The Lessons

 I've been wanting to write for a couple of weeks now, and when I logged in I was surprised to see that it only has been over a month since I wrote last. It feels like much longer! 

This Summer, this year, has been something else and I'm already exhausted just barely past the halfway mark of the year. The stores are putting out their Halloween and Fall items, and the resale shop that I work at is switching over to putting out Winter clothing. All while we've had 90 degrees days. It's just so hard for me to even want to TOUCH a sweater right now. 😬

Woodchuck continues to excel in his shoulder surgery recovery and we meet back up with his surgeon tomorrow to see how progress is going. Me? My fixed shoulder has something going on with it. It started as a painful tight pinching feeling and now has progressed to numb fingers and forearm and a sore tricep at times. I'm still continuing to do all of my therapy at home for my shoulder and hip and pelvic floor muscles. I went from working two jobs 6 days a week to an abrupt departure from the seasonal full-time job on July 19th. 

Long story short, we were being treated very, very badly by our boss. I was spending days out in the field crying, my co-workers were calling off and morale was in the dumps and we were becoming scared of the boss. One on one talks with her failed to change the treatment and after one explosive (the boss) morning, I tried to remove myself from the property and situation and she prevented me from leaving. I tend to learn my lessons the hard way. I tend to stay too long in unhealthy situations. I had a plan to take care of my family. I reminded myself every day that the job was temporary and that I could do this! Until I just couldn't anymore. Until it got so bad and I felt so accosted, that I had to walk away from nearly the only income I have. The job at the resale shop is one day a week right now, and she was not willing to give more hours at this time

So, because I was so physically trashed and mentally and emotionally drained, Woodchuck and I decided that I would take a couple of weeks off to recover before jumping back into full-time work. Because myself and my co-workers all left the job at the same time, we missed out on significant income and what was our only or main incomes. That means I didn't have the amount of money saved up for our sons tuition that I thought I would have at this point. Plus, there was an issue in the business office and the raise I was supposed to have been given was not enacted and I had to send emails about that today as well. There's much more to it, but there are some investigations happening into the situations we had to put up with, and I don't want to say too much until it's all said and done.

The purpose of this anyway was to voice my frustration with humans right now. And with myself. I really liked my co-workers, and now that we don't see each other every day and we've had to quickly switch gears, it's been a bit harder for us to stay in touch with each other. That's pretty much how it goes, right? Out of sight, out of mind. Eventually more and more time will pass between correspondences and before you know it I won't hear from them again unless I initiate it and some times not even then. People are busy, don't you know? 

We had so many deep conversations out there in nature, while learning about and nurturing what was growing around us. I am so grateful for the time I had there with them, and all of the things that I learned that I can put to use out on our land. I made a comment to my co-worker that I worked with often that I often see the good things in people, and eventually get burned by the bad things in them. And this situation ended up being no different. But I was me through and through and I was hardworking and kind and patient. That is never a loss.

It struck me though one day while I was out in the pumpkin and squash patch that humans act like they are so superior. Who are we, really, to make some of the decisions that we do? I was thinning the squash plants and then doing a stand count of what was left. These plants were not little, these plants were very large and established and it killed me to pull any of them. I even outwardly verbalized my apologies to them! Here they did exactly what they were supposed to do, and they were beautiful and strong! And because there was one too many, I had to pull it. We do that with each other too, don't we? Critique and judge appearances and then decide who stays and who goes. It's all very sad in my opinion. I do understand the importance of thinning, but to have waited that long while they plants grew happily together, forming bonds that we probably can't even comprehend, and then to be hauled out of the ground and tossed aside. It just smacks wrong.

My knees, ankles and toes are still deeply bruised and most times I can't squat down to ground level now because of the pain in my knees from several hours a day crawling around on the ground, or a handful of hours standing and squatting and bending at the knees non-stop. Woodchuck and I are spending some much needed time together while I am trying to heal. We went to the movies one day in the late morning, we went to the fair and stayed for 6 hours! I think that's the most fun we've had at the fair since the kids were little! We saw a Midget Wrestling show while there and then last week we went to the lake and it was so calm and beautiful and quiet that we played frisbee in the water and I practiced swimming since I haven't done much of that since my shoulder surgery three years ago. One day after I dropped him off at physical therapy, I went for a walk with a co-worker at my part-time job and then went to a park that I played at a lot as a child. I cried and cried while walking under the trees that have been there since I played there and I wondered if they remembered me. We've also been focusing on our art and getting ready for the Bizarre Bazaar! It's been scary financially, but we are doing fun things together that don't cost a lot and we are having a great time together and that is just as important to me! 💕

