What's that Smell?

 As we let the pond, and the new South bank created from what was removed from the center of the pond settle, there is still work to be done while we continue to save up money to finish fixing it the whole way around. So we headed to the land on our normally scheduled day, looking forward to spending the entire day there like we used to. While these two hours trips are equally as important, having that one day a week to really hit things hard because we aren't hindered by the clock, is game changing! Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

As I pulled into the driveway, we could see signs of Autumn creeping in. Literally. The Virginia Creeper is a brilliant red inside of the forests. 😍 There is a breeze in the shade that brings relief, while the sun bakes you. The sky looks a certain way, the smells are particular, all of the signs are there. We got out there a bit later than usual, taking our time on the one morning we have together is almost our oxygen now. We are getting so tired of the constant rat race. 

As we walked up to the our first project, the Green Heron was silent. I noticed it immediately. Normally it would see us before we even knew it was there, and it would start to do it's prehistoric calls and land in a river birch on the South side of the pond. But that tree is no longer there, along with all of the other trees and vegetation. And it seemed to be stunned and quiet at what it all looks like now. It didn't mind us working near by, which was so unusual. It landed on a little piece of land sticking out into the water and just stood silently. Maybe that's not a bad thing, but it's certainly different from it's usual behavior.

Our first project was to remove the knocked down willow and other plants that landed in the ditch coming off of the pond when the pond work was being done. While there is A LOT of vegetation on the banks and going down into the ditch, it looks A LOT better than it did when we first bought it! It was completely overgrown with honeysuckle, trees, etc. and blocked with pieces of cut wood that the previous owner threw in (we will find out more about that 4.5 years later when the company we hired recently worked on the pond). 

Woodchuck put on his waders, and carefully stepped in at the edge. The exposed mud is pitch black, and.....fragrant. By fragrant, I mean nasty. It smells like a zoo, manure, a farm, rot and decay. And you end up with that mud all.over.you. Right off the bat, I saved the life of what we call Wooly Bears. They say your Winter is predicted by the rust colored band on their body in comparison with the black part of them. According to the friend, we will not be having a Winter this year because only its head was rust colored 😂 I moved it to a safer place where it wouldn't get stepped on, or have branches stacked on top of it. 

Woodchuck kept getting stuck in the mud, and the struggle wore him out faster than he expected! But the ditch is clear of that debris and he was worried that the mud was higher than usual and called the company to come take a look at it at their convenience to see if we needed to dig it out. We piled the willow up nearby to get cleaned off in the rains that are supposedly coming. Once it's a bit cleaned off, we will strip them and take them to the Nipsco path to stack the nature fence back up. It's down about halfway now.

This is what it looked like right when it was done. It's halfway down from that now.

 

With Woodchuck down in the mud, and the sun beating down on us, it was clear that we weren't going to be out here much longer. 

He called the company, which happened to be near by and they said they would stop out and take a look at the ditch, but it was likely the drought, and lack of water, that made everything seem worse than it actually was. I did bring up the lack of water in the ditch to Woodchuck as the reason for so much mud, but he was adamant that it was because of the pond being fixed. All I can do is step back and let him carry on with what he wants to do.

While we waited for the company to stop by, we went to access the Tree of Heaven. He was worried that it was going to be all the way down in the ditch and hard for him to get to. I offered to go down in the ditch, since I've done it before, and it was fairly dried out, if a little muddy in the shady spots. He refused, and cleared the way to reach it. We treated it, and will wait 30 days to take it down and then treat the stump. We will likely have to keep monitoring it, and treating it, for a long time to come. But at least we have made it to this step! 

          There is always a little magick to be found if you take the time to look around, and up! 

                                                        And don't forget to look down too! 

Time to save another life! This was on a leaf that Woodchuck cleared out to reach the TOH.

With another task finished, and us waiting on the contractor, we parted ways. Woodchuck went into the garage and started cleaning up his table spaces, while I went out to the farthest part of the watershed to collect the trail cam SD card. The warm sun heats up the plants and it smells so amazing! Tropical, floral, green, and fresh! The mantis are moving all around, mating, and flying!

The birds are calling

There are still butterflies to be found

A feast for the senses

You can't help but smile and feel at peace out here

I identified another issue along the way. A small grove of Autumn Olive, with some Fallopia wrapped around it. Unfortunately, even though we pulled several bags of the Fallopia, we weren't able to get to it all before it went to seed. Now we need to pull this, and work on the phragmite.

Unfortunately, I can't stay out here. It's time to head back, but I am better for having had the time out here in nature.

I've been looking into a local auction house that does online auctions. There are a lot of things that I felt we could use for the new house, but with the contractor not getting back to us, we aren't sure how to proceed. I don't have measurements/blueprints/schematics to know certain things like the wall space size above the bathroom sinks to know how big of mirrors we can get, I don't know the kitchen cabinets I could get for certain and so far all of the quotes we have gotten are guesses at the layout. So we have resigned ourselves that building won't start this year, and that's ok, we just need some communication about it. So we will check into some things in the auction that we know for sure we can use and will have to let the other things go for now. Our oldest son needs help remodeling his bathroom, so we can focus on that for the next couple of months and get some cash in hand (hopefully) for doing that work for him.

It is easy to get caught up in the timeframe that we think things should happen in, but I practice following the timeline of the Universe, and in the meantime, continue to manifest. 💜

I will be at the Edge of Liberty Craft Fair this Sunday, September 21st, from 10-3 (CST). Located in Valparaiso, Indiana at 606 N. Calumet Avenue. I will have new sea turtle earrings and new Harry Potter items.