Allowing and efforts

 Now that I've been home for three weeks, I am finally allowing myself the grace of letting go. Or at least the practice of it. I thought I would have my house whipped back into shape right away, things packed up, etc. and the rest of the year would be spent having fun, having adventures, and doing things my way. Nope. The more I try to clean out and organize, the worse it looks, lol. BUT, that's where the letting go happens. I am one person, and it took time for things to build up and it will take time for them to get simplified! I am a human, not a machine. It feels good to finally exhale, loosen the tension, and start the process of slowing my mind down.

With not working anymore, it's opened up the options of going to the land more! Recently out of a 5 day stretch, we were able to go four days--even if just for a couple of hours each evening after Woodchuck gets off of work. Like he pointed out to me, that is the equivalent of another full day out there!

Unfortunately, my physical issues have put a damper on things for me and made moving around much harder. I was recently diagnosed with a partially torn Achilles tendon, planter fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, and posterior tibial tendonitis and some sort of deformity on each foot. I start physical therapy for that in a couple of days, as well as meet back with my hip surgeon about the hip that hasn't been fixed yet because it huuurrrrts after falling on it a couple of months ago.

The weather has been PERFECT for working outside, and being outside. Recently, Woodchuck and I had a date day and went for a walk in a cemetery that I hadn't been to yet. We LOVE cemeteries, they are peaceful, usually have the most beautiful and unique trees, and the architecture is to swoon for. The day was sunny but chilly, so ideal for a hand in hand walk outside in the Fall....and Woodchucks hands are always hot while mine are always cold, so I am always stealing some heat from him.

I parked not far from this stunning chapel. This was the reason for me wanting to come here in the first place! Perched on top of a hill in a rolling cemetery, when driving on the main road, I could see it and was always curious. It did not disappoint, though I was so sad that this, and many other elements to the burial plots, were in states of neglect. Not to sound morbid, but this building has a bit of the look we were going for when designing the new house. 😬

After showing some of these pictures to my step-dad, I found out that he worked at this location for 3 years when he was a young man, digging graves and doing landscaping, etc. He said the doors were not painted when he worked there. Yet again, this was the look we were going for on the front doors of the new house.

The weeds and invasive plants growing up around the building were a nightmare for someone like me to see. Someone like me who works every week at removing invasives, and to see that this building had several Tree of Heavens, a bunch of other crap, and ivy growing up the side of it, was painful to walk away from. I don't know if contacting the owners of the cemetery would do any good, as it is evident throughout the grounds that certain things are not a priority.

A lot of the wood is rotting away, as shown in this picture at the bottom of the windows. The stained glass is on the inside, and there's a solid glass pane on the outside. Because the wood is rotting away, it let the middle glass panel slip down a few inches. It was disheartening to see.

We walked around for awhile, becoming more distressed at the condition of the older headstones. Sinking, sliding, tipping over, becoming more and more illegible. We could tell that the grounds were being mowed, but why then are other things let go? When I showed my step-dad, he said they would never let things go like that back when he was there! If something needed fixed, they fixed it; if something fell over, they placed it back. There's such a sense of duty and purpose, and devotion and respect when it comes to taking care of places where the dead lay, and the longer we were there, the more sad we became.

Not to disappoint though were the trees! This cedar was monstrous! Tall, bushy, and with the most odd limbs that looked like they could have been sitting perches and swing holders for the spirits of the children there. It was beautiful day and peaceful walk together, where Woodchuck shared stories from his childhood about the death and funerals and cemeteries. 

In between land trips, I have been trying to work on art. Most was to prepare for a craft bazaar I did yesterday (and bombed at! NO SALES!), but I have had soooo many ideas rolling around in my head for months while I was working that I needed some time to work on things and get them out into tangible pieces! This wreath is completely hand-made, as in, I even made the wreath! One of those moments that I was standing in my forest removing grapevine from a tree that it was trying to kill, and then I decided to take a break and make a wreath, lol. It's a grapevine wreath, synthetic sinew in black, some paint, moss, I painted wooden mushies, attached a pendant that was going to get thrown away because there's a barely noticeable crack at the bottom of it, and some ribbon to hang it by! $45 and it didn't sell and it's a good size piece, not tiny, but about 12 inches tall by 11 inches wide. It is available right now in our Etsy shoppe at www.soapwoodartstudio.etsy.com