All we've done at the land along the way is mow. Woodchuck directs the youngest on the tractor while I pick up garbage and walk around to check on everything. It's been too hot to want to work outside in that capacity right now, and on the days that we were there it was raining and I couldn't do any of the cutting and treating of the invasive plants anyway. But the youngest will be going back to college in a couple of weeks, and I will be starting a new full-time job, and soon after (at the end of the month) Woodchuck will be released to go back to work himself. Before we know it, we will be working on the land in the same capacity as before and making progress again. I remind myself that we are doing what we can, and that's all that any of us can ask.

So in spite of all of my sadness and disappointment in how the plan for the Summer went down in flames, life carries on and we make the best of what we have. I am always proud of the efforts I make to take care of my family and I am grateful that I have them. 💗

Lost in the woods.....literally

 Time has flown and we are already halfway thru this year. How is this even possible? Halfway gone and am I really making any progress on my goals of this year? Our timeline for things changed quickly when we found out that Woodchuck needed shoulder surgery and we only had a couple of weeks to tie up loose ends at the land and get him prepared for it. He had a couple of things out there that he wanted to get done and I wanted one more day in the forest to keep chipping away at the invasives. While out there this year too I've noticed the health of the CRP declining, likely due to lack of thinning. The tops of the trees are heavy with greenery while the rest of the tree down is lacking sunlight and green. They are starting to snap in half.

On my last trip out there to knock out as much invasive removal as I could, I got lost. Woodchuck didn't finish putting signage up, and the illness that I suffered from early to mid-April has left me unable to think well, concentrate, or remember anything. And I didn't make a turn where I was supposed to, and I ended up in a neighbors portion of the woods and I didn't realize it. I mean, I wondered along the way, because the invasives were horrible and I was wondering how I could missed them, but then I'd see something and think, "Oh, this looks familiar! I'm good, I'm in my portion!" I worked someone else's portion of the CRP all day before having it confirmed by Woodchuck that I was lost and not in our forest. I was so mad at myself for not figuring it out on my own earlier, and I was irritated with him for not finishing the signage. I wasted my last day doing the work someone else was refusing to, and not even on my own land. But I couldn't dwell on that, it is what it is.

What I did manage to get done in OUR part was right along the CRP edge where I took down many honeysuckles, autumn olives, multiflora rose, bittersweet and grapevine. Here's a before and after of one spot where at least three trees were being threatened with death by one invasive (which was a large multi-flora rose).

The second ditch had begun to dry out....but the tadpoles were finding any amount of water they could find.

We are in a severe drought again. Bad. Very bad. And I want to go over and kick every person in the shin who insists on burning right now....or who throws cigarette butts down on dry vegetation. We've been under air quality alerts the past couple of weeks as well, and the haze at times is reminiscent of being in an solar eclipse (there are also wildfires in Canada and we are getting some of the smoke). Every time I checked the ditch, it became drier and drier. As I type this, today was our best chance for rain. 100% chance of 8 hours of storms. Three hours after it was initially supposed to start, we got a drizzle and now it's on and off showers through the day. I have a list made for land goals for the rest of this year and if we continue in the drought, continuing work in the back ditch while it's dry is in my sites. 

Remember our pond treating escapade? Well, it didn't work. The main pond is still a swamp. I haven't checked the watershed one, though Woodchuck says "it's crystal clear". That's what he said about this one too and I think our definition and criteria for "crystal clear" are different. 😂 

We made one last trip out there before his surgery so that he could get the tractor ready for when the youngest takes over mowing out there, and I wanted to mark some plants that I didn't want mowed down or stepped on. One of the most precious to date is this Thwayblade orchid that I found in my second CRP. There is only one so far that I've found!!! It is so tiny and I don't know how I even saw it 💜

It was time to leave and to prepare for something other than land work and projects. Woodchuck was in a lot of pain and was ready to have the shoulder fixed. He didn't go as long with his injury as I did with mine, and his injury was different, but our surgeries were the same. We had a lot of talks leading up to it about what to expect and that he was to behave. I had JUST accepted a second job offer when we found out that he needed surgery and that it would be happening soon, and I was worried about taking a couple of days off the week after I started there. But my boss was very understanding. I thought about only taking the day of surgery off, like Woodchuck did for mine, but I have to make decisions based off of the kind of person I am, not the kind of person he is. So I took three days off between my two jobs and the fourth day was a Sunday.

