest, so I left him. Turns out he's quite the troublesome creature with crops and fruit trees. 😟

But I was SO excited to find the Twayblade Orchid again!!!! And is that a little baby orchid coming up next to it???!!! This is the only one I have found in our forest since purchasing the land 3 years ago! I always put a little cage system around it so that I can find it easier next time out and can monitor its growth.

I was sneezing non-stop and had faucet nose. Everything was covered in a layer of pollen, even feathers that the birds had dropped, and there were piles of cottonwood cotton throughout.

                    A species of harvestmen arachnid. They are super fast runners, and even jump! 

UGH, the first time I see the wild strawberries ripen and he ran over them with the tractor while mowing 😢 I memorized the location and will check on the ones here that weren't ripe yet.

These babies were huge! And although I was tempted to harvest them, thinking they were chicken of the woods, I needed to get out of the forest in a timely manner because the storms were moving in and the winds were really picking up. I also don't trust myself on identifying anything else but morels. I sent the picture to a mushroom guy just North of me and indeed, this was not chicken of the woods and not edible! 😱

                                I named this worm Jaba. He was so fat, and didn't even move! 

I checked on the blueberry bushes before we left, and they are getting closer to becoming actual fruit. Since we trimmed the bushes, they look so much healthier!

We picked my car up from the garage down the road, came home, worked out, and Woodchuck wanted to go to town to grab some groceries and dinner. Of course he waited until the storms were starting!

They followed us back home! I hurried up and jumped in the shower and was just getting out when the sirens went off. 

There was a confirmed microburst just North of us!

So depending on the weather for the rest of the week, Woodchuck wants to head back after work to finish weed whacking. I've also tracked down some free wood that he can use for the walking bridge, but there was a lot of interest in it and I don't know that it won't be snatched up before we can get there to pick it up. He has been toying with the idea of buying an old truck to make situations like these easier, instead of having to rely on my car and the trailer we hook up to it. The most recent repair, which I have to say that even though I've spent about $3,000 to get her fixed this year, are things that have been ongoing that are just now getting noticed and fixed. Yesterdays fix was a leaky valve cover gasket and although the guys knew there was a leak, they didn't tell me and didn't move forward with fixing it. Once I was told that there was a leak, I asked Woodchuck why she hadn't been fixed? He shrugged. So they fixed that yesterday, but because it gone so long with the leak, my spark plug wells were FULL of oil and all of that had to be changed too. So a $200 job ended up being $360. I'm glad she's fixed, and the guys at the garage are great, but damn it, Woodchuck! Why oh why does he let things go until they are a bigger, and more expensive, issue?! I tackled him and play choked him--which would have been hilarious to anyone watching. I'm 5 foot, 140 pounds. He's 5' 8" and 200 pounds. But seriously, my car is very, very important to me. Anything we spend a large amount of money on and rely heavily on is! I take care of these things to help them last longer and reduce issues. He had speculated that I was having spark plug issues because I kept telling them that the idle was weird on her, even with all of the other fixing they had done this year. Now we know why. 

Oh and! Today embarks on the first of many appointments to meet with bankers about construction loans. One step closer! 🙌

I will follow

 I've been in my head a lot lately, feeling like I am on the cusp of something meant solely for me. But even in my own quest, I am always thinking of others. I am continually fascinated by how humans are affected by the Cosmos and Forces of Nature. Celestial events that make us feel like we are completely out of control of ourselves...mind, body, and soul. We just came out of a geomagnetic storm, and paired with the oral steroid the Rheumatologist wanted to try me on, I was a force to be reckoned with. I would have gladly gone to jail for beating up stupid people. But I'm off of the medicine now and calming down, ready to tap in to my potential, my strength, my weakness, and transcend yet again.

One thing I have continually denied myself over the years is spending money on flowers in the landscaping. Food plants were always a priority, anything else I considered a waste of money that we didn't have to waste. But now? I am not denying myself beauty, color, joy, smiles. I am working my ass off and I want to play just as hard as I work. So I took myself to a local greenhouse that specializes in native plants. I have gotten native plants before from them, and this time I just wanted some color. While my idea to prevent more flooding on the patio worked by planting some edges of grass to absorb the water, keeping it cut proved to be more difficult than I foresaw. I won't mow because it sits lower than the concrete, and weed whacking it isn't efficient. So we pulled the grass out of two corners to see how this would work for us. So far we love it! It provides color and some happiness. I got petunias, marigolds, and this beautiful red one that butterflies and hummingbirds like! 

