Walk some, work some, love lots

 It's been awhile since I've posted because we've been focusing on making numerous trips to the land and I've been focused on preparing for craft shows and the holidays! We were so lucky to have had mild temps and dry weather for as long as we did, in the sense of being able to work the land longer into the season and get more projects done! As it stands right now though, the weather is more seasonably appropriate and I am fighting the urge most days to hibernate. 

A lot of my late October/early to mid November projects focused on the invasives like burning bush and phragmite and at least getting the berries off of the honeysuckles that I knew we weren't going to get around to cutting down. But with the days being shorter, our trips to the land on the days that Woodchuck works are limited to under two hours of daylight. Now that it is  after Thanksgiving, we are in Winter weather and once the snow comes, we will be done on the land for awhile.

I found some lovely mushrooms growing on dead trees in the phragmite patch on the land area. It was something right out of a fairy tale! 👇

I also got new boots that are very flexible to replace the very stiff and uncomfortable ones that I had been wearing for years. My feet and ankles are grateful!☝(less than $10 at Rural King!)

As we continued in the drought and the water levels went down, I was able to get farther into the watershed pond to treat the phragmite. ☝I still need to get some seed heads off that are on the land area.

The area of burning bush at the property line is now gone after about two weeks of working on it, collectively. 

I will still need to monitor the area for a number of years to stay on top of sprouts. While the leaf cover was thick, it was hard to see those sprouts since they looked like leaf stems. With the lighting of the season and time of day, I had to keep rechecking spots. 👇

The roots of the Burning Bush seem to loosen the soil, making it easier for the seeds to get sown deeper down. I am always grateful to learn more about the behavior of invasive plants, because that arms me with knowledge on how to fight against them better. To me, it isn't just knowing about how they respond to herbicide that's important, it's also about understanding the behavior of the plant in growth, spreading, etc. 👇

As usual, every walk we take out there is a feast for the eyes, the soul, and the spirit. There is something to see all around you and while these things may seem boring, mundane, or silly, they are magick to me.

A grasshopper I saved from the tractor, though his friend was not so lucky and I think he may have been stepped on the garage floor. 👆

I am trying to get better at harvesting and foraging, and using what I gather and only taking what I know I will use. This is a Bur Rose bush that is getting ready to fall into the pond because of slumping. So I gathered the rose hips that I could reach, even crawling down to the bank that would have normally been under water (because it had receded to so far!). 👇

I have dried the turkey tail and am in the process right now of grinding it down. It doesn't look like what I thought it would being ground, so I am holding off moving forward until I verify with a professional that I did the right thing. I am absolutely fascinated with turkey tail! 👇

I am so grateful that I had the courage to make the leap to quit my job and spend what time we have left in our current home being gentle, and mindful, and quiet, and alone. While I have not gotten done around the current home what I thought I would these past few months, I'm grateful to be here and not running myself down for everybody else's dream while I get treated like crap. No more of that. I have spent hours processing pumpkins and squash....they are some of my favorite things to smell and look at! I also cleaned their seeds and let them air dry before packing them up to hopefully use at the land....👇

Making bone broth in the Crock Pot. I love to let it cook for a couple of days and I add scraps of veggies in. My most recent batch had organic apple peels added in. Once I strain the solid matter out, I save it to sprinkle around the land. There's never a scrap left.... 👇

I also tried a new recipe for cassava flour and carob chip cookies (was supposed to have regular chocolate chips in them).....they were super easy and even Woodchuck liked them....👇

 A girl and her tools! I have been working on a new Yulemas ornament for sale this year. Sadly, they have not sold thru shows or Etsy, but I did get some close friends order some as gifts for family members. 

UPDATE FEBRUARY 2025: In full transparency, I started this post in late November/early December 2024 and would work for short amounts of time a few times week on it through late November/early December. The holidays got busy, I tried a few craft shows, and finally gave up. I assumed I would be able to get back to it after the first of the year! But as life does, things kind of went astray and our youngest son was involved in a serious car accident on January 7th. He was airvac'd to a trauma center a state away and taking care of him and helping him heal is what my life is gladly about right now. He's already had one surgery and over the next couple of months, we will find out if he needs more for other injuries.

