A rare day of water

 We recently made a trip to the NRCS/USDA office that portions of our land are under contract with, to hand in receipts to request a profit sharing reimbursement for supplies we bought for the back CRP girdling project (that had to have been a run-on sentence, because even typing that I was running out of breath as if I had said it aloud, lol). We made this trip no more than a week before the end of September, with only one more day in September that we would make it to the land, and they requested for us to get the girdling done by the end of September if we could. So we left their office and made our planned trip to the forest to finish the project!

We were even more prepared this time with mosquito netting we could wear over our heads, an ax, and the new electric chainsaw that we bought late last year for this very project. We were reaching the end of the end of the work, or at least this stage of it, and looking forward to marking this project done! ✔  This tree was girdled at the beginning of the project. 👇

It was a misty day, with no rainfall to really tally up, but it was enough to get everything drippy. We decided to take a walk since we couldn't do anymore work at this time. We always talk about how we enjoy seeing the land in the different seasons, and how each year we find something we've never seen before out there! We can also see a difference in the land after each effort we make, one of them being more Brownstem Speenwort  (Asplenium Platyneuron) (a kind of fern) coming up in the forests. 

There's a lot of baby pines trying to come up too, which will be something that I will keep an eye on so that we aren't in the position again of hardwoods getting out-competed. I never realized how much of a balancing act it can be to have a healthy forest, though because they had been let go for so long, maybe once they are healthy they will be better able to take care of themselves. 

As Fall is setting in more each day, I'm always in awe of the colors, but also on how fast trees can lose their leaves. I love long-term colors, but it always seems that just as the leaves are turning and becoming more "fragile" at the end of the stems, we will get a day of strong winds that knocks them all down. Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for the sound of walking in the dry leaves, but I love the sound of them blowing on the tree just as well! 

We are also at the time of year when the honeysuckles are getting their berries and I have it on my radar to get the berries off of them and into back bags so they don't fall to the ground. I'm hoping to have that done within the next week or so. Then once I know the berries aren't going to be an issue, I'll cut and treat the plant itself. This particular one is an Amur Honeysuckle.

I also wanted to share what happens when you cut something and don't treat it. Woodchuck and I had a conversation about clearing out around the side of the shipping container, and even though the information was repeated several times, he still did it: which was mowing it down and driving away. No treatment. And the majority of those sprouts are bittersweet trying to come back up again, because the root system is still alive and well, and the seed bank too.

As hard as it can be at times (less so now that I am more accepting of it and less judgmental of myself and my experiences in life) to be so in-tune and tapped in to the nature around me, I love being able to find the beauty in all of it. So many things that so many people would not notice, and even now Woodchuck is starting to realize all that I see and he tells me that he never would have noticed on his own. Take, for instance, this wet and sleeping bumble bee on some golden rod. It's things like this that make my heart melt, that feed the wonder I have for the natural world around me, and have a greater appreciation for ALL of its inhabitants. 

We were able to walk across the back ditch now instead of haphazardly stumbling across slick logs. Even the deer have utilized it, and maybe this is their approval stamp? 😂💩𐂂

We entered the world of the Watershed Preserve, all ethereal and full of magick. This Dogbane stood out with its colors so vibrant, even Woodchuck could see it. And that's saying something!

I've always been fascinated with water drops on plants. There is such life, yet gentleness, in each.

And I really need to get the right kind of boots for this kind of weather...................

But this kind of weather feeds and refreshes, just as the sunny, warm weather does. The cycles and weather patterns are so important to all.

And my love for Mother E and all that I try to do to help her is always paid back me to ten-fold. On this day, there was just a little extra. Those teeny tiny vertebrae? SWOON 😍 I am rich with these treasures as the Knochenhexe (bone witch) comes alive again )O(

Too people-y

 I have been on a self-imposed lockdown to my home this week. With gas prices at $5 a gallon and me not working outside of the home still, I have to make sure we have enough money to keep gas in Woodchuck's car to get back and forth to work. So I'm rationing mine. That might sound horrible, and yes I was sad to cancel seeing a friend and volunteering where I used to work, but I have been thoroughly enjoying my week alone and getting lots of art done!

