As the witch month ends

 I'm just kidding, it is always witch time, but something about June felt so much more magickal, connected, STRONG in energy (some times not-so-great energy). But as the heat returns, and I am literally running in circles (thank goodness we don't have cameras in the house yet. But soon. And man, I'm gonna look like a looney!), the magick might get squished down a bit. But always present.

*Please note that this post will contain a lot of images of spiders, and of some unalived insects. Proceed as you wish.*

I don't feel like I will ever finish this land project of pulling the invasive spotted lady's finger. I've worked on it for days now and am surrounded by so much of it, and another plant that is similar to it (pale smartweed/willow weed/persicaria lapathifolia) but native, that I have to stop and take a break so I can keep my bearings and not get confused and just pull everything. 😵

This one is supposedly the good one, and it is quite lovely and is starting to seed....so Sweet Jesus, I hope it IS the good one!

And this is the bad one! But there's a few mixed in along the way that look like a mixture of each and I wasn't really sure and pulled them if they didn't have that pink, thinner stem like the previous picture. Some of these bad ones have started to seed too <insert much crying here>

There is a small amount of this, which I am not 100% on and have decided that this week, I will start iNaturalist to add to my arsenal start helping me figure stuff out! I will also get more pictures on the next trip to the land and see if that helps in a more developed state. (Update: it will get pulled on my next trip out!)

But these grasses lifted my spirits! Eleocharis Obtusa, or Blunt Spikerush. It is a species of spikesedge, and I love a native sedge anything! There is a lot of it, which I am grateful for!

I found a couple of these fallopia, which if you remember the DAYS we spent out on the watershed last year (?) pulling that vine out of and off of SO many good plants and trees, you can understand why I despise this stuff. And the seeds look very similar to the ones of a curly dock. I would love to get over into that watershed area SOON to start pulling the new growth NOW, before it takes everything over again and goes to seed, but I need to get this current project done first.

Today's bouquet of horrors. Curly dock. Look at all of those seeds!!!! 😖 There are some that I can't get to yet because they are too far out in the flood waters.

It's a beautiful day to be out here working! I often think about how it would be nice to have someone to work alongside, but in the meantime, I keep my eyes and ears open for wildlife and new plants.

I began clearing an area of curly dock that I have to walk through to get to the new pond bank.

And after. I don't know how much I pulled, since my bags were mixed with other stuff this time too.

There are SO MANY spiders! Most of which were wolf spiders that I ran across, in so many sizes! And it's baby season for them too!

It's always been on our radar to try and determine if we have any non-native/invasive aquatic plants. I am sure that we have them, plus we know for sure that we have water meal, but I finally got a chance to identify one aquatic plant that is now popping up in the flood waters. Marsh seed box. Native.

Taking some time to walk some other areas, and to give my back and hips a break from bending over and carrying heavy stuff, I am happy to see that the milkweed has come back! I can never seem to get the pods though! I did find an area on a country road recently that has TONS of milkweed, and if I am in that area again when they have their pods, I will gather some for myself and friends.

I keep running across plants of Sulphur Cinquefoil, and it is hard to get out of the ground in most of the spots I've seen it. I need to make a mental note of carrying a small hand trowel around with me. When I am at the land, I feel like one of those musicians that has all of the instruments on them!

The Hoary Alyssum is coming up a lot more now, mainly just upfront in the grass area between the front forest and the road. Of course though, with Woodchuck mowing it down at times, that can transfer the seed all over. I always walk up front to collect garbage, and non-native plants, before he mows, but I can't get to all areas of the land before he does, which is unfortunate.

Another teeny tiny wasp nest.

And as we continue to juggle so much, at so many places, Woodchuck found that the handle to our sons outdoor water faucet was broken. So while at Menards, we picked up another one....only then to find that the whole faucet is faulty and needs to be replaced. If I could get paid for all of the wasted time, and numerous trips made on projects.....well, let us just say that I would be making completely different life decisions than what I am now because I would have a lot of money 😂 And dang...can we bend that siding a little more? 🙈

On our next trip back to the land, I was clearing out my work cart that is attached to the riding lawn mower (named Pink), and found some unintentional carnage. When I find Chinese mantis oothecas, I pull them....but I didn't know what to do with them after that. I put them in the cart, intending to research sooner, but they sat in there for months before I saw some options on how to deal with them. I also don't know yet how to tell if they have "hatched" unless there is an obvious hole of exit. I had gotten rid of the oothecas from the cart awhile back....but apparently not soon enough.....and came across this 😱

I know that Chinese mantis are bad for our eco-system here, and I know that if I dispose of an ootheca, an end fate will befall these creatures.....but what happened here was prolonged suffering and I feel absolutely terrible about it. So from now on, now that I know what to do with them, the oothecas will be dealt with right away. Have you had any experience with the oothecas of non-native mantis, and if so, how do you deal with them?