I brought up the prospect to Woodchuck about selling the land. The accident, being so far away from larger health facilities, and the fact that we all brought home Influenza A from the trauma center and were sick for 3 weeks with it, showed me what I was already peeking at. That the land might be too much, and too far out, for us now that we are getting older. How will we be able to juggle taking care of our youngest, building, moving, etc. all within two years? I am searching for ways to simplify my life and that just all feels like a bunch of complicated stuff. My son comes before anything else.

I'm trying to not make big decisions right now though, like they are telling our son not to. I'm trying to stay in the moment, while also scheduling medical appointments (some weeks have up to 6 appointments). How do you do that? How do you stay in the moment while also having to prepare for the future on some levels? Some days I fail at it. I'm getting migraines every day that are progressively getting worse. I can't take the medicines for them because of my kidneys, and so far the supplements aren't working. 

On the days my son and I have no appointments, I am listing our personal belongings on eBay to help clear the house out and get some money towards medical bills and to eventually get him another car (his was totaled in the accident). I haven't seen my mother since Christmas and I have to be the one to remember to stay in touch or I usually won't hear from her. We live in a very small community, and that community usually rallies around its people in need. But not us. There was nothing. No announcement, no meal train, no benefits, no nothing. I am blessed to have the couple of friends/acquaintances that I do that ask if I need anything when they are heading to town? My ex-MIL sent our son a new flannel shirt (he was wearing the one she got him for Christmas, for the first time, the morning of the accident and it had to be cut off of him). Even though my son is the patient and suffering in his own ways, we are suffering in our own ways too. We are upset, we are traumatized, we are tired, we are overwhelmed, we are scared, and not being gathered around by this community triggers feelings for me from my past that I will always be the exception, and it makes me so sad that me being the exception is also spreading to my family (is how my damaged spirit interprets it). For someone who is always about others, seeing so many others not be about us in our time of need is so disheartening, but I put my head down and walk into the storm as I always have. I will always take care of my family and do what needs to be done.

So I don't know when I will write again, when things at the land will or will not move forward. I'll try and update when I can, it might even be a good way to cope with things as writing seems to help me in that way. I thank you for being on this journey with us so far. Who knows what the future holds, but I hope at least it will have my completely healthy, happy, and recovered son in it. My son before it all 💕 

Summer bows out

 As Fall beings to settle in, we are finding ourselves at the land more consistently now. One day a week, and some times only half a day by the time we get out there, isn't really enough, but we are grateful for the chance to keep chipping away at things and to keep seeing things in the different seasons.

A recent walk over the by the blueberry bushes revealed this striking knotweed! I love the color 😍

For the first time, I harvested turkey tail mushrooms! I made sure to have the i.d. doublechecked by a certified mushroom expert before I took the chance of grabbing a look-alike! I thought that maybe they were too old, but he said they were perfect for picking.

It was time to start hitting the phragmite now that the water level is low enough for me to get to more of it! With the pallets that Woodchuck laid out for me to prevent me from sinking in the mud, I was able to get quite a bit done! This is what they look like when cut and you can also see that the water level is so low, the roots are exposed! But there's much more to them underground. 👇

My method is to inject glyphosate into the cut, making sure to puncture through the hard membrane first that is similar to bone marrow. 👇

                   I also noticed the "buds" this year! This is the start of a new phragmite. 👇

It's always my goal to finish an entire project, but my legs and hips were hurting from up and down and squats and back and forth. This is a lot for one person to wipe out in one day, but I'm happy that I got to even more this year than last! I'll have to keep an eye on the ones left so I can cut off seed heads. 👇

Once we were done working on our own projects, we met back up for a walk and to continue dreaming of what the land will look like once we have it under control and in maintenance mode, and once we are living there. I spied this walking stick on a bramble 😍👇

Back at home, there is just as much beauty to be found! Butterflies abound and I always wish them safe travels. 