We did have to make two trips to Das Zem this week. One was to pick up the pole saw (can I just say how annoying it can get some times when you've got supplies and tools at two different properties. When it's there, we need it here and when it's here, we need it there) and to stop by and introduce ourselves to the neighbors to the North of us. Nice young couple! They have their hands full with the property they bought, as well as two very large dogs, two little ones under the age of 5 and another on the way. Something about young couples nowadays that they want everything right away and don't want to wait for it. Kudos to them, but how exhausting.

But we did find out that the German Shepard that approached me on the land last week is theirs. They are thinking about installing an electric fence, and we let them know that we will be putting chemicals in the pond soon, so she needs to stay out. Not to mention that she was out in the road and people fly down that road! She was a very good girl and I don't want to see her get hurt! (even she wasn't a good girl, I wouldn't want to see her hurt!)

Then we had to drive out the next morning to meet with a local contractor who can help us excavate the ditch and pond. I will be meeting him out there again on a Friday in June and then soon after that the fire department will be coming out to burn the pile of trees and debris. Nice guy, asked a lot of questions and seemed genuinely interested in my point of view of the land. I have to say here though that both trips to the land, Woodchuck came across kind of sexist and I don't play that. I am not controlling, I am not demanding, I do not like him being a kind of "yes, dear" kind of guy. Do I have opinions too? Yep! Am I working my ass off out there to try and save the viable and native plant life? Yep! So don't turn that into something it's not, Woodchuck!

Woodchuck and I took a look at the front of the property and talked about how to tackle that. His go-to plan is just to take the tractor and brush hog and get rid of everything. My go-to is to observe what we have, go in by hand/chainsaw and clear out all of the crap and see what good stuff we are left with. Why wipe out all of the viable, native stuff that is established and can thrive with the crap stuff gone? It's a constant struggle to keep guiding him and also get a little of what I want in these situations.

I found some yellow salsify (yellow goatsbeard, Wild Oysterplant, etc.) growing at the front, which has taken me a long time to know that it wasn't just a huge dandelion, lol. Apparently, parts of it are edible, but no thanks. I did pluck off a couple of heads and put them in a large encyclopedia to see how they press and dry. I have seen these seed out to the size of a baseball before! So imagine a dandelion head on a plant about 4 foot or more high, and the head the size of a baseball and there you go. I pulled them because they aren't native and I've got enough shit out there that isn't native.

There were dozens and dozens of turkey vultures circling overhead! Luckily we never found anything dead. 😬

The bracken and sensitive ferns are popping back up everywhere! And tons of wild strawberry plants. Most don't seem to flower and produce, or if they do the wildlife get to them. Honestly, they are in such hard-to-get-to areas, they have an easier time getting them and I always want to share with the wildlife (except for the trash panda here at my house that keeps taking the jelly and orange halves I am leaving out for the orioles! Stop it, trash panda!)

We also had to <cough> walk around with the metal detector because *someone* lost a long, thick chain when he was taking down the fishing shack. We checked everywhere he said he had gone and we were not able to find it. We are hoping to run across it over time while we are out there working on other projects. His next project out there will be to get vents in the shipping container because nobody needs to be walking around high from the gas fumes after spending some time in there 😵 Hope he remembers to air it out really well first before sending the sparks flying cutting into the metal! 😬 Normally I bring that up to him just in case he doesn't think of it on his own, but he just told me last night that I am overbearing and demanding, sooooooooo don't want to be that and I will let him sink or swim. Have fun, babe! 💋

We are also starting some clean up here at our home in preparation for eventually putting it on the market. There is a tree line that the railroad owns and never cleans up (which is probably a good thing, because they would wipe out some good stuff too!), and it is full of crap and invasive plant species. I might have mentioned before that I have spent two seasons now trying to get rid of the garlic mustard, dames rocket, Tree of Heaven, honeysuckle, etc. On this day, we cut down a large honeysuckle.

