My own private weed wrangle........and unexpected swamp

 I am so, so very far behind in my land work both at home and at the new property. With only one day a week to get the work done at both, and the weather being all over the place, I keep freaking myself out that I will never make any kind of measurable progress. If Nature had a corner, I'd be in it sucking my thumb and whimpering.

But. I forced myself into the side strip of land at my current residence when I got home from work on Saturday. Being stuck inside a stinky, dirty space 4-5 days a week with lots of people that could describe as the same, I'll take fresh air and nature any time I can get it now. You may recall from a previous posting that this land is a bit of an easement. We can use it, but the railroad can come at any time and do what they want with it. It's not large by any means, but just large enough to hold many PIA (pain-in-the-ass) invasive plants and trees that then make their way into my yard. I took this project on in the Spring of 2020 while recovering from shoulder surgery. Regular physical therapy wasn't doing everything it was supposed to, so Mother Nature provided me with her own.

I got home from work Saturday and hubby was still mowing the yard because they had worked out first. I assumed that dinner hadn't even been thought about yet, and he was supposed to cook it. I wasn't going to. Nope. Best to just stay outside and pretend that I wasn't hungry. As soon as I stepped on the border, a neighbor lit up a huge burn pile. Some curse words left my mouth, but I wasn't going inside! I'm tired of always having to work what I want to do around others while they are continually doing what they want to do. Luckily the smoke and smell wasn't too strong, and since it felt like Fall, I just kept telling my body that fires provide warmth.

Hubby and I chugged a beer while standing in the cold, under the trees, smelling crap burning; and did a quick catch up on our days. Then it was time to decide what to pull. I am SO glad I made myself get out there! The Dame's Rocket will be blooming soon and I always prefer to catch plants before that stage, making spreading seeds a little less likely. Some of the plants closest to the train tracks were large already! Up to my thighs, if not higher. Here are some pictures for reference.

There's my foot at the root and glove laying on the plant. I still have more to pull when I can get back out there!

I also noticed the most bizarre looking tree! Possibly cut, and not treated, when it was one trunk, it then most likely began to sprout again and grow into a few trees that are connected. Google Lens said it was a Siberian Elm, but I checked with a Nature group I belong to and someone mentioned that it might be a White Mulberry. HENCE, why I have said, please do not rely on one source to help you i.d. something! Don't be afraid to use several sources, it really does make a difference in getting a correct i.d. 

This tree is not a native one, and it has a grapevine wrapped around it as well that can kill trees. While it is not high on my list to take care of immediately, if I want this area to become more native, it will need to come down. And you know my artsy self, I can always use the wood for projects.

And yet another bizarre barked tree next to it that I still have yet to identify.

There's only a handful of trees/shrubs that I can identify with confidence. Familiarizing myself is the goal, and for me repetition is key. In anything I want to learn, I have to get exposed to the knowledge over and over again, and most times hands on situations are even better for me to learn. And then I have to keep that going or I will begin to forget what I have learned along the way. Don't feel bad if you can't identify everything you see, or do it at the drop of a hat. We all start somewhere, we all have different ways of learning and remembering. Just that we are willing to at all speaks volumes.

Sunday morning, Mothers Day, found us several hours into a wicked rain. It was in the forecast to possibly be mixed with snow, and 30 MPH gusts of wind. While I was really craving being outside, and on my new land, I admit that I was not feeling it being outside in that kind of weather. I don't mind the rain at all, but I can't handle the wet, cold weather. It makes my body hurt so badly, and frankly, I've had enough body pain in the last year and half. Thank you, very much.

We debated. Should we go? We both had projects to work on, and mine, in working with invasive plants, are always time sensitive. Mother Nature creates my timeline for me. Let's do it, I said. We'll last out there as long as we'll last out there. And so we donned our three layers of clothing, thinking that we had outsmarted the elements again. And found out soon enough that we are but mere wannabe's. 