Another large project ticked off of the list! The concrete has been poured in the pole barn now! Woodchuck is looking forward to hanging up his tools (and I am too, because honestly, we have four of everything between home and the land and he still can't find what he needs 😁)

It has been amazing to watch the forests transform with the opening of the space to build. Any hardwoods along the edges are leafing out now the whole way down the tree instead of just at the top where they only had light because of crowding. And to see what was waiting for the light to make itself known! (pictured is sassafras).

Although you will lose a boot in the water and mud getting to them, the blueberries that we trimmed are alive and well! I owe some to a friend who helped us build the pole barn, so I was glad to see that I will be able to share them this year.

My fight against invasives continues, but I can see the difference it's making as more and more native plants are taking over the spaces where I remove invasive/non-native ones. This is Dames Rocket, and while she's pretty and smells great, she has to go. Not to be confused with our native Phlox, Dames Rocket has four petals on the flowers, while Phlox has five. When we move out to the land and are ready for landscaping, I will be hitting it hard getting native plants in the ground.

These beauties are volunteer Elderberry and I am really hoping that Woodchuck didn't mow them over yesterday when we were at the land. The plan is to transplant them now into a strip of land that will allow them full sun and some wet feet, and where they won't get mowed over each week. 

I headed into the woods, knowing the mosquitoes were going to be insane. I couldn't stop moving, if I did I was surrounded by them. I had on full coverage clothing, layers of chemicals on my clothings, plus a visor with a net on the front, and a gator over my head and ears. With all of the rain we've had, and the forest flooding, we knew it was going to be a bad year for them. Sadly, my youngest is allergic to them, so his help out there will be severely limited (not that he's willing to help, but I digress). 

The day was perfect to be out there yesterday. Storms were not forecasted until later in the day, so we got there early. No humidity and lovely breeze...that doesn't make it to me while I am deep in the forest. But I don't care. The crows are overhead, dropping their feathers for me to find as gifts for taking care of their home (and I had a great idea for some art to make from them!) I blew through several rows in the forest, pulling cleavers, bittersweet, garlic mustard, honeysuckle, and LOV. Sadly, each time I go in, I get stopped at the same point and never seem to get past that! I had to stop twice to go back to Woodchuck to help him with his stuff, and then a storm blew in.

I am finding so many wonderful things! Like small patch of Wood Ferns, now the third species of fern I've found on the land.

And finally, a native grape instead of the ones that kill my trees! I will continue to watch it though, to make sure it doesn't damage anything.

                                                Sooo much Sweet Cicily dappled throughout!

The storm blew in fast, and I was in the middle of the forest when I heard thunder. I got out just as I felt a couple of drops fall, and more thunder rolling in on the winds. I got back to the shipping container in time for it to rain harder, and as Woodchuck was closing it up, a lightening bolt struck WAY too close for comfort. We both ran for the car and were very lucky as another one struck overhead right when we were getting in! I consider it the perfect ending to a very difficult week for me. To become so angry, to let it out, and then there's calm. We came home and went our separate ways, me to the sewing room to continue cleaning out and packing up. 💜

Today, my one day a week to get caught up on chores, art, socializing, blogging, etc. finds me harried as usual every Tuesday. But I made myself throw ingredients into the crockpot for chicken bone broth. I saved veggie scraps along the way and the guys recently had a rotisserie chicken that I am using the carcass from. I find it giggle worthy that I won't eat the chicken but will utilize the body of it. And it makes me think of all of the other things in my life that I try to utilize. Some times I succeed and some times not, but after a recent conversation with the youngest about feeling stuck in life (he does, not me), some times we get too caught up in viewing our lives from the vantage of what we are missing. When we do that, we will never feel fulfilled. We must feed what it is that we want to grow, like viewing life from the vantage of all of the wonderfulness we are surrounded with and by. That makes it so much easier to then see how fulfilled we truly are even if that doesn't meet the guidelines of normal society. They can pound sand and take their expectations elsewhere. I will follow the call of the crows. )O(

When last I left you....

