Throw it down and walk away

We have had some hard decisions to make recently. About the land, about retirement, about building a home. We are no closer to an answer, the right one at that. We even toyed with the idea of filling in the main pond, or selling the land and starting over. A quick online research of property for sale, with or without homes, showed me that that would be an asinine thing to do at this point, and it didn't take us 20 years to find this property because we had so many options to choose from! If we were to sell it, we would be back at the start with no other viable options for getting out of the this house and into nature and our forever home. So the obsessing and worrying continues.

As we continue the back and forth between Winter and Spring, and are finally in the woods of whatever hellish virus we caught, we continue to do the little bits that we can. I have spent more time than I should trying to finish these pumpkin earrings. I usually have to start over no less than three times. First one is done! Just need to trim the threads and put on the ear hook.

Although Woodchucks intentions were good, and goals lofty, he indeed did not meet the goal of getting our sons bathroom completely remodeled before his surgery (which I am taking him to in about an hour). Plus, with me not being there to see the little things, he didn't notice that some of the older plaster has mold on it. So that will all need to be torn out. Maybe he was going to tear it out anyway, but he seemed surprised when I sent the pictures of the mold.

Those are some wide boards! This is the area where the exhaust fan will go. Woodchuck said that there's still asphalt shingle-style siding on the house too!

They picked up the drywall already, so just a tad more demo to do, then wiring for the exhaust fan and some replacement wiring for other things that might not be up to code and are a fire hazard.

While the bathroom is on hold for now, we are making quick stops at the land. An important stop was to cage the front arborvitae that we planted last year and that have been stripped by the wildlife. I don't know that these cages will make a difference, but I had to try some thing.

We also got the chain unwrapped that the neighbor wrapped around a small tree. It took both of us to get it unwrapped.

I saw my first bluebird of the season out there! Not my picture, found this one online. I had to use it to help me decipher if it was a bluebird or blue bunting. I can never remember which is which.

I had a follow up with my GP for some lab and I was feeling freshly sick and thinking we had the flu. They tested me for the flu and Covid and both came back negative. He said that a lot of people were coming in thinking they had the flu and it ended up not being that, just some virus. Yeah well, the "just some virus" was a beast and kicked our butts. Back when I was growing up, you could tell if you had the flu or a cold. Now all of the lines are blurred.

On another trip to the land, we placed markers at the edge of the pond where about 4-6 inches of land is getting ready to slump in. I want visuals. I want proof that others can see that I am not making shit up, and this is not something to ignore. We have ONE WAY to get to other side of the property with the tractor, and we can't lose this land to slumping anymore. At some point I'm going to get tired of being ignored and treated like a stupid girl and I will take charge, but for right now, I am giving others the chance to step up and do the right thing.

With the "Spring" thaw and rains, water levels are high all over. It's a beautiful day though, with mirrored skies in the water.

My hips/legs/ankles were feeling well enough to finally walk the watershed and grab those trail cam SD cards and get eyes on the land. I am always amazed at how many Oothecas I find. On this trip it was three of them.

My eyes are constantly scanning. I'm afraid if I keep looking down too much, I will miss something higher up. These views, for instance.

The sandhill cranes are on the move into the area again, though we have never seen any at our land.

Hello, Mr. Blue Sky!

We thought we would also try and get over along the watershed pond too. I had to be really careful not to slip. These tractor tire marks are always here now, but I can see the watershed pond levels have nearly reached them.

Indeed, I was able to establish that the newest flooding issue we have is because the watershed pond overflowed on the lowest land side. That tree would normally be on dry land, and it is now an island and surrounded by water. We passed that information along to the company that is working to fix the main pond and the flooding to the side of it.

I am so grateful to have seen the pussy willows get their fuzzies! One of my favorite trees since I was a child, I thought I had missed them this year, but they were there waiting for me! 

We refer to this flooded area now as "the third pond", and the ducks are loving it.

The water meal already started back on the warmer days, with what looks like tree bud chafings mixed in.

We feel like we are in limbo right now, but I also feel like everything is happening as it should.

Satisfied that we could do all that we could on this trip, we headed home for showers and dinner. We made the last of the Pierogi up, and in case you ever wondered why we named our cat Pierogi, here's a picture for reference.

I have been itching to get back to creating. I decided to take advantage of the sunlight we get coming in through the East bedroom window! It was short-lived, but glorious.

I always love when we go to the land and hear ducks. After seeing a crane take off from the edge of the water, we could hear ducks (a male and female mallard)....but then also...

Geese. They are not our favorite to have there, but we understand the draw of the water to them. They don't stay long, and honestly, with so much mud, I don't know that they will try and nest again (so far, in five years, they have never had babies).