I also ran across this bug spray that I forgot I had and figured it was a great time of year to try it! One thing I have learned on my land, and I am not saying it is this way everywhere else, for everyone else; is that natural bug sprays (whether they be for ticks or mosquito) attract the mosquitoes more to me! This smells damn good though....reminds me of spiced cup of tea in the Fall. 

I have to start learning where to look as I walk up to certain areas of the land. I have missed out on some great photos and videos because I just walked up and didn't go slow or look around and have startled the animals away. On this day though, I lucked out. I went to check out the wildflowers on my way to the pond bank, and caught the movement of a deer out of the corner of my eye. We just stood there for awhile, watching each other. She calmly got up and casually walked away. No running, no chuffing, no panic or fear. A bit later, I heard her baby (fawn) calling for her from the woods. 

Learning my lesson the last time I stepped into a bit of water with my rain boots on, and promptly getting soaked socks, I wrapped my boots in plastic bags. Woodchuck thought I was nuts, and I am! And that it wasn't going to work, but it did! For awhile. The left one worked great! The right one? I couldn't keep it on, and then it ripped, and then I gave up. But it was great, and dry, while it lasted!

Has anyone eaten watercress from the wild? If you have, I want to talk to you right now, because I find wild foraging fascinating but don't always trust myself to not die. I found two very large patches of it on the bank and have been tempted to harvest some, So far, I have not seen any bite marks from wildlife, so maybe they don't eat it?

And I was surrounded by LOTS of LARGE friends this time. They were everywhere under foot and I was worried that I was going to step on them!

Good GAWD! I heard the song Brick House in my head when I saw this one! 🎶I can't be scared, I have too much work to do and I feel like we can both be here and leave each other alone. 

I have been out here for hours, in the heat, being bombarded by bees and flies and mosquitoes, and I've barely gotten a quarter of the way done. What I got done.....

What is left to do....

It makes it even more hot because I have to cover up so much, but such is the life of a land worker, lol.

This is another new plant that I found. Persicaria Hydropiper, or water pepper. Native.

Some people don't like cloudy days, but I don't mind them. Clouds have such personalities and texture, and offer shade from the glaring sun.

Another new plant found. Common Mouse-ear. Surely something with such an adorable name is native? Nope.

A species of Juncus. Some of these grasses are Native and some are not, so I have to let it mature a bit more to see. They do provide habitat and cover for frogs and toads.

Water plantain. I'm not sure if it's a connection issue, or not, but my searches in the field at the land some times bring up different results than my searches at home. When I first looked this plant up, the search said it was non-native, but when I searched again, it said it was native. I do think I have two kinds of aquatic plantain out there, so maybe that was what caused the differing results. Deer have eaten a couple of them.

I stopped working on the pond bank invasives and went for a walk to get eyes on other areas and switch out some SD cards. The grape plants have been hosting a party with the fleabane. I know this stresses Woodchuck out and he wants to get in there and cut absolutely everything but the grape plants down. Most of the grape plants didn't survive the transition planting to here anyway because we did it too late in the season after they had already started to bud. I want to say that he took around 8 cuttings from each plant, and maybe only one or two from one variety survived, while I don't think any from the other variety survived. Honestly, I talked him out of cutting down the fleabane, which I don't know was correct of me or not. And honestly, at this point he can do whatever he wants because I have my hands with my own stuff, lol.

The Indian Hemp (aka as Dog Bane) are getting their flower heads! 

On the watershed, I am wondering if this was being used by the deer for their babies and/or births?

Cupido Comyntas, Eastern tailed-blue. That periwinkle color gets me every time. I swear I am from the faery realm, because every time I see that color it makes me sigh and feel like I am at home.

This one particular oak on the watershed continues to have poison ivy all around it and climbing it. I never realized that the vine can kill trees until the owner of the farm I did the markets at last year said it killed one of their trees. I am continuing to monitor this. I never know if and when it's the right time to step in when it comes to the land, lol.

Today's bouquet of horrors is filled with Curly Dock, Deptford pink (which has spread significantly at the land this year!), and some baby phragmite.