Once again hubby went about his own projects, completely ignoring that I needed to show him some things in the woods that we might need to address. I am used to his Aries ways "ME! ME! It's all about Me!" and trekked out into the forest, completely drenched within minutes before I even arrived in it. I had wondered how much cover the trees would provide? None. They offered none in that particular forest. I knew my time out there on this day was quickly dwindling.

 I upgraded my gloves from a previous wet and cold day out there, only to have them soaked immediately and freezing on to my hands in the cold winds. It wasn't long before I couldn't feel my fingers, couldn't move them and grasp onto anything. Well shit. That makes working a tad difficult. I also don't have a metal yard work cart on wheels yet, so I have to carry the large garbage bags of weeds and garbage everywhere. Hard but doable in nice weather, but on this day? There was no way. 

I found the area I had left off in last time and began pulling garlic mustard again. The forest there was surface wet, but otherwise normal. I found the most precious morel mushroom. I can picture gnomes and pixies! I did not pick it, this one belongs to them. 💚

 

It didn't take long before the rain started soaking through to my second layer of clothing. It was so cold, I could see my breath and it became increasingly difficult to use my hands. A bit later hubby showed up in the row I was in and asked if I could help by standing at the next property line marker. He was working to clear the dead branches from around the perimeter so we could walk without getting bitch-slapped by the trees, which happens at least once a trip and hurts more on cold skin, BTW. or there's the ever fun branch thwack to the chest when you've followed too closely the person in front of you. I helped for a tad and then headed back to the area I was working in, but I still needed to locate the Lily of the Valley and see if I could pull it before it blooms. With my strength getting less and less, and now starting to shiver, I needed to move on.

There is what we....wait, what I refer to as "the path". My husband refers to it as the road, which causes all kinds of confusion because I think he's talking about the main road, traveled by car. This is a path on our land, that the seller traveled by foot and golf cart and that we travel by foot. I refuse to get a golf cart. Why, you ask? There's a story for that. Sit back, dear reader, and travel back in time with me.

Back to when I worked at the county parks.

I worked various positions, initially starting with a Nature Center attendant at one of the three parks, then as a fill-in for the maintenance at the main park and then also a fill-in in the office at the main park. How do you get around quickly? Loud, obnoxious machinery. While I preferred to walk, distance to cover and time was a factor. One time, when I was filling in, again, for the park at a 5th grade field day event, a co-worker had driven the golf cart there to a little ways out by the pond....and ran over a beautiful, young snake. The kids saw the snake alive and panicked and instead of using the moment to teach them about nature, what species the snake was, etc. it was poo-poo'd. And then at the end of the day, I saw her accidently run him over. My point being that when you're on machines, you can't see what's underfoot. You can't side-step creatures or plants. 

I was so heartbroken for the little thing and when I was by myself at the end of the day, I placed it on a little dirt hill, surrounded it with flowers, and said a little farewell. Any time I find creatures killed, I try to send them off, just in case they didn't make it on their own. Hopefully another creature was able to benefit at least. But I never could understand such noisy, intrusive machines in places that are so beautiful. Humans have such an odd way at times of fighting everything and "taking care of" and interacting with nature. I eventually left that job. For various reasons.

Memory field trip complete! Let's get back to the land.

The path was holding a little water in spots, to be expected. Ruts, possible natural topography, etc. But the farther along I got, the more wet it got. No big deal. The land needs to be what it needs to be and if there are time that we can't walk it, so be it. For some reason, the back part of the ditch is always holding more water and I can't figure out why and if that's ok. This ditch is less deep than the front one, but it keeps making me think that something is blocking the waterflow somewhere. I'll have someone check into it, at least if this one overflows, it goes onto the watershed on one side and the 2nd CRP forest on the other side, not where our house will be, but then that brings up a whole other set of questions: is that ok to happen and healthy for the watershed to have the ditch overflow onto it? And down the rabbit hole we go!

 This second picture is me standing on the path, looking towards the watershed. You can see an animal path that has been used to cross. 