The Autumn colors and smells always inspire me! Ever since I was a child, this was my favorite season and the color of burnt orange has been one of  two of my favorite colors since then too! I think we are finally getting one of those Autumns that I had as a child that held on longer than what we've had in more recent years, and the child in my heart is loving it! 💛🍁🍂

Another art project that was finished were three wood carvings of Woodchucks! These had been hanging on our wall on some driftwood, but he wasn't happy with it and told me to feel free to sell them. So I painted some wood discs that I had, and they went to the show with me! They didn't sell, obviously. They are in the Etsy shoppe as well! (link above by the Halloween wreath).

The weather has been so nice that I am finding myself juggling three or four projects at the land. I base which one(s) I will work on off of weather, how much time we have out there on the trip, and what stage the plants are in. I'm behind on getting to the lily of the valley because they have berries right now! EEK. And although I knew there was a mature burning bush immediately to our side of the property line, a chance moment of working on honeysuckle at the edge of the front forest had me finding many, many burning bush sprouts. Luckily, most of them were at the edge, but I did find some farther in as well. While the colors of burning bush are admittedly striking, they are a major threat to the healthy forest eco-systems! I have recently seen picture after picture of them overtaking the understory of the forests, and at this time of year they are easily picked out in the crowd due to their color (and of course now I can identify them easier since working with them by their stems, leaves, berries, etc.) The adult one I found at the property line is a good 10-12 feet tall with hundreds of sprouts and juvenile plants coming up in the immediate area. Just like most other plants, there are various species of them, and they luckily were so young that they didn't have their berries yet. I verified the identity with professionals in an invasives plant group, but I had already pulled the sprouts because I felt pretty certain of what I had found. That little bud on the top tip is always what helps me solidify that it's a burning bush! It's those little things that some time help me stop second guessing myself, lol.

After working for a couple of hours (Woodchuck worked at knocking down a dirt hill at the front as well. He LOVED it at first, until he had to push mow it, lol. Plus an animal had made a burrow in it at some point, with several entrance and exit holes all over it.) we went for a walk. It's always a great way to end whatever time we have there. He has been a bit dismayed that a squirrel uses his bench for its dinner table! Woodchuck built the bench directly under the branches of a Black Walnut tree, because that happened to be the spot with the best view to the watershed, as well as it's right across from the foot bridge he recently built. I find the usage of the bench by the squirrel to be so endearing, and honestly, it's a short-term thing. Woodchuck would just be happier if the squirrel stained the bench evenly instead of all in one spot 😂

While walking on the watershed, I saw something light colored in a small divot in the soil. It looked like some little critter had started to try and bury this, but maybe they made a snack out of the occupant in this spot? Either way, the shell came home with me as I adore these little nature trinkets.

I would normally be at work at this time of day and I am SO incredibly grateful to have these chances to see the things that I would normally miss out on, and to see them with the love of my life. 

I am also grateful that the government granted us permission to mow this fire break. It not only gives us more peace of mind during this horrible drought, but enables us to get out there easier and check on things during the times of year when the brush is high. (remember the sky lantern I found recently out there?!t

Everything is struggling right now in one way or another. Plants, animals, humans...I'm just trying to do my best to support it all.

If the drought continues, the watershed pond will dry up. We see it evaporating at a very fast rate, sometimes a few inches within a couple of days, and can see evidence of the deer and other animals traveling to it to drink. I know the rains will come, but some times it's hard to not worry about all that depend on this most precious natural resource in the meantime.

We ended the day by taking a little time, and precaution, to build a small contained fire at home. We used leftover cinder blocks and patio pavers and I always keep water nearby. Woodchuck likes to get his fires started with newspaper, however, as that burns down,  it releases a lot of smoldering cinders into the air that I worry will catch something on fire. So, I'm in charge of getting the fires going now, especially when we just want a tiny one that will burn for about half an hour while we are sitting there. These people who live around us that are open burning leaves and branches, just a few feet from the back of our workshop and under trees, are only asking for trouble. I look forward to the day where I can leave this place and become the forest witch I was always mean to be. Don't get me wrong, it won't be easy in some ways to leave this house. We raised our boys here, squeezed SO MUCH life into the 24 years we've been here and there are things about my yard that I adore, but it is getting closer to the time of letting someone else enjoy it and I am ready for some peace, that's for sure.