After having just watched a video on infusing shea butter with jasmine flowers, I found Confederate Jasmine at two homes in the current town we live in! I love the smell of Jasmine, but I don't intend on the making the infused shea butter. 👇💮

We were able to open the windows for a couple of days, but even with lower temps, the humidity has been too high to keep the air shut off. Pierogi enjoyed a good whiff of fresh air and hearing the animals that she only gets to see through closed windows. 👇🐱

It was also time to clear out my car of the nature trinkets I've gathered along the way! Woodchuck nearly smashed all of the insects 😟👇

It struck me one day while I was working in the woods, just how lucky we are. Not just Woodchuck and I, but "us" as humans. To be here, to borrow this beautiful Earth and nurture it. As the trees dropped their leaves around us, I realized just how special it was to be let into that "other world" that goes on without us, but to witness it changes something for the good inside of us. To bear witness the trees vulnerability, the shedding of the old, and to have their company reverses so many bad emotions within me. I truly am a lucky girl to keep stepping into their world and to hopefully do some good for them. 💖 Now to share some of them with you.... 

                                                            A VERY big grass spider 🕷👇

                                                                    A snail 🐌👇

Some friends enjoying the goldenrod (speaking of! I saw a video on how to make a decorative wall hanging broom from goldenrod that you hang outside on your porch. Notes taken!) 

We have this beautiful Shiny Sumac around the prairie and while everything else turns yellow, this goes through stages of red, as shown over the next three (3) pictures! 

                                            Great Spangled Fritillary enjoying some thistle!  

I am calling this the disco spider, but I believe this might be a very small Nursery Web Spider?

Once our walk was done, Woodchuck had a little work to do at the barn while I had to keep watch on the burn pile. It was our last chance to burn before a ban went into place. Once I put the ashes out, I was able to go see the damaged part on the barn that he had removed. It was very......mangled and dented.😐

We spent as much time outside on this particular weekend as we could! The Full Moon with Lunar Eclipse was a show that didn't disappoint!

And the next day was beautiful and sunny! I used that time to harvest more marigold seeds (and seriously, I need to stop because I have more than enough to last me YEARS now!)

We already have our list of things to work on on the next trip out! We will be dreaming of the land, the trees, and the animals in the meantime. 💤💭💚

Arctic Freeze and looking ahead to end of Winter projects

 Well, we were on a good roll, and I am so glad that we made use of the nicer days we had in between the arctic freezes we've had this Winter. Right now it is just too cold for us to be working on the land. Day time temps are in the 20's and that doesn't include the windchill! I have today off, and am sick (allergies, not contagious) and want to see a friend, but I am not leaving this house unless it's an emergency.

On our latest trip out to the land, we used the milder temps to get out on to the watershed. We did better markings on property lines along the longer distances, using t-posts, no trespassing signs and survey tape. This will help Woodchuck when he decides when and how to make a path along the West and South boundaries!

 We also marked all of the non-native/invasive trees that need to come out. We estimated about 15 Autumn Olives, (AO), a few honeysuckle, and at least one monster multi-flora rose (MFR). Those are all marked with survey tape, and I did harvest a few more rose hips from the MFR, though the wildlife seemed to have enjoyed most of them-as it should be.

Woodchuck gets turned around easily on the watershed. He hasn't been there as much as I have, I know it like the back of my hand now, and he was WAY off on where he thought the property marker on the South side was. Unfortunately, a new owner a couple of places down has decided to place his many, many chickens along that border side of the watershed. While I am grateful that he's feeding the many wild animals that may be able to get them (sarcasm), he has two dogs on watch out there 24/7 and what was my ONLY prerequisite for buying that land? NO.BARKING.DOGS. I've listened to several of them within a couple of feet my current home for 23 years and I am SO done with it. I want to hear breezes in the trees and birds singing, or heaven willing, nothing at all!!!! But I cannot be that lucky. At the land, we will now have 5 barking dogs surrounding us, though admittedly not within inches of us like we do here. The whole time we were on the watershed, those doggies were doing their job of staying noisy.

But I guided him on where the property should be, and sure enough I was able to find it. We own farther over than he remembered, so that was a nice thing to be able to surprise him with! We'll get another taller marker like we've got on other corners out there, so it will be easier to see. Many of the watershed signs are also broken, so I got a hold of the NRCS and they have new ones for us. I sure wish they were made with a more eco-friendly material though! Same with the survey tape. It's visibility works well for Woodchuck, but after being exposed to the elements, it becomes brittle.