 We had answers! We had options! And yeah, that went down in flames quickly. We did receive the quote from the company we had out to look at the flooding issue and well, at $15,000 ($5,000 per project, essentially), we had to decline their service. Woodchuck is pretty adamant that we can fix the back issue on our own, but I am not as confident. Not at all. And now we found another pipe in the CRP forest that is draining water from a property/house North of us, and we have another pipe draining directly into the flooding ditch from that same area. So we need to find out where those start. Nothing can be easy, can it? We saw that the woods to the West of us is up for sale. We can't swing it right now, but man is it tempting to snatch up all this is up for grabs around us so I can nurture it and return it to native plants!

We have had to take a couple of days off from the land recently. One to go get our boy from college! He was originally supposed to graduate this past weekend but with him changing majors, he has some more classes to take now. He has been home since 4 p.m. on Friday (today is Tuesday of the following week) and all he has done is game, do dishes a couple of times at our request, see friends, sleep and eat. No Summer job lined up (he does have an online Summer course he has to take that will help keep him busy), so we have LOTS of projects between our house, the land, and our oldest sons house for him to do. We have had numerous conversations already about how he's not going to loaf around...which leads to him walking away. For someone who doesn't want to be babied, he's not acting very mature. I have it in my sights to talk one on one with him, and reiterate that I will not work harder for his future than he is. I am busting my ass as it is. Word.

I had have to pivot from cutting and treating honeysuckle and autumn olive to pulling garlic mustard and digging out lily of the valley from the forest. Because of the flooding in said forest, I've had to resort to just snapping off the flowers on the LOV because I can't get to the roots in some areas right now. I will continue this struggle for the rest of the year into the Fall.

Hundreds of garlic mustard babies that I will need to go back and pull when they are bigger, which is likely right now. 👆

Dozens of sporadic Lily of the Valley patches throughout the forest, originating from a homestead just North of the forest. 👆

But some areas are too flooded for me to be able to dig the plants out and get the roots system completely. 👆

I also recently took a close friend to the land to mushroom hunt. It was nice sharing that magickal place with her and just walking around as opposed to loading up gear and trudging through flora, heat, and bugs to work. We had a wonderful time together just being there and listening to nature.

I had a follow up appointment yesterday with my rheumatologist, thinking it was going to be a waste of time, gas and money. BUT, she prescribed an oral steroid for me to try for 6 days and track my progress on it. How I respond to it can tell her how to proceed for long-term medications. She is still leaning towards Psoriatic Arthritis for me, but because the Dermatologist has diagnosed me with psoriasis, eczema, contact dermatitis and rosacea, she doesn't feel comfortable yet making it a definitive. I am doing my best to keep my stress under control, but she feels like my poor sleep isn't making things any better.

Right now we are struggling to meet all financial goals that are needed at one time: college tuition, car repairs, get the concrete poured in the pole barn, fix the flooding issues, save for retirement. But I am capable, I am guided, and I am held by the Universe. Even the doctor said she can see that I push through obstacles. I have my eyes on the target and I WILL succeed. 💜

I have a new piece of finished art that is now in the Etsy shop. I continue my search for a way to get my art into the world. I will not be part of a popularity contest, I will not settle, and I will be in control of my own destiny )O( www.soapwoodartstudio.etsy.com

Answers

 As time continues to fly by, we are now making preparations to pick up our youngest from college in about a week and a half and have a list of projects he can work on to keep him busy while looking for seasonal work. We decided to rent a truck to help haul his stuff, since neither of the cars are feeling well this year and I think it would be too much on my car to pull a trailer that far. Hubby finally got the flooring done in the his bedroom and it's been approved by Pierogi the Cat....who supervises all indoor projects around here. We sent a picture of the finished room to the boy, and he greatly appreciated it!