I am SO looking forward to being out under these clouds that are over this land, full time.

A blog cleanse with adorable cat paws, and some new soap scent excitement! I was hoping to make soaps this week, but with the heat and my schedule, I may need to hold off 😰

Okay, break time is over, let's get back to the plant bullshit!

Latest bouquet of horrors that includes Timothy grass. Look, my brother and I both have plant names....and I don't have the heart to tell him that his was on my land and I had to pull it because it's non-native and some sites state that is invasive. Poor, poor Timothy, lol. But this bouquet also includes wild garlic, deptford pink, and I don't know what else I managed to yank.

By chance, I found a new plant. Maybe I have seen it in the past and forgot, but it's in an area that we don't frequent. Polygala Polygama, or Racemed Milkwort/Purple Milkwort. Native! I caged it to keep it from getting mowed over.

Because of all of my walking back and forth from the new pond bank to the prairie, the muckiness turned muckier and I needed a bridge to get across without sinking in mud. So I grabbed some wood planks that Woodchuck had nearby and threw them down. They will still let the water move under them from the flooded area to the pond until that water starts to evaporate and recede. I also didn't squash any plants, lol. Gotta think these things through!

Getting ready to leave for the day, and taking note of dozens of Tree of Heaven juveniles, Woodchuck asked if I had seen the Woodchuck hole recently? What was once an ankle-breaker is now a leg-swallower. I am not kidding! That hole is big and I can tell she recently renovated for expansion. That mullein is about 5 foot tall and it's going to stay right there until I know she isn't around to grab me!

The milkweed are starting to flower now, and I am really hoping to get some seed pods gathered this year!

While we were upfront earlier in the day, pulling cages off of the Arborvitae, I noticed something strange on a tree that we worked hard to save when we bought the land. It was some sort of a pine tree, that we knew, and so far is the only one of them that we have found at the land. The whole understory was honeysuckle and bittersweet, and there was a MASSIVE Multiflora Rose at its base as well, and it was all of the way up into the tree. 

I noticed some weird markings high up in the tree, as well as a lot of dried sap. I was worried it would be from some sort of insect and tried to get as good of a picture as I could with it being to high up. Then I needed to figure out what kind of pine tree it was, and post about in the plant group. I determined it (not sure how accurately though) to be Red Pine Tree, and the group determined that the holes and markings are being made from a Yellow-bellied sap sucker! I will get better pictures of the whole tree the next time I go!

The trail camera that I put over by the newly planted native plants caught some activity! I didn't have just one kind of digger though! Raccoons and a Woodchuck all went under or over the deer fencing. And then on a more recent trip, something like a ground squirrel or chipmunk went tearing out of the area into brush. I haven't checked the camera though to see if it was caught on that. We have also since caged each plant that we could because there is still dig activity.

The baby raccoon is playing with the flags we recently put out as plant markers!

I also got to see some very thick and velvet covered antlers from a camera on the watershed. What a beauty! And a full moon coming up, with a close up of a deer eye. Kind of spooky, gotta admit, but also cool!

I continue to suffer this year, even in my efforts to have things fixed. My hips are still whacky and painful, my ankle with the torn tendon is extremely painful and probably doesn't help the hip, and I've got all kinds of new symptoms popping up. One of which is peeling knees. They have been peeling for weeks now, but of course by the time of my appointment with the Rheumatologist, they had stopped and she wasn't interested in talking about it more. Even though I had numerous illnesses since I saw her last, flare-ups of old symptoms, and now some new ones that include my right hand and not being able to close it and make it into a fist after waking up, she still stands beside my lab that there is nothing wrong and will not diagnose me with anything. I can't think or talk about it too much or get really, really upset. So moving on.

I finished the Crescent Moon piece and got that listed (hint, hint, hit my shoppe up!) I hung up the fabric shower curtain in the oldest sons bathroom......only to have him say that it makes it too dark when taking a shower. So I took it down and hung up a white one that he also had.

And I have tried to tap in to joy. It's been hard. We are blessed and surrounded by joy at all times, but there's also been a lot of bullshit, a lot of running ragged, a lot of juggling many things at one time, and a lot of being alone through it all. But I continue to have the belief that we are held and guided. Of all of the things in my life that I didn't think I would make it through, there isn't a single that I didn't survive. I may be a changed person, some for better, some for worse, but I am still kicking. We never know our last moment, so I am trying to make every moment count.