As the world turns

We haven't made it out to the land a lot, but recently got to make a couple of trips, one of which was to drop off some items that Woodchuck won in an auction. He got some jacks and a metal table for when he gets a welder. We had to go Valpo first because he had another medical appointment (seems like there's been one every Monday), and then drive all the way out to Bremen, Indiana to pick the items and then drive to the land to drop them off. It was a beautiful day though for a drive and to be out there.

Once those items were unloaded, Woodchuck grabbed the tractor and we started moving more wood onto the burn pile. I got in there myself to start grabbing the smaller items and to loosen things up. I am glad that I was there and did that, otherwise Woodchuck would not have seen the nest of Wooly Bears that we unearthed! I moved all of the ones that I found to a safer location! 👇

I got dirty in the process, but I love working the land and getting dirty! I am looking forward to being here all of the time! 👆

              This is what the Wooly Bears supposedly turn into! Good luck, little friends! 👇

We cut up the back cherry tree that we took down (it was not doing well, and it was leaning over the barn) and loaded up most of the wood to bring home and use in the smoker. I also found more bones while we were doing that! Always the Knochenhexe!

I also found another black cherry not doing well (nearly all of them have died due to lack of sunlight before we opened the forest up), and it had been nicked along the way by machinery and was producing some amber. I left a coating of it on the tree, but cut off the blob. 

We also finally got around to cutting off the broken limb from the River Birch tree.

I adore these trees so much and their papery skin! There is a pear and apple tree next to it that we are thinking of taking down. I have no idea what kind of pear tree it is, and they are way to hard for us to eat, and the apple tree really doesn't produce. We had left them thinking that maybe the wildlife was eating the fruit that had fallen, but we haven't noticed that happening (might want to get a trail cam in that area to know for sure!)

Now it was time for us to part ways, Woodchuck needed to fix the hole he put in the barn siding (that story and picture will be on a future post!), and I was going to use this moment to cut and treat a climbing nightshade and honeysuckle. I originally thought the climbing nightshade was a bittersweet based off the i.d. name it pulled up, but the berries were different than any bittersweet I'd seen before. After posting in an Invasive plant group I belong to, they cleared it up for me. Odd though that even though it is not a bittersweet, it behaves just like one! I made a wreath from it like I would with bittersweet.

YEARS ago and before honeysuckle made it onto the Terrestrial Plant Rule list in Indiana, we would cut the branches to make beads. They have a hollow center that made them perfect for that! Of course, I would never grow them, but just utilized what we found and were already taking down and killing off.

Once we were both done with our projects, we went for a walk together to see how Fall was beginning to slowly creep in on our little slice of Earth.

                                                                           Pokeberry 

I found another elderberry!!! This one was mixed in with the blueberry bushes and red twig dogwoods. Although I love the dogwoods, they are a pain in the butt and take everything over. I will clear out just enough around this guy so that I can get to it easily next year. I didn't harvest any elderberries this year.

A Pearl Crescent butterfly on our garbage bag. Little friend has seen better days, but keeps on going!

                                    Lots and lots of Viceroys on various plants and flowers!

                                            A beautiful day for a walk on the watershed 🌞

This bee was motionless, so I don't know if it had expired or was sleeping or was in a pollen coma 😆

We keep seeing these patches in the same spot at the head of the back ditch. A very large bird sits above it and poops all over. Based off of trail cam images, I am thinking it's a hawk.

We have plans to head back to the land soon, with ideas for projects to work on! Cross your fingers for us that we can make it happen!