This was our last trip back to the land before Woodchucks sinus surgery, and the weather was once again beautiful. On this trip, things with the house idea were really coming to a head. A decision needed to be made, or I need out from under this weight. But not just any decision, the smartest one that we can make that will ensure our comfort in retirement, and ability to afford to live at the land. So we walked and talked. The flood waters continue to rise. Have I ever told you about the floods in Louisiana? When we lived there for a bit when I was in pre-K, we lived on a road that ran along the Amite River. And gator danger and contamination be damned, we swam in the flood waters! With the hips and ankles I have now, I am not even walking in this water! 😂

There's nothing quite like sunlight reflected on shimmering waters.

We decided to sit and watch and listen and dream and talk. Such a pivotal time it is! Still recovering from hip surgery, both of us still recovering from something viral, do we keep the land or sell it? Do we move forward with the original house plan, or change that? I know the answer is coming. I just need to keep my hands off and my wants out, while also being a voice of reason. It will all work out.

I could snuggle up and take a nap right here, but Woodchuck says I have to wait until we are living out there, and this bench is used by a squirrel for a dinner table. So, I guess that means that my relaxation time is over.

Between the virus and my autoimmune stuff, the sun is hurting my eyes. But I'm grateful that it's out!

We made a couple of trips to Bailey's Discount Center down in North Judson, for things for us and for our youngest who has been talking about moving out but still hasn't followed through with looking at places yet. The sandhill cranes LOVE that area! Fields and skies full of them!

While we are all grateful for the sun and slightly warmer temps, they fueled some intense storms. I can see the front moving in as we left the discount center to head home.

This is not my picture, but shows what a storm chaser caught. It hit about 20-30 minutes South of us, in the area that we had been shopping in. The lightening, winds, and pouring rain that we had here at home were INSANE. Tornado and severe weather sirens were going off, but we never lost power. I had a video for you to see that showed the intense lightening we had, but I couldn't get it to load.

Pierogi doesn't like storms, but was really brave this time! I could tell when it picked up in intensity because that's when she went and hid in the corner. Once the storm threat passed, she was exhausted and went face first into the blanket!

It took me awhile to type this up, and some decisions have been made about the land and housing! So stay tuned, the next post will updates about that stuff!

Fake Spring again and again

 February, the month of L💓ve, and my birthday! I actually can't stand when this comes around, for a couple of reasons. Number one, I'm grown now. Sigh. It's not the age or the number or the aging process itself that bothers me, it's the lack of.....celebration. You know, the kind of celebration that we had as a kid. I am a firm believer that there a lot of things, joyous things, that should not stop just because we become adults! It's my goal to start surrounding myself with people and things that "get it". Number two, my grandmothers birthday is a day before mine, and we always celebrated together. Now that she's gone, it's missing another part of the joy in that way. Number three, February birthdays can be tough as far as weather goes, and since we've already crammed 365 days of shit, bullshit, and piles of shit into the first two months of 2026, I am ready to blow right past this and get to Spring--TRUE Spring--already.

My creative brother sent me a most wonderful birthday package filled with things that truly represent me, me as the Pisces, and my birthstone color of purple. He made the moth suncatcher, and I am obviously having issues with my picture program because it didn't load all of the way. It's a lovely lilac color!

 

There is also this beautiful rose box that has pixie lights in it and a drawer that had a crystal heart necklace (that picture didn't load for some reason.) 

Woodchuck finally remembered to take pictures of the demo process of our oldest sons bathroom, but only the after shots though. This was after he took out the vanity, and the vintage mirror/medicine cabinet. 

While he goes to work on the bathroom for an hour or two every night after work, we do have to try and get to the land once a week right now. We noticed the neighbor to the North of us put up this property barrier, and we thought that was odd because we already had the yellow chain up. We wondered if maybe they found someone trespassing?

And then we noticed that they moved our chain and wrapped this tree. Look, I can understand that properties were divided in a wonky way (story of my life for the past 26 years!), but I am looking forward to showing my neighbors that I am not here to cause anyone problems. We are quiet and respectful, and if anyone needs anything, they can come ask! 

He put a row of t-bars down the center of the path that is the property line. We thought it was supposed to be more to the right, closer to their trees. if not, this royally screws us because this is the main path for us to get in and out of the back forest on this side, and is the path that the white pines keep growing on that we have to take out. The previous neighbor was really nice about understanding that kind of stuff. Things are starting to get complicated with neighbors/property lines and that is absolutely what we didn't want to buy into here since we've had nothing but issues with our current location the past 26 years. We really want good relationships with all of our new neighbors, open communications, and common courtesy (which seems to be a dying thing everywhere anymore). Maybe once we get to know each other, we can ask if we can mow this path occasionally to keep those trees under control and when he sees we have no ulterior motives, it will all be ok!

This is why I leave dead wood sometimes....all creatures need to be able to live their lives in their most natural way, but honestly? I feel like this picture represents my life well right now, lol. Decaying, rough, full of holes, and ready to topple over.