                                                                                Before

                                                            During. Hello, Mr. Toad!

After the one honeysuckle (and 3 black locust sapling) removal. The majority of what you are looking at will be coming down as well. Sad to see the privacy go, but it's more important to get rid of the invasives and have this be a native habitat until and if the railroad decides that they want to do something with it.

Now there are lots and lots of Soloman's Seal! One of them is so tall, it's up to my chest (though admittedly, I am a very short person.)

                                    And also a lot of Sweet Sicily! (sorry, no image of that one).

Last night after Woodchuck got home from work, we worked on cutting down a corner of crap behind our house. It actually belongs to the neighbor behind us, but she doesn't want to take care of it because she's allergic to poison ivy. I saw only a couple of plants of it that could easily be avoided, but hey, it makes the property line look better for us. Didn't get a before picture, unfortunately! It was bad though! Honeysuckle, and grapevine was TERRIBLE.  And that grapevine was FULL of pollen. So much so that we had to wear something covering our noses and mouths. I'm already on my asthma inhaler the past three days from the pollen counts being so high! It's all piled up on her yard for right now. I guess we are going to remove it for her too. Aren't we nice?! And this after we paid several hundreds of dollars to have her rotten mature trees removed some years ago from her property but behind our house, and helped the guy cut them up, etc. You would never know what we do for and put with from our neighbors by what they think of us. 

But honestly, I don't give a fig anymore. I actually never really did. The only reason I ever got upset about how they feel about us is because 1) most of it isn't truthful. They think because I don't want to listen to 6 barking dogs at 6 a.m. and all day long just inches from my house, that I'm a dog hater. Couldn't be farther from the truth! I'm a irresponsible pet owner and neighbors who infringe on their neighbors hater! 2) We are respectful of them, we are quiet, before we do something we think about how that is going to affect them. And they don't reciprocate. But I'm the asshole. Or as Woodchuck texted last night "addshole", because he's got sausage fingers and had too much to drink.

Never a dull moment! 😜 I'm ready to for my invisible force field around my property now, thank you very much!

Give me the machines!

 It feels like forever that we've been waiting for Spring to come, a true Spring. Here it is already May and I feel like we are still fighting the end of Winter. So many days of dreariness, of chilly or downright cold temps. The older I get the more impatient I get for warmer, sunnier days to take hold. But we can't wait for warmer temps to start on the land work, Mother E has her own clock and calendar that we need to follow. 

We headed to Das Zem this past Wednesday to start working on clearing up the ditches. I think Woodchuck is a little overwhelmed and scattered, and I am right there along with him. He thought we could use his new Brush Grubber to easily pull out the invasives overgrowing the ditch, but quite literally he got his ass handed to him. It was decided that I would be on the tractor, Ginny. It was decided for me, I might add. I get it, he didn't think I could handle the tension strength of the Brush Grubber and getting it on the branches, but we all know some previous emotions I've had about being on the tractor and a near miss of running him over because I had my foot on the gas, which is next to the break, but in between the back up and brake pedals. Tractors are confusing when you've only driven a car.

So we get started, and I'm doing really well I must say! But the bushes are much bigger and established than we expected and that Brush Grubber was no match for them, nor was our tractor. Nor was Woodchucks back! What ended up happening was each branch of the bush honeysuckle had to be pulled off on its own, with some of those having a dozen branches, it took awhile to just get a couple of them de-branched. Although I had a nice spot, it was bothering my newly fixed hip to have my leg out to the side, so I had to turn in the seat to be facing more of where my leg was going. I was still way more comfortable than Woodchuck though.