The next trip back to the land found me working again on the behemoth burning bush. This is it, about half way down.

And just a sampling of all of the sprouts under and by it.

But I am gifted with reminders every time I go out there of what I am fighting for. Like this adorable little Amanita Muscaria, my most favorite mushroom species! I must be part faery 😚

 And this one looks like it was already the meal of a faery! Look at that perfect pie slice that was removed! I did not do this, but found it this way!

Again we walk to connect with each other and our land, and to take in all of the blessings of this place that we have been chosen to be stewards of. Sunset through the blueberry bushes and mature trees.

It's a whole other world out here as the sun starts to sink. I am not afraid to be out there after dark, though I do always have pepper spray on my keychain and a larger can in my backpack. It would destroy my heart to ever have to use it out here, but precautions are smart.

The next day we came out so that Woodchuck could meet back up with the guy who poured the concrete in the barn. We had been waiting months for him to come cut it.  With the cutting of the concrete, that finishes the barn up...but I'm sure Woodchuck will think of things to do with it along the way, lol.

I've neglected my own yard, outside of occasionally dead-heading my flowers, gathering marigold seeds, and Woodchuck mowing. I got out to the garden boxes, which have become more of a haven for native flowers, and I found a volunteer tomato plant growing! I also saved the life of a wooly bear, who seemed to be showing that we will have a mild winter. 

Back at the land, I was able to get the burning bush down! Only to reveal honeysuckles on the other side of it, grapevine, bittersweet, and more and more sprouts of burning bush. That's ok, I will continually work on this, and will have to keep checking back to take care of any seedlings that pop up. I am really proud of the work that I do, especially since I do most of it alone. It is not always easy due to my physical conditions, but it is always worth it.

Can you see how nothing else grew under the bush except for more bushes and other occasional crap?

All of the bare ground is where I pulled the sprouts from. Anytime I found berries on the ground, I picked those up too and black bagged them. There is what is called a "seed bank" that has already been established from previous years and fallen berries, so I will continue to monitor this area, and my forests.

 But I still have sprouts to pull and then I will spray the area down to hopefully help kill of any seeds that are buried in the soil.

Working out here doesn't feel like work at all. It feels good, it feels healing, it feels empowering and beautiful.

It is VERY rare to be out here so late, and I enjoy seeing this slice of our world in all seasons and at all times of day. Always something new to learn and see! Stay tuned, because as the drought continues, we are continuing to use it to our advantage to get into areas that we normally can't reach to get them cleaned up! And do a girl a favor, please, and visit our Etsy shoppe! If you like what you see, please share us! Thank you :)

Stay-cation, work-cation, I need a vacation

 To say that we were all looking forward to having some paid time off from work over the July 4th week is a severe understatement. I mean, coworkers were damn near throwing punches. It was time for us all to get away from each other, the building, customers, etc. I consider myself very lucky that I am the newest hire there, but still got the paid time off like everyone else. It's just one of the perks of the job! But I had pushed myself way too far on the last weekend of work before our break. By the time Sunday rolled around, which was the last day open for 10 days, I wasn't feeling right. By the end of the day, I had a headache (which I don't get anymore), I was feeling rundown, and lightheaded. I had been up since 3 a.m., and because I am working with a 16 year old who values her phone more than doing her job, I had to push myself far beyond my limits to make sure everything got done. I too would love to stand at the counter and take the online drivers test on my phone while someone else worked and I got half of the tips. Okay, so no on the drivers test, but I would love to stand at the counter and read a book and then collect half of the tips. Said child is also now requiring that I stay until closing, which means I work 9 hours on Sundays. This is the same child who was sending me home so early from numerous shifts that I lost hours on my paycheck and picked up a second job. Yeah. Once we closed, I delivered an order to an invalid customer. I was very close to a friends house that I hadn't seen in awhile and I had a graduation card and gift for her daughter, so I stopped by there too. By the time I got home, my headache was horrible, I was even more lightheaded, and just needed to rest for the evening. 