I continue to sloth create.....which is a term I just made up and means that I may go days at a time without touching a project, or when I do, I may just spend a few moments on it. I did finally realize though that when I rush these things, I am producing versus creating. And producing goes against my grain. I recently had a meeting at an art vendor space opening up, but it was not a good match for me. I admit that I cried a few tears when I left the building (which is WAY old and WAY beautiful!), because trying to find a place for yourself in the world can stab the heart at times. But I let myself feel the feels and then moved right along. Keeping to my beliefs about the guidelines I will follow for selling my pieces will eventually work out in my favor. As of right now though, we have no shows due to work schedules and no Etsy sales for several months. I refuse to define my success by these traditional means though. I have a few pieces of cross-stitch to eventually get framed. 👇

Woodchuck finished two benches on the land...one on the watershed for resting when we are walking or working out there (it is removable, not a permanent structure), and one on the path of non-government contract land between the watershed and back CRP forest. They are super comfy and we watched the eclipse from one of them! 👇

We have been impatiently waiting for spring peepers and frogs and to see fish, oh my! Nothing yet though. What a sight to see spiders on the surface and bubbles under. 😎👇

As we were sitting and waiting for the eclipse to happen, I noticed a tree on the watershed that I hadn't before. I ungracefully crossed the logs over the ditch and began taking pictures of it...only to find out later that it is the dreaded Callery Pear! We cut it down and treated the stump and found a smaller one next to it that we did the same with. It will most likely sprout again, since Spring is the time that the sap is flowing upwards in trees and the herbicide doesn't make it down into the roots like it needs to kill it off. But I wanted to catch it early and it's now on our radar to check it again this Fall. 👇

I have had to rethink what I take into the woods to get work done, and how I get it in there. Because of the amount of things I take in and the weight of them, limb debris on the ground, and areas of standing water and mud, pulling the work cart is too much for me. So I just walk carrying a large contractor size garbage bag draped through the strap of my back pack, loppers, a chainsaw, a hand trowel, and herbicide. The hard part about that is the frequent setting down and picking up of it all. But again, I am one person handling invasives on over 15 acres and I am constantly trying to find ways to make the process more comfortable for me. 👇

While down on my knees digging out Lily of the Valley, I accidently disturbed this beautiful Nursey Web Spider. She was very docile and let me move her on her leaf off to the side of me so I didn't accidentally harm her. Once I was done, I put her back in the same spot I originally saw her in. 👇

So far I can really see a difference in the amount of LOV and garlic mustard and dames rocket that I am finding in the forest. I am hoping the numbers remain low, but we are early in the season yet. The LOV pierce right through the leaf litter to find life in the light! I am always surprised by how deep their root systems go, and the suckers that they send off. Now that I am an invasive/non-native plant fighter, I see plants in a completely different way now.👇

The bittersweet is waking up again and I have a large area of it next to the shipping container. Once again I am overwhelmed at all of the invasives exploding at the same time! 👇

We stopped after work recently to work on a project of hubby's (the theme continues of me helping him but not vice versa), and we took a walk to sit on his bench, listen to the birds, and watch the sun start to sink. 👇

I am seeing so many maple saplings in the forest! It's one of the reasons I am doing what I am doing. To give these hardwoods a chance to mature and have the forest be healthy again. 😍👇

I am reminded with each trip how it feels like the entire Cosmos is held in this place. 💖👇

But while I am spending so much time and energy taking care of the land and working so hard to make our future plans happen, I am also trying to take care of myself. Some times no matter what I do, I struggle physically, but I figure it has to be helping something. I am officially just over one year out from the massive allergic reaction to the tetanus booster and resulting SIRVA in my left arm (the one that I had the shoulder surgery on.) It no longer feels like it's being slammed in a car door every day, all day; but I do still have some side effects. I continue to working to get it, and my other issues, under control. I'm grateful for any amount of feeling better! 👇

I find many reminders that I am not alone in my journey even when there is nobody else standing on my path. 🪶💚

And Mother E reveals gifts along the way of my work. I know She appreciates all that I am doing to help her and the creatures, and to honor my ancestors and how they cared for the lands. 

I can't help but smile when I see fresh, native life emerging. I shook hands with this darling Poplar leaf and welcomed it to Das Zem. 