 We keep seeing something peeking out just above the surface of the watershed pond. It could be a thick reed from the phragmite, but it also looks curved like an antler. He never took the one boat over there, thinking that he was going to sell it, but I think that has fallen through and we are curious enough to want to see what that item is that we'll take it out on the water the next chance we get. It's not a big pond by any means, but we don't know how deep it is, and are sure that it's very mucky at the bottom no matter the depth. I would use my waders, but we don't need to place a call to the fire department to come pull me out of the muck. I wonder if Woodchuck's tractor would do that well? 😏

We walked around that pond, commenting on all of the antler rubs on the willow trees. He agreed that we should leave most of those stands, to provide shelter and a known pathway for the deer. No need to wipe them all out! There's only a couple that we need to remove to make the ingress/egress complete and I'd like to find a way to utilize that wood so it doesn't just get thrown in the massive burn pile that was never taken care of from the tree removal before. The NRCS will be out in the Spring to see the progress we've made, and work stops on April 1st due to ground nesting birds coming back to the area. So we only have a couple of months to get that stuff done. We still only have one day a week to work out there, and that's not promised every week with other stuff we need to get done and weather conditions. But when talking about the setback of building the house, we look at the brighter side and focus on the aspect that maybe we will be able to get a lot of the big stuff done before we move out there, that way when we are living there full-time, it will be more of an upkeep situation with the land, being able to rest and enjoy it, and less of the huge projects.

I also decided that I wanted to cut seed heads off of the phragmite. Woodchuck didn't seem all that enthused, but he followed me into the wilderness anyway. This was the first time I've ever had a chance to do this step with phragmite, having only ever taken seed heads off of teasel at a different public land place years ago as part of a volunteer program I participated in. I was SO excited to be doing this, this kind of thing is my jam. Originally Woodchuck was holding the garbage bag and I was cutting the seed heads with my favorite Fiskar cutters, but he wasn't content with that, and the bag kept getting caught on things and tearing holes in it--which of course defeats the purpose of having the seeds in the bag (so they don't spread). So I took over the bag and would set it down in as open a spot as I could find (there really weren't any), and then he leaned a few phragmite stems over (some were 12 foot tall!) to me and then I would cut the heads off and bag them. 

Phragmite seeds are like dandelion seeds. Cute, fluffy, but easy drop and blow away. And phragmite is not a plant that you want spreading (yes. I can hear those of you who don't like dandelions. They are NOT weeds and are a very critical food source for bees and the first arriving Spring insects). The whole idea with cutting seed heads off is to reduce anymore seeds from falling/blowing off, thus reducing the ground seed bank. Over time of continually going out and cutting off seed heads, and/or treating the phragmite, each year will see less and less growth until, eventually, they can be eradicated from our land. It has been really hard for me to not stop along roadside stands of these things and cut those heads off and bag them up. I don't see road crews making efforts with the phragmite or the teasel and I'm not sure why nothing has been done by them, or why they have not reached out to other agencies for help. 

While these that we cut are technically on land, they are on marshy land between the watershed pond and our blueberry bushes. The previous owner planted the blueberries RIGHT up to the watershed boundary. I can't blame him, there is very little land there not on government programs and that we can do whatever we want with. I can understand wanting to utilize and enjoy every inch of it! This land sits low, is muddy, holds water, and is ultimate fun for someone like me who likes being in those kind of wild places! I was climbing on downed trees to get to more phragmite, sinking in mud, and coo'ing over the vibrant greens of the mosses in this patch of my wilderness! I am one girl who's happiest when being covered in land stuff such as mud, dirt, etc. Not only do I get the healing of nature, but show that I have let nothing stand in my way of fighting for it. 💚

While I could have kept going, Woodchuck was ready to call it quits. He estimates that we cut off at least 40 seed heads, and that's good progress for our first time out there! While we intend on stopping out there tomorrow to take a leisurely walk around, we most likely won't work. Anything that had been wet and mushy before will now be icy and slippery. Maybe we will try and see what that thing is on the watershed pond though! Very soon we will be meeting our friends out there who haven't seen the land yet, and who secured some nice LED lights for us from a school gym that was upgrading. Woodchuck will use them in the barn. We also need to think about trimming the blueberry bushes, which we should be able to handle even in the mud and ice of the marshy land they are planted on.