I woke up Monday morning still with a headache, laid in bed for a bit and thought that if I got up and moved around, I'd feel better. My head still felt weird, like it would after a migraine that I would get back in the day, but once I got up and moving, the actual headache went away. My goal for this staycation was to get lots and lots of rest and to move at a slower pace. Art? Yes! Reading? Yes! I stepped outside and dead-headed my flowers, watered the plants, collected marigold seeds......and something so stationary as collecting those seeds and laying them out on a drying screen was my undoing. I was so tired and disoriented and I forgot I had the bench behind me and when I went to step back, I caught my bad ankle on the foot of the bench. I started to stumble, and would try and right myself, stumble some more, still trying to continue to right myself. I was falling to the left, and stumbling along the way. I ended up slamming my left hip into the rolling dehumidifier, and caught myself with my left arm (the one that gives me trouble after being fixed and having that allergic reaction to the covid and tetanus boosters) as I slammed into my altar cabinet. I cried. More I think from being startled, and feeling battered, than from actually being in pain, but I was in some pain. I ended up spending the rest of the week trying to get my arm back to good, and I still have a bruise on the side of my leg. 

When my youngest son woke up and came downstairs, he said that he needed me to hook up the trailer to my car so he could haul the stone over to the oldest sons house around the corner and finish the landscaping. There was much to-do between myself and hubby about this situation. The two of them went over and wiped out ALL of the greenery. Native, non-native, all of it. They were supposed to leave the flowers, because those come and go on their own and don't need anyone to do anything with them. But gone. All that was left to do was lay the stone. The same stone (pea gravel) that I got for free from a house down the road and that hubby didn't appreciate. But, because hubby didn't want to spend any of his time of his vacation on spreading the stone, it was left up to me. 

So I informed the boy that I had fallen, but would do what I could. I hooked the trailer up to my car (which if you saw how tiny I am, you would know that takes a lot of strength for me to do that), the boy grabbed the buckets and shovels. Only to find out that hubby only left us with 3 5-gallon buckets. That was not going to cut it. I was not going to make 12 trips back and forth, especially since I was going to have to try and back the trailer in since our yard sits way back from the road. The last time I tried backing in the trailer, I jack-knifed it into my car. I don't feel less capable, I don't care if men make fun of me, we all start somewhere and I knew that I just needed practice.....and to do it without hubby in the car getting pissed off and making me more nervous. So we found more buckets that the boy had brought home from his job. I told him to fill as many as we could fit in the trailer, because I'd rather go with too many than have to keep making trips back. He didn't listen. 

We got over to my sons house and agreed that he would dump the stone and I would spread it, thinking that would be less physical for me. He struggled, I ended up picking up doing more than I should have...which is the theme of the my life. I believe one day I shall write a book called, "Picking up the Slack of the World Around Me". Once I got moving, I was feeling ok, but still being careful of my arm/shoulder. We had to make another trip back, which means I needed to back the trailer in the driveway and then make a turn in the yard to get closer to the stone. It took several tries of pulling forward and backing up, but damnit, I did it. My son was very patient! And he listened to me to take aaaallllll of the stone. We finished the job, except for some edging pieces that needed to be laid to keep the stone from spilling out into the yard, but hey, I wasn't getting paid to do this job, the boy was. 

I kept asking hubby if he watched me on the Ring camera? Did he see me shovel? Did he see that I actually back the trailer up?! It took me several times of asking before he watched it and.......he wasn't impressed. Kind of made fun of me, actually. That's okay. I don't need his praise or approval, I know I did a good job!!!! 