And then I turned again into the CRP forest, farther West and North from where I had started. And was shocked.

The CRP forest had turned into a swamp, a bog, something other than it was at all other times we've seen it. It was holding water like you wouldn't believe. So deep in some spots, it was up to my ankles. Thank goodness I listened to hubby for once and wore my rain boots. I was completely unprepared to see that. We have walked that land numerous times, before and after purchasing, after rain, snow melt, and it has never even had a puddle in it. Funny how the seller and realtor were trying to talk us into building a house in that particular forest. For various reasons, we would not even entertain that idea, but imagine if we had planned on that! The Lily of the Valley that I needed to pull? In inches of water, and a couple of them are getting ready to bloom. I had to keep moving though. I was now soaked down through my underwear and needed to get out of the elements.

One up side to being out there on this day and in this kind of weather, is that it enabled me to see that several trees are foaming at the base. The downside was, I didn't think to mark those trees until after I got home. But I will give the forester a heads up and then mark them when I see them foaming again. It can be a sign of bacteria in the tree, possibly brought on my drought stress that caused a crack somewhere and the bacteria got in. Referred to as fluxing or alcohol flux or frothy flux, it is said that you can smell the scent of beer. I did not, but I was distracted by how freezing cold I was. Mmmmm, beer.

So I learned a lot about the land on this day, in uncomfortable circumstances though it may have been. We were so cold that I had to sit in my car with my hands on the heat vents in order to eventually wrap them around the steering wheel to drive. We have a very large Marathon gas station around the corner, on the main highway, and we'll stop there for gas or snacks on the way home most times. They carry Fingerhut bakery items, pricey, but yummy. I was too cold to even stop for those.

And then I found a pair of waterproof, insulated work gloves that I bought from work to be able to use on days like this. A lot of good they did me sitting in my library bag at home. Lesson number million six hundred and thirty nine learned! 😉

Let the invasive plants battle begin!

 It was time, on this last trip to the land, to start tackling the invasive plants in the CRP forests. During each walk we took when we went there, I was making a mental note of what was where and thought I had a pretty good plan on how much time it would take, in what order I should work, etc. Nope.

It was a beautiful day on Sunday! Close to 80 and sunny, light winds. My guys had their projects they were working on and not only did I not want to be anywhere around that, I had my own goals for the day. Specifically garlic mustard and Lily of the Valley removal. Anything else outside of that was just bonus.

Because the land is large and we are still learning its boundaries and our way around, we all make sure to have our cell phones on us. Luckily, so far, we've always been able to have a signal out there. We also tell each other where we plan to be, how we plan to get there. That way if we don't come back, the others can come looking for us. My goal was to hit the CRP forest first, since that's the most important to upkeep, but got sidetracked by the little area that skirts around the pond that we have to struggle through to get around to the other side of the land. Way more garlic mustard than I thought there would be, as well as purple dead nettle. I just could not take the time on this day to pull the dead nettle, I have to pick and choose my battles when it is only me tackling these things. Because the garlic mustard was already blooming, I needed to get it out. And carefully.

I have read various techniques and protocols that people have used to remove it, especially while it's blooming, because you don't want to spread the seeds. But I was taught to have a black bag with you to throw it into right away, and handle it gently. It is typically super easy to pull, especially when you grab at the base, but the larger it gets some times the root base gets thick and is a little more difficult. Garlic mustard changes the soil chemicals where it grows, making nothing else beneficial grow there. A non-native from Europe and parts of Asia, it can be eaten, potentially has some medicinal effects, and has spread like wildfire. You may have noticed many park system holding "weed wrangles", where they ask the public to help pull it. I consider myself that I will likely only have a few bags full.

 With the recent rains and humidity, the purple dead nettle is standing tall. This spreading ground cover is up for debate among nature and wildlife lovers. It's extremely invasive, but also provides some of the first of Spring foods for pollinators. I just couldn't take the time on it today.