I should add here that earlier that morning he had about an hour long surgical procedure to remove a large cyst from the back of his head. As usual, the doctor said he had never seen one like that before. With 6 stitches in the back of his head, he was getting poked and prodded in the head, ears, face and neck by the bushes. I was waiting for it all to go horribly wrong and for him to bust those stitches open.....or fall down in the ditch. Luckily neither of those things happened. But after struggling with two bushes, we called it quits over here. It's clear that we will have to don waders and get down in the ditch, cut the branches off and treat the stumps. On to the next project!

We finally found what the Brush Grubber DID work well on. The line of bush honeysuckle lining the driveway and underneath the red maples. I forgot to get an after picture, but here's the before.

Here's what they looked like last year when all leafed out. To the very left of the picture. 👇

We headed up front and into the cold winds and poor Woodchuck looked like he was going to keel over. Bending over to attach the tool, then bending over to remove it, move the brush, and then attach the tool to the next bush. I offered many times to trade places, but he wasn't having it. When it got to the point where the piles were big and in the way and I thought he was going to collapse, I told him to take over on the tractor and move the brush to the burn area. I figured that he wouldn't argue with me then if I made it still about the work and not about him needing a break!

So while he made a couple of trips with the tractor, I walked around the area hand-pulling baby bushes and found this lovely, lone tulip that was *just* over the property line. Still beautiful to look at!

Once Woodchuck came back from dropping the piles of brush, we called it quits. My hip was tight and his back was hurting and we still needed to load up Pink to take her back home. No more 1.5 hours of push mowing! We don't have the physical stamina right now, nor the time.

 Some times I think we entered in to this being too old and injured and I keep pushing that thought away. We are worthy, we are deserving, we are capable. 💚 )O(

Rainy day treasures

 After running many errands in the morning, Woodchuck and I headed to the land on his day off this past week. Storms were in the forecast literally all day, so we weren't sure if we'd make it or for how long, but it ended up that the weather peeps were wrong and although drizzly and everything was soaking wet, we really lucked out while we were out there! The plan this trip was to start removing honeysuckle from the second CRP forest, assess how bad it was, see what else was going on in there, and to try one more time to plot the house and garage. It had been MONTHS since we stepped foot in those trees, and I wasn't expecting a whole lot of anything that would be time consuming. I need to stop thinking that way! 

I remember the first couple of times I walked in that forest, it seemed so...dead...to me, energetically speaking. Now it's usually reversed and it feels so wild and mystical! We found our first row in and right away were greeted with honeysuckle. So many that we filled the large bag before we even finished walking the first row! A new plan had to be formed, so we decided to stop with that and walk the forest to see what we were up against. 

Last year we had made some wooden arrows and sprayed them fluorescent colors and put them at the corner points. There's a bit of a cut-out that doesn't belong to us and I was always confused which way to go. Woodchuck did NOT want to spend the time on that project, nor seemingly any project that I need done, but he made the comment on our walk that he was glad that I had foresight to have him put those up because it makes it MUCH easier to know where to go. Point for me!

We found LOTS of honeysuckle, which was disheartening, especially when they are larger than I can handle on my own, but I am not entirely surprised. I am irritated, however, that the peeps that own the rest of the CRP around us have done nothing to eradicate the invasives in their portions. Not only does it make it harder for me to keep that shit out of my part of the CRP, but it is mandated that they do so by the USDA as long as those CRP's are in the land program. But I have already seen from the state of our land that guys buy that stuff up, accept in the tax-exception terms, hunt them, and then don't do the work otherwise. I told Woodchuck that maybe that's my new business adventure. Charging people around me to go into their portions and clean them up. Nah. I've got my hands full with what we own.

Here's the first spot we worked on. The before 👇

The after 👇 Though I can still some green in there....

I found a Valentine's Day Mylar balloon along our walk, so I picked that up to carry it out. Also found a couple of bones and 3 turkey feathers.