 Now for the answers! On our most recent trip out to the land, we had a meeting with a pool/landscaping company that has an employee who also deals with ponds, ditches, etc. The flooding on the back ditch and pond, as well as the dysfunction in the ditch flowing out of the pond continues to worsen. Hubby finally agreed to have someone access the situation, and boy are we glad he did! Our problems are numerous, but also, we learned that we can control the water level in the pond by creating a dam situation. Our minds were blown, that was never even on our radar as an option or how to even go about it! He said when we are in drought season, use that dam to keep the water in the pond. He also said not to put minnows in it, and what did Woodchuck put in it last year? Yep. Minnows. 😣

We started the tour at the very beginning of the ditch where it goes under the main road, next to and behind the house next door, and then to our pond and ditches that are on our land. Issue #1). It turns out that some kids a couple of houses down put rocks down in the ditch to create a waterfall kind of effect, and narrowed the water pathway at the culvert to less than an inch wide. Hubby stopped over and explained that while it was beautiful, it's creating flooding on our land and the rocks need to be removed. Issue #2) the neighbor next door bulldozed his back yard, and filled in the ditch while also putting in a culver pipe. He did this for safety of not having anyone fall in the ditch and to also extend the yard space. But the professional found several issues with that as well. The culvert pipe was one size too small, and he could tell from sink holes in the yard that the pipe isn't level. Issue #3, now on our land, is we are having issues with our culvert pipe coming off of the ditch. It's the one that got a little crushed during excavating and hubby had to go down in the ditch to get the water flowing again. 

And then the back ditch, where the most recent flooding is going on. He recommends digging out the land on the crossover, letting the water go directly into the pond, then laying new culvert piping, etc. I took notes, but honestly, I think we are in a position on this one where we need to hire the professionals. We are hoping to have a quote within a weeks time and then can decide how to proceed.

I'm in the position now of trying to decide where to put my income? Towards tuition, or towards getting this fixed? I am actually hoping that the boy can find good Summer work to  build up his money to pay for his final semester of college. He graduates this December!!! With FAFSA being confusing, glitchy, and no help at all, I am sure that we will be paying full tuition again. I am working 45-50 hours a week, but at $12 (not including tips), it wipes me out every month to pay the tuition bill. I have been trying to sell my unwanted belongings on eBay and FB Marketplace, but it would be even more helpful to be able to sell the art! It would bring in money, free up space in the workshop, and be less to move when that time comes. Help a girl out, would you? Take a look at what's available, share us....it's free for you and would help us get noticed. TIA. www.soapwoodartstudio.etsy.com

We have to forego our usual weekly trip out there next week due to weather and needing to making some road trips, so we have decided to make a couple of trips out after work on nice days to utilize the longer day light. My goal on those shorter time frames is to walk the forest quickly looking for garlic mustard, which is flowering right now. The honeysuckle and LOV can wait another week until my next long day. I can completely relate to farmers now and the rush of the season and utilizing as much daylight as possible! I am hoping that all of my hard work now will enable me to one day relax on the land more and enjoy the fruits of my labor. But for now, I have to keep wearing the BadAss Nature Girl cape. 

It finally happened....but now what?!

 Just when we think we have something under control, we find out quickly that we don't know shit. I didn't think that we'd had a lot of precipitation, or at least here at our home we didn't. But when we showed up to the land yesterday, it was very evident by the puddles everywhere, including the driveway right when you turn in off the road, that it had rained a lot. As Woodchuck got the supplies ready for the day, I walked over to see if the blueberry bushes were budding and was shocked by how much water there was around them again. It's a wet area to begin with because of the leaky South side of the pond, but holy cow! The pond completely overflowed into it this time. We are loosing land at a very fast pace to the water. The only upside to looking at this area today was that I got to see a hawk nearby, sitting in a tree.

As we walked to where we would be working on projects (him on a wooden bench and me pulling garlic mustard from the forest) the water issue became even worse. The North side of the pond has holes in the land, where the water is undercutting and the slumping is becoming worse. It's also a risky endeavor to stand on the bank too near the water, as it's very unstable. Slumping ponds are no joke. But the worst was when we rounded the bend of the pond.....

The back ditch finally did it. It overflowed. This is an issue for various reasons: 1) The intersection of land allows us to access the back pathway that runs between the back ditch and the 2nd CRP forest. We had to bypass this part and walk thru the forest to the area where he would be working, and this was so flooded that it was even heading into the forest. 2) This area also leads to the ingress/egress of the watershed, which was supposed to have remained drivable for the government to have access. At this point, it's barely even walkable. 

