Life in the Forest

 As Woodchuck and I tried desperately to get the girdling done in the forest, of course our chainsaw stopped working. We had only used it a handful of times and something went wrong with the safety and trigger bumping up against each other and not releasing. So we headed into the forest and finished de-limbing the pine trees that we would be girdling. It is our goal to eventually delimb all pines up to head height to make it easier to walk in there. Each time we got for a walk we are getting bitch slapped and our hats knocked off by the limbs. We were really surprised how much space it opens up to remove them! An added benefit of delimbing that high up? Spiders will make their webs above your head instead of at face height, and yes, I know this because I have walked face first into webs with the spiders still on them! EEK 👀

I was really proud of Woodchuck for finding this fungus on a tree and the underside reminded us of a cave with stalactites! The fungus looked to be catching the rain water and moisture, filtering it through its gills, and then dripping it down the tree and on to the ground. Fascinating shit right there!!!

We tried really hard not to disturb the creatures of the forest, but there's always at least one that we run across.

As we neared the edge of the forest, and the property line, we saw how much bigger the pines were getting that were growing right in the middle of a walkway, and knew we needed to take care of them. Some we transplanted to another area of the land, we offered for sale super cheap and had no takers, and these are getting bigger faster than we can think of places to move them to. Woodchuck made the plan to come back on another day and mow them down.

                            We were both excited to find palm-sized puffballs in the forest! 

And I squealed with delight at this gift, sitting right in the middle of a row we were walking down. Luckily he didn't step on it and crush it, since he was ahead of me. While I hate to see my friends lose their life, I know it's all part of the greater picture, and I will honor them.

PSA: don't buy balloons! They are trash, they are a waste of money, they are damaging to eco-systems. Once again I found balloon garbage inside of my forest 😡This is the string that is still attached to a deflated balloon. #balloonsblow

It was time to head out of the forest, walk and rest. I found this dried fungi that I put into my pocket and carried along with us. It reminds me of a sand dollar. I have sooooo many ideas for art that I have to push them all away or I'll get overwhelmed. One day soon I'll pick it all back up again and it will be better than ever and worth the wait!

We sat on one of the benches that Woodchuck built and just melted into the scenery. 😍

Very soon it will be time to move forward with fixing this pond, though with the drought, it continues to dry up more and more. With the exposed shoreline, it would be the perfect time to get some stone on the edges! I've already agreed to use the money from my tips and paychecks for this project, and he has agreed to not spend any more money on stocking it until we can get certain things under control. I would still like to try the barley straw to help clean up the algae situation and then get an aerator or fountain right at the beginning of the Spring season. Stay tuned to see how this project progresses!