He is understanding extremely well now what I went through and my surgery was much harder on me physically. He's understanding the physical pain, the antsy-ness of having to just sit around for the most part (we do go for walks when I get home from work or we run errands), and the lack of true rest that comes from having to sleep upright in the recliner to keep the pressure off of the shoulder. 

I think I was more nervous than he was! I didn't want him to have the same difficulties that I had. I was constantly fighting back tears in the waiting area. I like that they move quickly from the time that you get there and it helped immensely that we were at the surgery center and not the hospital itself. Woodchuck and I had a friendly competition about the nerve block. Mine was terrible, excruciatingly painful. I still remember what it felt like. And when I got "sick" a few months ago, the spot that they put the nerve block in was one of dozens previous injured or messed with areas that was hurting. Turns out that I'm just a wuss and he breezed right through his nerve block AND EVEN WATCHED THE SCREEN AS THEY PUT IT IN. Weirdo.

An hour later he was done and he was so awake and moving well so quickly, they let me see him sooner than was expected! But I noticed that his coloring wasn't normal for him, and I couldn't say anything yet because they were all about getting him to the next phase of recovery and there was lots of talking and movement and I didn't want to interrupt. They moved him from the bed to a recliner and that is when I knew I couldn't wait. He kept saying he was tired, he couldn't stay awake while the nurse was talking to him, and he was ashen color. I told the nurse something was wrong and she noticed his heart rate had plummeted.

She took his blood pressure and pulse rate dozens of times before finally consulting the anesthesiologist who came in and grimaced when she told him Woodchucks numbers. They reinserted an i.v. and gave him fluids and he was asking for coffee too, and he started doing much better after that. We were told to monitor his numbers at home for the evening as well. Flash forward to his first shower, and he knew even more how I felt having a hunk of meat arm hanging at your side for it. 

One steri-strip never held on, but it looked amazingly well! It was at that time too that he realized the surgery center put his sling on him wrong, which means it had been worn wrong for two days. 😒He got the bionic sling that holds his arm slightly away from his body to take that pressure off of the healing areas. He tore his rotator cuff, another spot, and had arthritis. When I had my surgery, I got the Walgreens, blue fabric, cheap-ass sling that held my arm against my body and between that and the stuff used during surgery I ended up a with a MASSIVE rash under my arm and down my side for weeks. But I am glad that this going better for him than it did for me!

My new job has been amazingly hard in so many ways, but I am loving it! Mentally, as we are taught that every.little,detail.matters and should be recorded since we are working at an agriculture research farm! And there's LOTS of things to learn and to keep track of. Physically, I will not be surprised if I don't need to bump up getting my left hip fixed to later this year once this seasonal job ends. I can't even touch my leg there it is so tender and sore. I'm crawling around or sitting on the ground for hours weeding, doing heavy lifting, lots of squatting and bending over and doing it full time. Between this new job and the store I work at, I'm working 6 days a week now, 47 hours. Then taking care of the housework (to the best of my abilities), Woodchuck, errands, etc. But a girl has to do what a girl has to do to take care of the family. I'll deal with my injuries once this is all over.

On the farm recently, a milkweed plant was pulled from a greenhouse where we were going to be planting cucumbers. My co-workers and I left it, mowed around it, not realizing it would be in the way and pulled by the boss. She mentioned that I could take it if I wanted to (neither one of us knows much about the plant and how it might survive if transplanted.) Turns out there was a Monarch caterpillar on it and I was at a loss of how to proceed! How do I take care of this little creature and help it to survive?! I tried transplanting the milkweed, but it wilted immediately. The boss said there was milkweed in the other greenhouse, so I grabbed the tallest one on the next work day and brought it home, only to have it wilt as well. 