For the week of my birthday, I made some quick and yummy pecan chocolate chip cookies. I was hoping they'd last to my birthday, but the recipe made a very small batch for a house with three adults--one of which is a growing young man. 😂

I have been working through my brain fog and menopause brain-scatter to start getting projects finished up again. This was the Valentine gnome from the library program and I finally wrapped up the loose ends of trimming the top tassels, gluing beads to the tip of each one, and then trimming the beard. It is tucked away now in the Valentine decor tote, and it's hard to believe that the next time it comes out, we will be in the new house.

I broke out the annual birthday leggings that a friend got me as kind of a joke, but I wear them every year now for my birthday.

I am posting these next photos out of order since I'm having so many issues with my photos program right now. Our most recent trip to the land, while Woodchuck was really sick with upper respiratory issues/flu, flooding is even more prevalent. With several straight days of rain ahead, we know it will only get worse and all we can do right now is let nature take its course. At some point, this will all get figured out, and yet, some of it just needs to be left alone so nature can do what nature does. This area was where the phragmite was, that also led into a plethora of vegetation that included a lot of red twig dogwood. With the watershed pond overflowing its edges (it really doesn't have banks), and with no vegetation in this area now, the flooding is much more noticeable.

To think that I was able to walk far beyond that pallet at one point to treat the phragmite! The water is now also all the way up to the entry of this area. And here we thought we had moved the pallet farther away from the water than was necessary, lol.

We are losing sunlight, and Woodchuck is losing steam.

We are very close to the next full moon, and with Mercury in Retrograde, the ride has been rough.

We came back to the land this day to get measurements for septic laterals that the guy said we could run in the forest, that way we never have to worry about machinery driving over the exposed area that was the original proposed spot for them.

I had questioned if we would have enough room? Honestly, I don't know. These guys keep changing what they are saying, throwing out changing numbers, and I have no idea if things are possible, not possible, going to cost extra because we have to do some special something or other, or if we will, actually, be able to make this dream come true of building a home AND being able to afford to live in it once it's built. Silly me and all of my "what if's"! 

I don't know what these little things are, so we will call them potatoes for the wee folk. Honestly, I think they are cocoons, but once again my post in a bug group has gone unanswered. The indifferent SOB's. I need to know what these little potatoes hold!!! (shaking my fist). I found them on branches, bark, and this post. I am sure there are hundreds more that I didn't see.

But here's a palette cleaner from my rage for you. I was finally able to hobble over to the newest trail cam that we have by the pond and is one of the lowest set ones. The wildlife have been using that area a lot, a super highway, if you will. There was also images of the fox too, but they were too blurry. I don't want that coyote to leave the land, but I also don't want to come face to face with it!

One of the Valentine/Birthday gifts I bought myself was an all natural lip balm in a paper tube. I have VERY sensitive lips and everything makes them peel. This thing was expensive. I normally would not have paid the price, but I'm on a rose kick right now, and I needed something.....so $9 plus tax got shelled out and here I am writing a grumble about the Humble lip balm. Hmph. It is not moisturizing enough, I can't tell it is rose, I have to use a finger to push and continue to hold the balm up from the bottom and in order for to go back down, I either have to use my finger to push it back down (ew), or just put the lid back on and it falls back down. Not terrible, but different than what I am used to and overall, I just don't think this was worth the money. So the search continues!

I've also tried a new moisturizer for night and a tinted, SPF one for day. And both inflamed my Rosecea. How do I deal with genetics that are Native American and LOVE being outside in the sun, and Irish who have fair skin and the Curse of the Celts (Rosecea)? EVERYTHING irritates my skin anymore, and when I get sick? I may as well just put a bag over my head, but that would irritate it too. I've tried oils, heavy creams, light creams, medicated creams, herbal stuff, just rinsing, avoiding putting anything on my cheeks at all, numerous sunscreens developed for sensitive/irritated/red skin, etc. Woodchuck and I talk a lot now about how the more I try and get healthy, eat healthy, use healthy skin products, the worse I get. I can't tell if my body is clearing itself out, or rebelling. Taking into account my sassy nature, I have to lean towards rebelling. I too have lashed out and rebelled when all someone was trying to do was help me, and now my skin is serving the Karma.

Even though Woodchuck and I have the crud right now....the flu? upper respiratory infection? All of it? We are heading to the land to finish caging the front arborvitae against the forest dwellers a.k.a deer, and maybe finishing fixing the turn signal issue in the steering column of the truck. Maybe. We will see how we are feeling. But we have several days of rain coming, his next day off sees us at his pre-op appointment, and soon after, he has his surgery. Mercury is in Retrograde, a full moon is tomorrow, we have the crud, it's back to weird temps but will get GLORIOUS at the time of his surgery (because Murphy's Law), and my friends, I need a baseball bat and a rage room. All made worse by the fact that we finished watching Stranger Things and I didn't want it to end! So traumatized.