While in this area next to the main pond, I was able to find some interesting things, which of course captured my attention and kept me even longer out of the CRP forests. A new den, yet to identify who lives there. Very small though and I got one tiny foot print. Mink?

I am also still finding garbage throughout the lands. I had to crawl and struggle through various thorns to reach the edge of the pond and remove a couple of plastic beverage containers. This one was left by a fisher, notice the fishing line?

I needed to stop what I was doing in this spot. Time was ticking and I needed to get to the forest. Things were so much more rampant there than I had expected. I ended up picking two large lawn and leaf bags of plants, and then some more garbage.

The guys found me to take a walk around the land so our son could see it all. I warned him that it was wild, not easy to get through in some spots. Hubby was in such a hurry to walk that I kept getting left behind. My little legs can't go fast through all that theirs can. The watershed is so humid and hot with the sun blazing down that I got overheated, vowing never to walk with hubby again out there. I did manage to finally get a decent picture of the WRP (watershed preserve) pond. The frogs really like this one.

Once the walk was done, we went back to our projects and I was unable to get all the plants pulled and found more patches of the Lily of the Valley than what had been there before. I also cursed at the large barberry that was planted by the main pond.

I did allow myself moments of peace there on the land. There are certain parts of the forests that feel alive and so good, other parts feel barren. Even though this spot doesn't look like much in the photo, it felt so alive and intense and made me feel wonderful and at peace.

I found many feathers along the way...blue jay, crow, cardinal...lots of various kinds of fungi (which I always get excited by! This one is cup fungi, pezizacaea)......and I foraged for gifts for a friend. The first I found on the land will be dried and worked into a piece of art for when we build our house.

Of course, my next trip there has already been planned out. More invasive removal, check for more garbage and evidence of human trespassing, and then if that gets done with time to spare, I need to start marking invasive trees/shrubs/bushes on the non-program land for removal once we have a tractor. Again, so far it's just little ol' me figuring this out, but I am guided by my ancestors and the nature spirits! 💚

My first interaction on the land with the NRCS

 I have to admit that being the new owner of 15 acres feels a little daunting, but being the new owner of 15 acres-nearly all of which is in land programs-is slightly terrifying. I had to meet up with the NRCS there on Wednesday to talk about viable options for an ingress/egress easement. What does that mean? Simply, a way for them to get to the watershed. Because the watershed is a bit land-locked and there's a ditch that runs through the center of the land, access to the watershed by vehicle is tricky. But I am here not only to learn from them and take care of the land as best I can, but to also make it easy for them to do their job there as well. We all have the same goal.

I picked up some more garbage while I waited for them to arrive, and checked out the shipping container that we had delivered last week. I was struck by the temperature difference though this land is only 20 minutes from my current home. I left home with a fleece-lined sweatshirt and was chilly, but then I got to the land and it was humid! By the time we were half way on the walk, I had sweat dripping down my back! The watershed, although breezy, is SO hot when the sun is out.

 Although the NRCS wasn't there just to give me plant i.d.'s, they did their best to help me out along the way of things that I had not been able to identify yet on my own. They are really awesome people, wanting the same goal as those of us who choose to have their land in a land program. Although that was the initial decision of the seller, and the program is permanent, it is a responsibility that we gladly took over. They confirmed that I do have a lot of Autumn Olive growing on the watershed preserve, and there's a couple of small flowering trees out there that have not been identified yet. I am a standstill on removing large invasive plants/trees from anywhere on the land until June when we get our tractor.

They were able to help me identify this flowering dogwood, something I had been waiting anxiously to find! Sadly, it is not on my land, but right on the border next to land the seller stills owns. So maybe some day. 

Because we don't have a tractor yet and Spring is upon us and making things wake up, some areas were difficult and painful to walk through. Many things with thorns! Though, I nearly walked right past plant when one of the NRCS managers pointed out that this is bee balm. Although I would have been to identify it once it flowered, I never would have guessed it now. So interesting to see how different plants look along their growing life, but it can lead to a lot of frustration as well.