We did also use our l day off last week, in the snow, to cut the front tree line here at home that people were complaining about. While we needed to cut close to 3 feet off to be in complete compliance with the ordinance, that would have taken the whole sides of the trees off. So we cut a foot and a half off and many of the highway department employees were driving past that day and saw us. So hopefully seeing the effort we made will be enough for everyone who had an issue. 🖕

Yet to be done: cutting down the black locust trees on the railroad property between our driveway and the train tracks, and then watch the Tree of Heaven to see if our efforts finally killed them. In the meantime, I have a burn pit full of white cedar cuttings that I am looking forward to burning and smudging the hell out of this place and anyone surrounding us. They will burn quickly, and will smell great, but it will be a show! 😇🔥

Summer into Fall

 I had to FORCE myself to sit down and work on this and it has still taken almost a week of working on it here and there to get it done! There is always so much to do that I'm having to pick one thing over another anytime I am home. For as much as I love writing, and sharing our adventures with you, there just isn't enough time in a day to squeeze everything in. So let's get going on the past month or so!

The work on the second ditch has stopped completely since we were moving full tilt ahead on the barn. I am SO GLAD that Woodchuck hired that crew that he did, because they were at the land to receive the metal and man door delivery, and they knocked out the roof for us too!

The rest was now up to us! My previous maintenance manager, now my friend, came to help us and he has been invaluable. Having another set of hands, his strength, and input on things moved this project forward in ways it never could have with just myself and Woodchuck. And it has been so nice spending time with him in a way that I never have before. One day he hopes to put up a barn too, so he's learning a lot along the way on ours.

The mornings are chilly and we had a bit of a cold snap, but overall we have been VERY lucky to have a mild Fall and little rain to hold up the work. We start our work mornings with lots of layers! In these pictures they are installing what's called the Rat Guard. It's the ledge that the sheets of metal siding will rest on.

This will be the view in the early mornings from the house (that is yet to be built). Once that sun moves over the clearing, we will start to warm up as long the winds aren't strong and cold.

The first sheet of metal is up!

Down a layer of clothing now that the sun is above us, and we have a half a wall! In the moments that they didn't need me, I foraged and wandered on the forest edges. What kind of gifts will the forest and Mother E show me?

I'd go back anytime they called me to help, and we had a nice lunch break with sandwiches and chips, and before you knew it, the whole back side was done!

Woodchuck and I went back a couple of evenings during the week to cut the metal for the sides, and get them lined up and ready on the ground. I had to wear ear protection because using a saw to cut metal is LOUD, and getting hit with all of those little pieces of fire hot metal pieces flying off of it while it's being cut HURTS. But I survived, and during any metal cutting while my friend was there, he stood in my place to give me a break. What a guy!

We had a large and adorable jumping spider that likes Woodchucks tool bag and a grasshopper that didn't listen to me to move before the saw turned on. He got the scare of his life, most likely.

Once the weekend came again, our friend came to help put the sides up! When we start, we don't have a very good system, but as time goes on we work one out. The guys would stand the metal up and my friend and I would hold it in place while Woodchuck went up on the ladder to put some screws in at the top. Then my friend would go up another ladder while I still held the bottom against the barn and they'd put in some screws at the upper half portion. Then we'd move on to the next panel and do that all the way across. Once we saw that it worked out and nothing needed tweaking, we'd finish putting all of the screws in, with me doing the ones at the bottom since I'm the shortest. Then it would be time to put the trip at the top, between the roof line and wall where they meet.

For some reason, Woodchuck thought that putting that trim on from the roof was a good idea. I told him earlier that morning that it wasn't, but Aries going to do what Aries going to do. Long story short, he fell at the peak of the roof (it's a 4/12 pitch, metal roofing, no stop-toe guards), slid down the roof and nearly right off of the barn. He was bruised, sore, and cut up from hitting the screw heads on his slide down, but thank goodness he's okay and that my friend was there to help keep the situation from being worse!