On Tuesday, I was still feeling out of sorts and did some stuff around the house and went and sat outside for about an hour. But that always leads to having to listen to the neighbor scream at her kids and dogs. I've learned to take my earbuds outside with me so that when I hear them come out, I pop those babies in and listen to soothing music. I do prefer the natural sounds of outdoors though, and the birds, but I have to keep my sanity somehow. When hubby got home from work, I asked him to take my blood pressure. He always feels my blood pressure is high when I go to the doctor, but they never seem concerned. With pushing myself physically so much, and the stress I am under at home and work, he was sure my blood pressure was high. And for the first time in a very long time, it was absolutely perfect. I usually am 127/80-something, but this time I was 102/71! Over the next few days I started feeling better...which was good because I had what turned out to be a very busy week ahead! 

On Wednesday, my morning exploded fielding texts and calls and trying to fill out some documents online that Woodchuck asked me to do, but I needed to hit the road, so those were going to have wait until the evening when we were together. The documents were concerning a home North of our land that went up for sale! It also had another 10 acres with it, and butted right up to our land. It all seemed so perfect! For the same amount of money the banks were going to make us take out in a construction loan to build our house, we could get an established home and 10 more acres, which included the small part that we have been trying to buy from the home owner for the past couple of years and it had about 2 acres in the CRP program that we have our forests in. I know for a fact that this homeowner, as well as those all the way down the road, do not take care of their forests as the CRP program dictates they should. I was beyond excited at the thought of getting my hands on more land to make healthy and native. So we needed some paperwork to go thru before seeing the house, but for now I had to get going!

I was meeting a friend (a previous coworker that I've known since Elementary school) for breakfast and then I needed to go to another town to pick up my name badge for my second job that I am starting. My job situation continues its dysfunction from last year. Places of employment just aren't what they used to be and my bullshit tolerance meter remains at zero. The goal right now is to work both jobs, the existing full time and the new part-time. The part-time starts off as seasonal (90 days) and only about 20 hours a week, with the chance of being offered a permanent position after that 90 days. Between the two jobs, I'll be working around 60 hours a week. I took this job because the boss's 16 year old was sending me home early any chance she got, and I lost hours. I didn't realize when I accepted the new job that the hours were so low there, so I have to work at both places. 

After breakfast and picking up my name badge, I stopped at my mothers house since I hadn't seen her in a couple of weeks. She looks so healthy now! Though her chemo curl has started to relax, and that irritates her, she is happy to be back at normal life now...minus smoking! Now when she smells someone smoking, or someone who has recently smoked, she is horrified at the way she and her home and things used to smell. Her husband brought up that he's ready to move a retirement place, even naming the place that he would like to live in. But after looking it up, it's not what he thought it was (a place for people over 55), it's for all ages and a high-end apartment community building. I really worry about them and the decisions they are making and how I can't just trust what they are saying, but have to do a lot of checking in to things on my own to verify. 

Woodchuck and I did indeed finish the online paperwork, got the documents we needed to the realtor and made an appointment for Friday morning to stop at the realtors office to sign some documents, and then meet over at the home to walk through it. If we were going to move forward with buying that home, and our offer was accepted, we would have 24 hours to get our home on the market. That means we went from having 1.5-2 years to clean out, pack, and get this place on the market, to less than a week to get this place ready for photos. That was stress inducing! So on Thursday, we spent 8 hours cleaning out the workshop and it still isn't done! We donated several bags of things, threw out stuff, and Woodchuck took a lot of totes of things to the pole barn.

Friday morning we went to town to meet with the Realtor, picked up our new glasses (I have a slightly stronger prescription now and have gotten no-line bifocals!) and then headed to the house. We had concerns pretty much as soon as we walked in the door. From floor plan, to weird placement, to shotty work, each room we walked into dropped our enthusiasm more. We had ten minutes left to finish looking through the house and still needed to see the upstairs and basement. Really shouldn't have even bothered. Long story short--> nope. We will stay right now with the original plan of building in a year or two. But hey, it was worth a shot! I know from working at an auction place that pictures can make a turd look like gold. You really have to lay on eyes on it yourself to know how it really looks. And our realtor is the BEST! She had our best interest at heart, and even in the heat and dress clothes, she walked our land with us when we were done at the house! I think it's safe to say that she felt the magick there too. Once we were done there, Woodchuck and I ran some errands and then headed home for some R & R and cocktails on the patio. Everything in due time, everything is happening as it should.