So, we found more honeysuckle than I anticipated to, some multi-flora rose (luckily just babies right now), and the garlic mustard is starting to pop up. It will to be a weekly thing to get out there and walk the land to look for those things, and to catch the garlic mustard and pull it before it seeds. We also found a very large grapevine wrapped around a tree and Woodchuck wasn't leaving until it was out, and he also macheted the vine near the ground.

We marveled at how beautiful the land is, how lucky we are to own it now, some of the projects that we need to think about getting started on, and when. Unfortunately, with all of the rain and not being to clear out the ditches yet, the second ditch is now full and the drain pipe to the pond is blocked. We used branches to try and clear the opening as much as we could to get the water flowing again, but we already knew that every spot that holds water out there needs work. I hate relying so much on Woodchuck, but I just don't have anyone else that can help me.

For the first time, we saw a Hooded Merganser on the main pond, along with a nesting pair of geese. I couldn't get a picture of the Merganser, but this is what they look like.

What I thought was the female goose is actually the male! Woodchuck had to show me where she is nesting, so perfectly camouflaged! Male 👇

Can you spot the female on her nest? 👇

One added bonus gift from the land? Lots and lots and lots of wild garlic/onions, though they are usually mowed over before it can continue to grow. Every once in a while I pop one out and nibble 😉

Over the next couple of weeks I would love to get out to the land as much as possible. Once May hits, things likely are going to get crazy, especially at the beginning of the month. Woodchuck has some health issues going on right now, one of which we'll find out a longer term plan for on the 4th, then he has surgery for another issue on the 5th and I need to pick up the youngest boy from college on the 6th. I'm in the process of making a back-up plan for picking up the youngest on a different day, but our options are minimal due to the dorms closing on a specific date and when he has finals. I also want to get a large amount of art ready for the next art drop that will happen THIS month at my friends shoppe so that there's enough to get her through most of May without me having to fit in working on art. I have a feeling that month is going to run away with us, because how is it already May anyway?!?!

Camping on Das Zem!

 Pinch me, I might be dreaming. Seriously. What a lucky girl I am! Woodchuck and I were talking about how great it would be to start camping on the land, get to experience it on a different level, and at different times of the day (and night) than we usually do. After we made a stop to the land on our recent date day to set up the tent, all we had to do was to wait for the night we could actually stay out there! Two days of anticipation before it could finally happen! We set up the tent on a Thursday and had to wait until Saturday to camp. We had a hard time figuring out where to put the tent, wanting it more in the open, but not wanting to deal with the wind tunnel that is created there and taking the chance that the tent would be damaged during our two day wait, or when we were out there. Hindsight now, when we went to take the tent down, we put it up precariously close to a tree that was not healthy and had been losing limbs. Rookie mistake!

We each had to work on Saturday, with me getting off later than Woodchuck. He had every thing packed and in one spot so we could load my car up as soon as I got home. I admit that I was a little leery about heading out so late, would it feel worth it? We ended up getting there around 7 p.m. and while we were losing light fast, luckily there was still enough for us (Woodchuck) to split wood and get the grill going.

Due to the ongoing drought, we made sure to clear even more of an already cleared spot on the prairie and had water available to douse things if we needed to. Much gratefulness was given over this beautiful place that we are now stewards of, and many beers were had. We finally ended up eating around 8 p.m.! We had always wondered what the night sky looks like on Das Zem, and I have to say that it doesn't look all that different from where we live right now. We are lucky to live in a tiny little farming town, with not a lot of streetlights. That makes viewing the stars possible! But the fact that were able to see them for the first time on our land couldn't be beat! I also am excited to eventually see a Full Moon out there!

We forgot something up at the front CRP storage container and walked back to get it. I asked hubby to shut the light off that we were carrying and this is what it looked in the trees. 

I had no fear though, but I thought I would. We feel so in-tune with this place. Like it is us and we are it, no separation. While initially overwhelming, between the two of us and people we know, there's nothing that we don't feel like we can handle. We made our way back to the prairie to our site and finally got to sit and relax for a little bit! 