I took them to the patch of the Golden ragwort. There really was no reason to other than to share my excitement. They were gracious enough to allow the little detour. As you can see, the deer--or some other animal--walked right the center and broke the tape. I will clean it up when I am there next. The tape was just to keep humans from tromping through them. I have found a couple of strays of these plants along a walking path in a spot far away from these as well.

This crazy thing, I caught just out of the corner of my eye! Located in a small tree growing out of the ditch along the main pond, I was really hoping it was not a spiders cocoon of some sort. I'm a nature girl, but that would have been terrifying. Turns out it could possibly be Tent Worms and there was a bit o' debate in the Nature group I belong to as to remove them or not. The tree they are growing in is a volunteer (meaning, it wasn't planted) black cherry tree, a native tree but considered by some to be of low quality use to humans. I wasn't planning on using the tree or it's fruit, so I wouldn't take out for that reason. The location they are in makes it darn near impossible to remove them unless we want to use a tree pole saw and pretty much kill the tree. This is the only nest of them I have found so far, so I am not worried about them killing off our forests. The worms, once emerged, are a good food source for birds, and so for those reasons, they get to stay. And thank Gawd it wasn't spiders. Could you imagine?! 👀

And I noticed a lot of violets coming up there, though not as many as on my current property. Most of what I see is the dark variety, but this new property of ours has a light lilac colored variety and they are lovely little bits! 

It was a great time, again on the land! I learned a lot, got some plant i.d.'s, met a couple of great new people, and although I'm still overwhelmed, I am ready to tackle this! Turns out that I can start to remove invasive plants from the CRP immediately, so that is on my plan for the next trip out! Who am I kidding...removing invasives is probably going to be on my plan every time I go there!

Getting back to the land

 I can't believe it's been since last Summer since I've written! I've fully recovered from my shoulder surgery now, but also had two other surgeries since. November 2020 was a hysterectomy and January 2021 was a gallbladder removal. I spent many months sick before that thing was taken out. I feel great now, am 30 pounds lighter, working a new job since my previous one didn't call me back and I've hit the ground running.

Hubby and I recently purchased our retirement property. 15 acres of watershed preserve and CRP forests, with a tiny little strip and large pond that are not on any land programs. I feel like all of the volunteering, reading, and work the past few years have prepared me for this beautiful responsibility and we are truly honored! It's going to be a lot of hard work, especially since the land hasn't been completely taken care of for up to the last 10-15 years, but we are ready! I am no expert, but my heart is in the right place to take care of Mother Nature, and I will document our adventure here!

Yesterday was our first work day at the land as its official owners! Once again the weather was cold. I had 3 pairs of pants, three sweatshirts, gloves, hiking boots, etc. and I was still chilly in the winds! Since we had to stop at the home improvement store for landscaping timbers, I grabbed a hat there. $20, damn! But it had lights on the forehead, and was the only warm hat they had available. Hubby said I looked like Mantis, just with nubs. At some point I think we may need to invest in an old pick-up truck. We used to have one many years ago, but needed the extra cash when the boys were little and we sold it. The improvement store doesn't rent trucks anymore. But for now, we make the cars work!

Then we stopped at a shipping container business to check out what hubby ordered. Why in the world he felt the need for a 40 footer instead of one of the smaller ones is beyond me, but I have to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope that doesn't come back around to bite us later 😉 I really like the teal color....he does not. I feel it is a great compromise! He gets the 40 footer and I get the color I like (not like I picked it, was all they had).

Once we made it to the land, it was time to get projects going. Woodchuck started setting barriers to keep people off of the land. The chopsticks didn't last long and he had to make another trip to the home improvement store.

While Woodchuck was toiling away on his projects, I was hitting the one part of the land not enrolled in a land program. That means I can go in and start cleaning it up without permission from one of the land agencies. The Asian/Oriental Bittersweet, Asian and Bush Honeysuckle and Autumn Olive have taken over. 