Woodchuck said he saw lots of milkweed at our land, but I couldn't remember (because brain is not functioning still) and I needed it to be in a place where there was more than one plant of it, and where it wouldn't get mowed down, stomped on, or get herbicides on it. So instead of going for a walk last night after I got off from work from the store, we drove to Das Zem to take Marvin the Monarch Caterpillar to his new home. There were several milkweeds along the front ditch, all nestled in the ferns. I thought that might be a lovely place for a Monarch to emerge. Good luck, Marvin!!!!

Woodchuck has been taking over making phone calls while he is home recovering and I had asked him to call the forester that came to meet with us at our land previously. Long story short, we got some shocking information about what we need to do with the forest and we are still trying to wrap our heads around it. I'll blog about that more next time, I am still waiting on some information to get sent to me about it from the USDA and NRCS. We can kiss the 5 year plan we had to prep the land for building a house and living out there goodbye and double it! 💋

Dirt Crawler

 We finally, FINALLY, got to meet up with some friends out at the land to walk them around and talk about wiring up the barn with electric. We had been trying to coordinate for awhile, so not only was it nice to move forward on some shop talk, but to also show them around! It was chilly and wet, but we bundled up, walked, and then went out for dinner.

Unfortunately though the second CRP was not in as a good of condition as I thought it would be. Walking the whole thing made me realize just how far behind I am, especially in removing the garlic mustard. I tried not to let it bother me too much though, I'm doing what I can as fast as I can, but dang!!! I have been finding a few morels here and there, but overall the yield has been WAY down. None to be found at home and hardly any at the land. 

Life is in a such a weird back and forth out in nature, such a give and take. The goose eggs did not hatch and the goose mates were gone, but I did find one egg floating in the water just off of the shore of the pond. I didn't have anything with me at the time to fish it out, so I had to leave it. I figured worse case scenario, if something could get in the water and get it, more power to it!

I also found this dead bird in the clearing of the forest by where we'll be building the house. We are thinking it's a crow. The amount of blue jay feathers in the forests that I find laying on the ground has been insane lately, and now this dead crow. So much to observe and wonder about! 

On the next full day trip out there, we went our separate ways again but I stood in the opening of the forest and knew that someone had been on our land somewhere. I could not tell where, or what they'd been doing, but clues always get revealed in time and as you know, I don't take kindly to trespassers.

I headed out into the forest and immediately found a patch of lily of the valley. There are dozens of patches out there. As you can see, the wildlife (deer) have been munching on it already. While I like having food sources for them, I want them to eat natural and native plants. So this shit has to go. Most were not even developing flowers yet, but I caught some just in time.

Because a shovel is hard to pull around in the woods in my work cart, I opted for a hand spade and crawling around in the dirt. Still not feeling 100% made it a little hard after awhile to keep getting up and down, but getting up and down I did. Next time I go out though? I'm taking some thing that will let me dig larger areas out while standing. 

Only a few moments into the forest and I noticed that one of our wooden arrows had been knocked off of a tree. The wood split from the around the screw, and while others would have assumed the elements got to it or a squirrel launched off of it, etc., me? My spidey senses started tingling and I could feel that someone knocked it. And there next to it was a cigarette butt that had not been there only a few days previous and looked to be just days fresh. So that is where the trespasser had been. Not only do I not want them touching anything of mine, I don't want them setting any of that forest on fire. Because it has been divided up, all it will take is one person to set a blaze in theirs and all of ours will go up. It would be horrible to lose the back one, but a tragedy if it would jump into our front one where the barn was built and eventually the house will be too. Some thing I don't want to think about, but guess I should with all of the draught status we have been in over the past recent years.

I found a huge patch of garlic mustard that will need to come out on our next trip out there. Technically I would have preferred to have pulled it before it flowered, but I didn't know yet this patch was there.

I stopped again though to see the Packera! It makes me so happy to see something native and beautiful in the forest. It grows in a patch of sunlight and the color always makes me smile when I feel beaten down by the amount of work ahead of me.

I fished out the goose egg from the pond and was surprised at how heavy it was, considering it was floating! I left it on the side of the path and the next time we looked, an animal had utilized it, which was our goal considering the outcome of the nest.

On the very edges of the forests, there are some invasives still yet to take down. They're big because of the space and sunlight they have there, and some of them I need help from Woodchuck with, but I tackled this beast all on my own. The thorns on this Autumn Olive were no joke! 

As some bird found out!