If you remember from the last posting, we put up a screen to keep debris from blocking the drainage tubes. That screen is now nearly completely under water....that's about 2 foot of water. We can't see any blockage on our end, and we can see water flowing FROM the pond in the front ditches. We don't know what to do next other than put bigger drainage tubes in, but I think we just need to admit that we don't know what we are doing and call in the professionals for this issue, as well as the pond slumping. I have to admit that I was proud of myself! I didn't freak out or panic like I would have when we first bought the land. It's an issue that needs to be dealt with.

We went our separate ways. I have several acres of forest to take care of alone, he can handle his own stuff for now without me. The garlic mustard popped up a couple of weeks ago and is developing quickly with this wet weather we are having. Although my back was killing me from work a couple of days prior, I slapped on some pain rub and crawled around on the forest floor. 

For now, a lot is concentrated in a small portion of the forest. Once I get this pulled, I can start walking the whole forest and looking for stray plants and taking care of the honeysuckle farther in. I picked two garbage bags full on this day and I was rewarded by Mother Nature with so many moments of wonder and intrigue! I nearly cried, what an honor to witness all that I do there! Sandhill cranes flying over! A huge migrating flock of red-winged blackbirds! A tiny chattering squirrel up in the trees! The biggest red worm I've ever seen that startled me coming vertical out of the ground!

While Woodchuck took no notice of my work, I went to look at his before we left. While my back felt much better because I grounded, his felt worse because we was bent over building a couple of benches. I keep planting the seed with him that we should try and utilize as much of the fallen trees as we can. Keeps costs down and honors the spirit of what we had to remove. I think he's doing a great job!

It's not quite finished yet, but will the next time we go out there. I got to sit on it and it's quite comfortable! He was able to get two benches out of one tree length. This one will stay here, looking across the ditch to the watershed, and the other one will go on the watershed. We cannot have permanent structures out there, so as long as he feels we can easily remove it when necessary, we can go ahead with having one out there. He's looking to build a picnic table too, as we have access to lots of wood pallets but I've yet to get him to jump on grabbing them and start building things. We just found out our youngest will be coming home for the Summer in about a month and I'm hoping with that extra set of hands, he'll start jumping on things then. I'll have my hands full moving forward now with keeping up on the invasives in the forest, and we still have to finish girdling the trees in said forest now that we have them all marked. 

The concrete contractor has had to back out of showing up twice now, but is hoping to be there this week or next at the latest. Woodchuck and I will be heading to a Home Expo this Saturday that's being held locally so we can start gathering contact info for companies and seeing some trends that we'd like to incorporate into the house. We thought for a split second about temporarily abandoning the idea of building and just buying the house next to the land that is up for sale. But it's a lick 'em, stick 'em and it's WAY out of our price range. For now we will move ahead as planned.

Woodchuck is still trying to finish the new floor upstairs in our youngest sons room. Funny how what used to take us a couple of days can now take a month. Getting down on the floor is hard for him now and he won't let me help. The main floor is laid, he has to lay it down in the closet and then put quarter round throughout. Pierogi is the Supervisor and she approves so far of the work that's done, but walks him up there everyday and meows her disapproval that it's not done yet. He has one month and one day to get it finished and I am sure she will remind him every day.

I have slowly been getting back in to working on art projects as I continue to clean out, sort, and pack up! I finished another cross-stitch project, and started another Third Eye Fox dream catcher. It felt weird, almost wrong, to be working on things again. It had been several months, but I stopped to re-evaluate, to heal, to drop any false energy that others had projected on to me. I turned my Light inwards, I cried a lot (SO MUCH), I came into myself more, and continue the journey. So many great things on this path, and so many more dreams to come true. 💜

The rat pattern is by Lindsay Swearingen, and I have other patterns of hers I'll be working on!

This was the first, and so far the only, Third Eye Fox dream catcher I made. I have several of these, and bear frames, to use up. Time to put myself back out in to the world little by little. 🦊 You can find ready-to-ship works by me and Woodchuck in our Etsy shop: www.soapwoodartstudio.etsy.com