Saturday was Woodchucks last day off for the holiday, so we headed to the land to get some work done. He needed to mow and I was going to pick up garbage from the front along the road, and then work to remove invasives from along the driveway. I initially was just going to do a little but went deeper and deeper in. I unfortunately found the first tree of heaven. It was luckily a juvenile, and thank goodness I caught it now, but damn, I am so tired of dealing with these asshole invasives and of course it has to be one of the most difficult ones. Because this isn't in a spot that gets mowed because there's a bit of a ditch right there, I will have to repeatedly check on this area and keep cutting it by hand and treating it.

You can help identify them from other look-alike trees by the "thumbs" and if you scrape the main stalk and it smells like peanut butter? Yep. You've got an invasive asshole Tree of Heaven on your hands. I cut down this one, plus numerous honeysuckles, I left the mulberry for now, and ran face first into a massive burning bush. While there is a native burning bush here in Indiana, my experience with the land is that we rarely have the native anything in spots like this. Even though I told myself not to take anything out unless I was 100% sure it was bad, the massive structure of this thing told me it couldn't be good, and it didn't look good with trying to keep a cleaner property line and native plant system. So I began chipping away at it, but didn't even get halfway through it! 

The main bush itself was at least 7-9 foot tall and going out in all directions!

                This was after I started chopping into it! And then I saw what as under it 👆

Hundreds of seedlings. 👆

                    And a mangrove-look juvenile system coming up underneath. 👆

This was not something I was going to get done on this day! It was massive, and I had so many other spots to hit as well. So I cut what I could, nuked the seedlings with glyphosate, and walked away. Rain was in the forecast, so I hope the herbicide had a chance to penetrate those seedlings. No matter what though, I will spend at least the next 3 years fighting this spot. But I moved on to the little slice of CRP to the North of the driveway that I haven't touched in a while. I worked on removing bittersweet, and honeysuckle sprouts and juveniles. The Enchanters Nightshade is ALL throughout the land right now and I found ONE Swamp milkweed!

                            Swamp milkweed, that disappeared within a few days👆

            Enchanters Nightshade 👆👇Even the plants have magickal names here.....

                                Japanese beetles fornicating and eating. What a life. 👆

                American Toad. He was so tiny and I am grateful he survived the mowing! 👆

                                The first jewelweed bloom I have found of the season! 👆

I bought this plastic chain when I worked at the resale shop, I just had a feeling it would be useful one day. Because the property that butts up against ours is up for sale, we wanted some definitive markers for people to see. Don't come on our land, and no, you don't own a pond, it's ours. 👆

Back home for some more R & R and cocktails. The birds were grateful for some clean water in this heat. 👆

The baby sugar watermelons are starting! Squee, they're so cute! My brother said they are cute, but also look like they could kill you, lol. 👆

Woodchuck was back to work on Sunday and I had an outdoor market to do! I only get to do it about once a year because of working weekends, but with the bakery being closed, it was the perfect opportunity! I had been working with my arm all week to get it back to good since I would be doing this market alone. Loaded my car up, unloaded it and set up, tore down and loaded my car up again, and came home where I finally had some help unloading her. Four items went to their forever homes and I am grateful, though I am hoping to move even more out of the workshop and soon. It takes up so much space! Two friends braved the heat to come see me, which helped the day go by faster and it is always good to see them.

By Monday, I was watching the calendar and dreading going back to work. Monday was our day together and we spent it at the land, but we went to the land after we stopped at the auction place I used to work at to pick up some things we won. Woodchuck got a t.v. mount that we don't need now, a trail cam and infrared nighttime goggle combo (goggles apparently don't work), we got a bookcase that was new in the mashed up box, but pretty dinged up and we didn't realize it until we got home, and I got a new, in the box animal habitat enclosure that I donated to the local wildlife rehabilitation center!