The thing about Asian/Oriental Bittersweet that is notable is how pliable and flexible it is. Identifiable from grapevine by how it twists on itself, taught to me by a dear friend of mine when I mistakenly identified it as grapevine. Each wrap itself around a tree not just on the trunk but around each branch as well. Invasive plant species compete with our natives for sunshine, water and nutrients, but the light is the winner in most cases. Each plant starts at the ground and reaches for the sunshine and because invasive are so prolific, they will eventually win and kill whatever species they are competing with.

 As with most other invasive species, we do have a native one. Yes, there is a native bittersweet, but as the story has repeated many times, we usually only find the invasive one. I do not know with 100% certainty which bittersweet this is, but I do know with 100% certainty that it will kill the birch it is wrapped around, so I am removing it all. Because the bittersweet is so pliable and flexible, I was literally able to unwrap it by hand from the branches. Because I was not able to reach all that was higher up in the tree, I had to leave it for now until I go back with a ladder. The main thing was to cut it as close to the ground as I could, and I get so into my work that I also try to pull the root system. If you have worked with Virginia Creeper before, you know what I am talking about. Here are some close-ups of the Bittersweet.

Since this was my first time out this season, I have to build up my stamina....and eat a bigger breakfast, LOL. I spent many hours working on this corner, though nobody else but me could probably see the difference! It will take years to get the land back to it's healthy, native self. So, after we took a water and protein bar break, we went for a walk! We walk not only to familiarize ourselves with the land and the boundaries, but to also let others know that we are here now, and each time we walk the land we find some thing new! 

I had been watching this tiny area of what I was hoping were some native flowers. I have watched week after week to see them progress, waiting to be able to identify them. It amazes me about how on so much land, there can be one tiny spot of something that you won't find anywhere else on the acreage. What was a few plants initially with flower buds on them now is a small patch and they are flowering! Golden Ragwort is what they are, and I'm kind of geeked out about them!

While out on the vast watershed preserve, I found some garbage. Beverage containers and Mylar balloons. Anyone who knows me, or has some of my previous blog postings, knows that I am against littering, and balloons. While I respect that someone is grieving the loss of a loved one, the balloons don't make it to Heaven. They blow, they land and have injured and killed numerous domestic and wild animals. And sky lanterns. Lord, Gawd, don't get me started on those! I made a mental note that any time I go out and walk the land, I will need a bag with me because the garbage is making it into the deepest part of the woods, and out on to the middle of nowhere in the watershed preserve.

You can see that some small animal has been chewing away at this plastic milk container. It breaks my heart to think of what is going on its stomach and how it might be feeling after eating so much of this. And then what about the predator of this animal? It will eat this animal, plus the plastic it has been ingesting. I should only be finding natural things like these shown below on my watershed preserve and in my forests.

Hubby and I had to pass a business in a castle and now I can't get him to stop obsessing about wanting to build a castle in the woods to live in. Um. No. Look, I love castles! But there is something about gray blocks that just don't inspire me to want to live the rest of my days out in them. Now a Fairytale house is more like it! And maybe we could incorporate some aspects of the castle look into one of those. I suppose we should check to see if there are some guidelines about the type of house that county will let us build. But no castle. Just no.

Now I have to figure out how to take care of two pieces of property. Luckily the land I currently live on is less than an acre! But I am still fighting the same non-native invasives and agressive natives here at the homestead that I started fighting last year. Tree of Heaven (my treatment of them last Fall failed), Dame's rocket, honeysuckle, soap wort, garlic mustard. What a complete pain in the ass. 

Although there are so many things that I love about my current home, I find myself wondering about the land. So many first to be had there! I stepped outside last night to photograph the moon and pay my respects to her, and found myself wondering what our land looks like under her bright light. I also need to come up with a name for the land. I am sure the more time I spend out there, the more likely a name will come to me. Right now, I just refer to it as "the land". That won't do at all.