While the top soil of the forest is super dry, underneath is nice and moist! So many worms, which is something I need to study more since there are invasive jumping worms making their way into forests and causing all kinds of issues. I was always enamored with worms as a kid, and my mother would just shake her head at me. After rains I would ask for a can and go outside and collect all of the little friends. I don't know what I did with them after collecting them though!

I saw a recent post on FB about day lilies and how they are invasive. Stopped me in my tracks. Wait! What? They are invasive? I had no idea!!! So I researched and found out the difference between tiger lilies and day lilies. Tiger lilies have the dark splotches on them, resembling the look of a tiger, and they are native. Day lilies are just the variations in shades of oranges (and some have yellows), have no splotches, and are invasive. We have day lilies at the land, by the front, that were there when we bought the land. Then when I worked at the resale shop before, a lady brought a bag of day lilies in to be separated out and transplanted. So I took them, planted them here at the house and then at the land. So now I have a new plant that I need to add to the list to remove. But I am grateful to learn it now, and to always be learning something new along the way! I don't ever want to stop adding to the correct information I can absorb and use!

Speaking of, I start a new job soon! Something I have never done before and but am excited to learn! Stay tuned!

 

Waking from a Winters Slumber

 Day One.....

Let's celebrate together the finding of my favorite rake! And yep, it was right where I left it. I'll overlook the scary evidence that I am becoming more and more forgetful and just be happy that I have the rake again!

With some sunny and warm days at our disposal, we kicked off the season with priming the handpump. Which kicks my ass. Because Woodchuck has it set for his height and I'm much, much shorter. To be pumping that thing practically with my arms over my head is near impossible! Then if I can only use one arm because I'm holding something in the other to be filled, let's just say that it is painful for others to watch me tackle that thing....I may need to have a step stool by it for me to use.

Woodchucks first project was to cut back and spray the weeds in the ditch we had been cutting bushes and trees out of when we had the drought. I pulled garlic mustard from an open area so that I could keep an eye on him. Didn't need him falling in the ditch! I should have paid more attention to my own surroundings though, since I knelt in stinging nettles. We also pulled a dead tree and some of it's branches out of the ditch before he treated it.

Then while he cut logs for the foot bridge idea, I raked out the back ditch. If you've been here awhile, you know that Woodchuck made a floating rake to get the scum off of the pond. Turned out there was just way too much on the pond and it needed an herbicide, but the back ditch is the perfect size for it!

                                                                                Before 👆

                                                                                During 👆

                                                                                After 👆

That was a productive! Time to grab a quick break before packing up to head home.

Day Two.....

This trip was really important (aren't they all, though?!). And I was really nervous about it. Today was the day we're going to treat the main pond. The plan was for Woodchuck to row while I sprayed. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but it is not safe to be in a boat with Woodchuck. He is an Aries and is all about, "Yeah, I know how to do that", and you believe him and then you find out in the middle of the shit show that he does not know how to do that. 😄

I think too that it freaks me out that he picks the highest bank to enter the water from instead of a flat surface. So, I'm in the front of the boat while the back end is still up on the bank and all it's going to take is one little dip of the boat and water is coming in. I hold on to each side for dear life, stare straight ahead and hold my breath until he's on and we are on our way. 

We've got a nesting goose couple again this year and we were not entirely sure how they would react to us being on the water. They have been great with us being on the land around the pond though! We left their area until last so they could acclimate to us being out there and we know already that they can feel out our intentions. They have always been super calm, they know we aren't there to mess with them in any way. On a side note, I don't think their eggs are going to hatch. They didn't last year either. We'll check the nest out from the usual distance the next time we are out there, and if they aren't hatched yet, we are pretty sure it's well past time for them to be. I didn't think to start tracking the days when we noticed the geese out there, so next year I will for sure. They are actually very fascinating creatures to observe and learn about their behaviors! How they sleep in the water, how they nest, etc. 

All of the green stuff in the water is part of the reason we are needing to treat it. Once the weather warms and we get into hot Summer time, the whole pond would be covered and it smells SO bad. I made sure to cover myself up completely, because I'm a little freaked out by the thought of any herbicide. I know it was a necessary thing to do this for the pond, but I still get all up in my head about it. I was covered head to toe, but could still smell the stuff and yuck. And while I adore being in water, I am a Pisces after all, I don't like not seeing what is in the water or how deep it is. I got the sensation of a thick, suffocating liquid in that pond, not flowing, caressing water like I get from Lake Michigan water. Maybe I just need to get used to it and get to know it better. 