Once we got to the land, it was time to burn again those trees that were felled a few years ago. We are getting down to the bottom of the stack now! I reminded Woodchuck that he needed to be one with the fire to get it going, not just blaze in and dominate it. When he does that, the fire won't catch. We got a very nice fire going and I stayed with it and because even the slightest breeze freaks me out. It would be horrific to have it spread or have an ember fly away and catch somewhere else. Rain was in the forecast within a couple of hours, so we felt like it was a good time to do it. Speaking of embers, I nearly caught myself on fire. One landed on my back, burnt a hole through my t-shirt and my sports bra, but I got it out before it burned my skin. 😱🔥

While I was gathering more wood, I noticed that we had one St. Johns Wort come back! There were dozens before, but this is the only one that's left because of the tractor and wood being piled. I am not sure yet if it's the native kind or not, but I am leaning towards that it is. 👆

While Woodchuck went and weed whacked, I stayed with the fire and read a book. Oh how I miss reading books! 👆

Once the fire was just smoldering and not throwing embers, we went for a quick walk before heading home. We measured the piece of land that we want to buy from the people North of us. Although it was tempting to offer to buy more, we decided to keep it simple, stupid, and keep it at what we've been wanting and at a true rectangle shape. Property lines in the woods are already a little haphazard, let's not make things more difficult. As you can see, they don't take care of it anyway. The invasives are HORRIBLE, and they don't pick up the garbage that blows in off of the road. The place is pending sale right now, so we plan on contacting the new owners about it. 👆

Back on our land, I found some beautiful specimens of Heal All that Woodchuck JUST missed with the tractor. I repeatedly tell him the ending point for mowing and each time he pushes it farther and farther. I can only imagine what he's taking out that I didn't get to see. 👆

We finally found some milkweed, on the watershed! These plants are 7-9 feet tall!!! There was no way I was getting to them for a closer picture with the dense vegetation, and honestly, it's best right now to let them be. 👆

                                                Prairie Coneflower on the watershed. 👆

                            We have a lot of this genus of sunflower on the watershed! 👆

Woodchuck said it was time for a break, and cleaned up around the bench so we could sit and listen to the birds. 👆

                                            The color on these brambles were SO vivid!!! 👆

This. This trash needs to stop. 😡We were headed off of the watershed when I saw something laying low in the tall vegetation, but it was too far away to make out what it was. But you know me right? I was going in. Hubby asked if it was an animal and I said it could be. He told me to leave it alone, but I said if it was down like that and not running away from me, then something was wrong with it. Thankfully, it wasn't an animal. But it was this GD trash that I hate with a passion. Chinese sky lanterns. Children have been burned, animals have been killed, places caught on fire because of these. And here it landed in my watershed where it could have started a fire that would have consumed it, and then all of the surrounding forests and maybe even homes. You can see the burnt paper on the edge. I am so grateful to the Great Spirit and Universe that it seem to have barely caught, quickly went out, and didn't burn anything. Please, do not get these things, or balloons! 👆

                            A cute little moth I saw while I assessing a patch of bittersweet. 👆

                                                                A kind of agrimony 👆

                                                                        Boneset! 👆

                                                        A precious little jumping spider! 👆

Once our walk was done, we needed to rinse off a bit. Covered in soot, and itching from the sweat and humidity.....look at that refreshing splash from the hand pump !We also dumped water on the hot ashes in the fire pit. 💦😃💙

Back at home, I cut and treated around a dozen TOH juveniles in the railroad tree line, and walked the yard. We have many white vervains coming up in the grapevines. I am always in awe of and fascinated by the relationship of plants and how they grow. The violet, white vervain, and grapes love growing together, and the grapes were the only thing we planted here. Humans are too used to manicured and perfect and distinct lines. I am always wondering what grows when we let it be for a bit. 👆

                                                I had ONE echinacea come back this year. 👆

Tuesday was my last day off and I had to go grocery shopping, but also stopped at the resale shop first to get some shirts for my second job. I am grateful that I only had to buy a pair of shoes and shirts, all of which I got from thrift stores. I start the job tomorrow, but went for orientation yesterday. The store is big, clean, and bright! I will be putting 12 hour work days in some times, starting tomorrow, and working on my one day to myself at least every other week. It's temporary. It's fine. I can do this for a little bit. Repeat, believe, repeat, believe. In the meantime, I can barely walk this morning. It's fine, I'm fine (laughter, sob) )O(