That was it for this trip! We always think we can knock something out fast and that's just not the case. We have been SO lucky to have had a mild Fall so far, otherwise we'd be much farther behind. So Woodchuck and I made another trip to the land on an evening during the following week, armed with stand lights since it gets dark so much earlier now. Those didn't work out the way we needed them to, but mostly it's because of Woodchuck's eyesight now. Did I mention that before in any posts? I can't even remember.

 He's going blind in one eye, might eventually in the other. He's been getting injections in the really bad one, has what is called Wet Macular Degeneration and he was losing his sight FAST. He needs a lot of light, and some times a magnifying glass, to be able to see things even remotely better than without using those things. But the stand lights we took only created more shadows for him. So before we messed up cutting the metal, or one of us got hurt, we called it quits on the evening.

We got about halfway across! It should only take one more trip to finish the sheet metal.

So we went out one more evening and the siding is done....though screws are a bit out of line in some spots. After about 6 hours, our brains shut down and I was miscalculating where the wood beams were at and putting screws just into metal, and his eyes were not focusing at all and he couldn't get a straight line of screws across, lol. Our saw blade was going dull and the cuts aren't as clean and pretty as we would have liked and are only covered so much by the trim. Of course that all had to happen on the FRONT of the barn! He said if it all bothers him enough, we'll redo things.

The doors have been ordered and should be in in the next couple of weeks! Weather and temps are still mild and there's corner trim to put up and some metal overhangs to trim while we wait. We've been pulling up to turkeys playing on the rocks piles and walking the forest edges! Woodchuck said he doesn't mind if they use it as shelter right now.

We also got to the phragmite at the watershed pond and I was SO stoked to finally be getting this project started!!! There aren't many projects out there I expect help from Woodchuck on, but this was one where I made no exceptions to his participation. With the area leading up to the pond being so overgrown, it being so marshy, and this being my first time working with phragmite, I felt for safety's sake that it was best to have him there with me.

I was so worried that I had missed my window of opportunity to treat it. Late October is usually the cut off, and if the plant was brown, all bets were off. I had been formulating a plan in my head for weeks, probably months, on how to go about this, and of course once the moment came there were things that I forgot to do. Like dilute the herbicide. SMH.

We were surprised at green phragmite and a very low water level still! I got to cutting and treating the a$$hole plants right away. My injection tool of choice:

Woodchuck stood back, though was a little nervous about me getting hurt, and offered help along the way. He ended up having to go back by the barn to get a piece of sheet metal leftover so that I could stand on that because it was still so mucky even though the water levels had receded so far. I got my left boot stuck in the mud for a couple of moments and pulled that right groin/hip area again trying to get it out. I also fell a couple of inches on to my ass while squatting and was unharmed though I had a slightly damp ass thereafter. 

It took a bit to get the hang of it, as there is an internal disc layer that looks a lot like bone marrow that I would have to punch through on some of them depending on where I cut them down at. The water levels were so low though, that the root system was exposed on most plants! Fascinating!

Overall, I was really happy that I got to work on this stand at all, but was disappointed that I couldn't treat all of it. Woodchuck estimates that I got to about 30% of what we could see right in this spot and although he said he can see the difference, I really can't. Before and after.

So. Now that the barn is caught up until the doors come in, we are talking about what to work on the meantime. There are SO many options! Keep working on the front treeline between the front CRP forest and road? Keep working on cutting up the fallen maple and the piles of branches pushed off to the side of the driveway? (this seems like the best thing to do seeing as he wants to start building the house next year and we should probably make sure that the drive is free and clear), pull the cut trees out of the front ditch (that will depend how wet it is in there with the recent downpour we just got and possibly a light rain happening right before we make it out there again), keep working on invasive plants on the edge of the second CRP forest, keep clearing invasive plants on the West side of the pond, keep clearing the back ditch since we are barely halfway through that? And whatever else we haven't thought of yet!

Ok, I have to stop thinking about it all, I'm getting overwhelmed......whatever we decide to do, I'll post pictures next time and hope it doesn't take me months to do the next posting ;) I estimate that we will be taking about 5 years to get the land back to what it should be. We are about a year and a half in at this point. Stay tuned!!!