I think it must have taken nearly an hour to complete the main pond, with us having to get out at the halfway mark and make another batch of the herbicide up for the other half of the pond. Then it was time to go to the watershed pond and treat that one! We got permission from the NRCS to do so! What I don't understand is why Woodchuck left the smaller boat for the bigger main pond and the biggest boat for the smaller watershed pond. I questioned him. He doesn't know either! 

The thing I like about the watershed pond is that even though it is also spreading, all of the edges are flat. Once we were out there on it, I could see the phragmite in all of its horrible glory as it was sending fresh green ones up on the waters edge, as well as up on land. It didn't take us as long to treat this one, one batch only, and I'm not sure that we did all that well! Time will tell! 28 days to be exact. 

Then Woodchuck wanted to start laying the logs across the ditch for the bridge. He asked if I wanted to run the tractor or hitch them up? I was not comfortable with either one to be honest, so he chose for me to be on the tractor. Now this bridge idea is purely all trial and error. Woodchuck is REALLY good about having ideas or executing ideas that I have, but we found out quickly enough that it wasn't going to work the way he was thinking it would. 

Luckily we had a sunny day to work in! 

As usual, we didn't have everything we needed with us and he has to walk back to the shipping container a few times to grab stuff, which wore him out. I was surprised though that he listened to me and the spin off idea I have to try next time we work on this project. Some times he can be very open-minded and other times there's no budging him! Once we got as far as we could with this, we still had daylight to burn and decided to walk a couple of rows in the forest to pull garlic mustard and honeysuckle. He will never understand how much I appreciate having him with me to work on that kind of stuff. I will plow through it alone when I have to, but I won't turn his help down on the rare occasion he offers it!

And yes, friends! It is that time of year again and already turning out to be a bad season for ticks! I've stocked up on spray for us to use when we go outside 😬

Day three.......

The weather was shit...again....and it was our last day of staycation! We spent it on the road driving to Portage, Indiana to pick up fish from Jones Fishery. Woodchuck ordered two kinds of minnows. Once again my girl (my car) traveled long distances to transport a unique cargo! They were so freaking cute!

We had to let them acclimate to the pond water temperature for ten minutes, so we tied string to the tops, placed them in the water and walked for a couple of minutes to look for mushies because: we are also entering morel mushroom season as well! I've only found a few so far, it was a nice treat to run across them! 

We went back to the minnows and began setting them free into the water. There were about a dozen that were dead between the four bags, and that is to be expected. The treatment we did on the pond will not affect them, and these are not something we will fish. They will however be the "canary in the cave" as far as the health of the pond goes. How exciting! 

We are back consistently into shit weather again, and I am so over it. I mean, I'll work outside in anything, but it gets old being wet and cold, or overheated. Can't we have "perfect" weather days and more of them, please? I guess I better get over that since I applied for an outdoor seasonal position at an agriculture research farm. I should find out by the end of this week if I got it! Now a friend is saying they are hiring at her place too. Lots of options for when I get healthy, as I'm in the throes of a yet-to-be-diagnosed health crisis. Never a dull moment! ;) 

And just like that!

 We have anxiously waited all Winter for the weather to warm, and just like that the Spring projects have begun! Daytime temps have been averaging between the 50's and 70's (those warmer temps are supposed to happen this week). Intense storms ushered in great weather and gave me and Woodchuck a chance recently to start on the usual Spring-time work, but let us take a moment of silence first for my favorite work tool, an old iron metal rake that I seemed to have misplaced after raking up the branch debris from alongside the back ditch. Woodchuck and I looked everywhere for it, and we may have been looking right at it for all I know, but just couldn't see it! So we had to buy another one. Hopefully we will run across it when we least expect it!

On our latest trip out there, we started by checking the back ditch and found the drainage tubes to be nearly plugged. Woodchuck cleared them out and placed on the filter caps we bought and we decided to walk away from it for a bit to see what happened. When we went back we noticed that while the caps keep the larger debris out, it builds up in front of them. So anytime we are out there, we will need to check them and anytime the ditch may dry up again, we need to keep trying to get all of the debris out of it. This feels like it's just going to be one of the constant maintenance projects and if that's what it takes to keep things flowing smoothly, literally, that is alright. The water level did drop a few inches, so that was a good thing!