Working 7 days a week between our regular jobs, finishing projects to get the house ready for the market in a few years, working on the land and preparing for our big art show, there's no time to exhale right now. But we are both losing steam and it was nice to finally enjoy what we have worked so hard for. We stayed up away past our bed time....until 10:30!

We were both quite interested to find out what kind of animal sounds we would hear. To date, the majority of what we hear is birds....and the neighbors barking dog. Seriously, peeps, show that pooch some attention! I did finally see two deer pouncing away when I pulled onto the prairie! So now I've seen deer, hubby has seen turkey, and we've found what we think is coyote poop. Oh yeah, and the ground nest of the yellow jackets. 

So off to bed we went! NOT a comfortable nights sleep for two people with various bodily injuries and arthritis. Woodchuck doesn't think I filled the mattress enough. All I know is every time my nearly 200 pound lumberjack moved I was bounced around and nearly right off the mattress. I'll fill it a little more next time. 

Did we hear anything that we thought we would? Nope. But the breeze would catch the Oaks and Poplars and the leaves would wake me up and I'd smile. That is one of my favorite sounds! I was uncomfortable. Too hot with the sleeping bag, too cold without it, and constantly waking up. Somewhere around 3:30 a.m. I heard a sound that I could not place, but it was loud and animal. I jumped and accidently elbowed Woodchuck in the back, but then smacked his back repeatedly when the sound became numerous and louder. Crows. After the initial one sounded off a strange call, a handful of them came screaming out of the forest. I admit it scared the shit out of me initially.

And then I started to think about if something had scared them out of the forest, or was this natural behavior for them? I was laying there waiting to hear or see something come out of the trees. But nothing ever did. After a quick look online, it seems that crows do tend to head out early in the morning. Will be interesting to see if they repeat that behavior on future camping trips there!

We woke up later than I expected we would in the morning, but after a crappy night of sleep, that was okay. The sun hadn't quite made over the trees yet when we fired up the grill for breakfast, and had the last two beers. It took the edge off and we wouldn't be driving for several hours. Breakfast of champions!

Ok, admittedly the eggs look disgusting, but they tasted great! We forgot eating utensils, except for one that I keep in a bag in my car, but had leftover burger buns! We shared the one spoon we had and toasted the buns so they could hold the eggs. Yummy!

We planned our day out as we watched sun come up over the trees, and said our Good Mornings to the creatures, including this Viceroy.

The plan was to finally, FINALLY get some help removing honeysuckle from the front CRP. It needs to be done before the contractor starts clearing the land, to lessen the likelihood of spreading the honeysuckle. Plus, some of them are too big now for me to be able to get out alone. I knew Woodchuck was going to hate it, but it needed to be done. We filled two or three large black garbage bags full and then to make it go faster, we laid the rest in the trees to grab next time.

I think next time I head out there, I'm just going to lop off the root system, throw that in the black bag and save the rest of the plant to burn since we are going to have several burns there this Fall/Winter.

Before we knew it, it was time to leave and head home. We knew we wouldn't be back for at least a week or two, with the temps skyrocketing again, humidity being high, and us trying to get ready for our art show. We finally got rain yesterday, after weeks without it, and it looks like it will be raining today too, with a cold front coming thru. It's right about now, even when I wasn't a land owner, that I start panicking internally. Harvest season signals the coming hibernation season. I feel a sort of frenetic energy internally, like how yellow jackets behave at the end of Summer. 

We have harvested all of the elderberry that we can from the land, and from our current home, we have a lot of grapes. Making grape juice and trying to make jelly is eating up any free time I might have and I'm about ready to offer for friends to come pick grapes if they want them. I finally got my jelly jars to seal (that's been an issue in the past for me), but the jelly didn't set. So I tried the remedy for that and they still didn't set. Maybe next year I'll just sell the grapes and grape juice and leave the jelly making in the past with my Grandmother. I clearly don't have the touch for it. Sorry, Grandma!