Woodchuck needed to change a filter in the tractor (which took three trips to the tractor place to get it!) and spread some stone out to fill in puddles (getting things ready for when the concrete will be poured in the pole barn!). While he worked at the front, I walked to the second CRP forest because I noticed an Autumn Olive and honeysuckle right on the edge of it that I didn't get last year. While cutting and treating those, I noticed green in the forest and got that sinking feeling.

I went in and found lots and lots of garlic mustard. It was expected, because remember I talked in the past about seed banks in the soil? The key this year is to get to all of them before they flower. I've been thinking more and more about what a friend once told me, that I should ask for help out there. But there's a whole other ball of wax with that. Keeping people safe, teaching what to look for and how to remove it, etc. And then there's the whole finding someone to give up their time to come do manual labor out in a forest. So for now I'll keep chipping away at it myself and try to get Woodchuck on board when he doesn't have something of his own to work on!

Some people treat them with herbicides, some people pull them to eat them, some people pull them and black bag them. I'm the later of the three. Though! I did pull some right before we left for us to try with dinner, and it was going to be our first time eating them! Of course, as with wild foraged foods, you want to make sure you have permission to be on that land, that you know exactly what it is that you've gathered, and that it hasn't been treated in the past with herbicides. Also, with garlic mustard, you want the youngest plants to eat from what I read. Turns out Woodchuck started having an allergic reaction to just a tiny piece of leaf that I had him try. So I ended up eating it instead. I wasn't impressed, but I ate it raw and not sautéed like I read was a good way to get some of the bitterness out. 

One garlic mustard plant can produce 600-7900 seeds on the high end, and those seeds can stay viable in the soil for years! Invasive plants change the soil composition to suit their needs over the needs of native plants, plus they come up early in the Spring and are prolific spreaders, out-competing our native plants. Just look at this one! The top was very young and not very tall, maybe a couple of inches, but look at the deep root system!

I kept stopping to take in the beauty of the day and forest. Scattered storms were in the forecast, so we figured as long as it was safe to, we'd get done what we could. Turns out the whole day was amazing and reminded me of the days as a child that I'd play outside (which was more often than being inside). There was some warmth to the air, but also a bit of a damp chill and with the cloud cover, I wanted to be sure that I didn't get cold. My auto-immune issue doesn't respond well to that and I was already hurting before we even got out there.

I would sit still and listen to the birds, some of which I can't identify. I would smell the air that had little notes of Spring on it. I would crawl around in the dirt, pulling the plants, and inhale the loamy-ness of the soil while listening to the dried leaves still on oaks rattle and green needles on the white pines whisper in the breezes. Truly in my element. 

In looking ahead all around me, there was forest. Looking behind me, there was the pond and open sky. What a beautiful place.

While being out in nature is a gift all in itself to me, there is always magic to be found in the arms of Mother E! While most people would walk right past this white pine tree with a scattering of black walnuts under its bare boughs, my eyes go right to them and I begin to feel the energy of the creature that left them there. I also began searching for the black walnut tree itself and soon found him. 💚

I kept getting pulled deeper and deeper in to the forest, drawn by the lure of bird sounds, the ambient lighting, the smells and the sense of magick. What else lies in there, my spirit always wonders. What will be revealed to me on this day? What more can I do to bring this place back to native health and what did I miss last year that I need to see this year? I am feeling less overwhelmed and more capable (at least right now) of dealing with what I find and I never feel alone in the forest. )O(

Woodchuck and I will be on vacation from our jobs next week and have a list of the projects we would like to get done both here at home and at the land. Because it is not reasonable to think that we can fit everything into one week, we agreed to work on small/quick home projects on the days the weather permits this week leading up to vacation time. That will hopefully knock at least one or two things from the list, because we don't want to be spending ALL of the time working on the vacation...we need to have a little fun too! I started yesterday by working on invasive plants along our home driveway, and he'll work today when we gets home from work on cleaning up along the front of the house where the neighbors trees drop their leaves and they get all caught up and piled around the grill, bike rack, etc. Some times it is just those little things that make us feel more accomplished, organized, and ready for the new season! 💜