Doubts

 At this time of year, when so much keeps us/me from land projects, the doubts creep in. I was sure that I had made a terrible mistake in wanting to purchase this land. I had highly underestimated what it was going to take to get it back to healthy and native and that I didn't have what it takes to do it. I still feel that way. I'm still struggling with it, and the fact that I can barely devote time and energy to it, or my husband, or my home. I talked with Woodchuck about it, asked him just to hear me out, because I always want to be open and honest. I am literally begging him at this point to step in and help me in woods/fields/overgrown areas. It would be one thing if I could go into them once, maybe twice, and have them under control; but they come back with a vengeance, every single area. Once we can get it to manageable, I can take back over by myself, and I hope he realizes how important this is. 

Each time we go to the land, we check the back ditch and so far it remains water-free from the drainage pipe coming somewhere North of our land. I still worry that we might be creating an issue for us later with lack of water, but I do understand the importance of keeping whatever water is going into the ditch clean and toxin-free since it drains into the pond. So that means that the last step of filling it with quick set concrete has worked so far! Unfortunately though, our walks have been very short and fast, because the mosquitoes are out in full force. I even tried a new spray and they were still biting us through our clothing. There's no stepping foot into the back CRP without layers on and mosquito netting over your hat/head. We did see lots of toads, beetles, and a couple of weeks ago we did one last pick of blueberries and left the rest for the birds. We will do a more aggressive cutting back of the bushes around February of next year, where I also plan to cut a little further back into the dogwood to get them away from the blueberry bushes. 

On another trip out there a couple of weeks ago, the plan was to grease the tractor and then do some work outside, but the weather had other plans. We were already running a bit behind from when we like to head out....slowing down, getting tired.....and although we knew it was supposed to rain, it wasn't supposed to be until later in the day for our area. We had to stop and get gas on the way and when I saw the shelf cloud, I knew our plans were about to change! I was totally geeked out though, I want to be a storm chaser.

By the time we got to the land and tried to get a quick walk in, it was nearly right on top of us, coming from the North. This picture 👇was looking South, at the edge of it, and a large group of turkey vultures was circling to come back towards us. 

                      A couple of minutes later, it was drizzling and we had to turn back to the barn and within moments of getting to the barn, it was a downpour! We stayed inside and greased the tractor and waited for the rain to stop. We even broke out the chairs and relaxed for a bit, enjoying the thunder, lightening, and the chance to just sit and enjoy the land--which is so rare. We ended up eventually leaving without being able to do anything else there and I think that only fed my concerns about the land being too much for us with such limited schedules right now.

Our next trip out there found much better weather! Sunny and warm! For the first time ever, we pulled the car in and used the barn to get work done on her. While Woodchuck did my oil change (he didn't want my help, saying it would be faster to do it on his own), I hand-pulled weeds from the stone driveway. 

Then we walked over to the shipping container so we could move the barrels. He had them standing upright and duct taped together, which I didn't think was a great idea. The water collects on the tops (so I had thought turning them upside down would be best, but he said the bottoms weren't flat. He was wrong. I also thought the duct tape was a bad idea, it would leave a residue when removed and would only create more work to get them clean before using them in the pond. He disagreed, stating that they wouldn't do that, but if they did, he could clean it up. Turns out I was right.) So he had the idea to move them over to the pallets where we have the leftover metal sheeting from the barn. It was a perfect fit! Good idea, Woodchuck!

                     Then he had the idea to thread a branch through the pallets, like a needle.

                                                      He taped some rope on to the branch....

I stood on one side, and he stood on the other, and we "stitched" the barrels together! I also had the idea of putting the extra pallet we had on top! The groves in the bottom on the pallet, fit PERFECTLY on the barrels. I convinced him that we should move everything he had stacked against the container because the weeds were out of control....and we had an agreement when we bought the land that it was not going to look dumpy. Even his tractor implements have weeds growing up around them. I know that it's hard for us to find the time there, but when he is there mowing, some times it just takes extra moments to move things and clean up a bit better. 

Not too far from the barrels, I found these lovely turkey tails growing! I take a glycinate tincture each day and have been curious to make my own! We secured the area so that he wouldn't mow them over and I can wait for the right time to harvest them.

We walked our usual route and I found this vine wrapping around a honeysuckle. We walk this area every time we go to the land, multiple times, and this is the first time I've seen it that I can remember! Climbing Nightshade, non-native. So it will be coming out the next time we go to the land.

This pond. Such a cause of tension. I love it too, but honestly, it has been nothing but an issue and a money pit and it still isn't cleaned up or contained. He keeps talking about getting stone to stop the slumping on the edges, but then when I bring it up, he says no. It's these kinds of things that only feed my thoughts that we've made a huge mistake. Although I know there will be difficult things to deal with out there, I don't want any of it to come between us and I don't want to feel doomed every time I look at the pond. We are a tractor width or two away from losing all of the ground between the pond and the CRP forest. My clock seems to be ticking faster than his!

The jewelweed has started to bloom! I did not harvest any this year, there's no time to use it.

I found a milkweed on the watershed that was covered in aphids. They are quite interesting to watch! The consensus is that they don't harm the monarch population, and provide food for insects to grab instead of the monarchs and their eggs!

We will have another very large thistle on the edge of the spot where the house will be built! 

We have been kicking around a couple of ideas about the shipping container and culvert pipe.

It's been hard keeping Woodchuck on task about saving money when it concerns the land. He bought the pond chemicals, the minnows, and the tilapia without input from me. None of which have done the job that he needed them to. So, I had been doing some reading about barley straw! For a fraction of the cost, it seems to have good feedback, and can be used in various forms! Dry bales, liquid, pellets. For some of those options though, we would need to know how many gallons of water the pond holds. As usual, he ignored the information until I pestered him enough about checking into it. 

Now look, I absolutely understand that part of the pond water quality issue is that the pond is nutrient-rich. But I also absolutely understand that he has spent thousands of dollars on three different avenues to clean it up and none have worked for various reasons. He keeps relying on the information from the pond company like it's gospel, but yet, we still have a green pond. I figured what is the harm of trying something NATURAL and much more affordable than what he sprayed on it before. 

Well, he called the pond company, she said the pond is nutrient-rich and that what we need is to get that water moving right at the beginning of the season before the water meal has a chance to take over. Yet, we were told before that we needed to get the water meal under control before adding anything like that or the meal will just clog everything up. And, isn't it funny how she told him too that installation of a  fountain is discounted, etc.? 

I also brought up to him about maybe not wanting a fountain, or is there a way to adjust it? I want to still be able to hear the wildlife, or maybe even just the leaves in the wind, or maybe even just peace and quiet. He said he likes the sound of a fountain because it reminds him of a waterfall. So again, doubts, doubts, doubts.

He fell in love with a shed at Home Depot, and while I loved it too, there really is no place for it or need for it if we are keeping the shipping container. Sell the container and get the shed, or keep the container. So I had the thought to move the container to a better location if we are keeping it. He wants to use it for garden stuff, so I proposed we move it to the far border of the prairie where we had transplanted white pines to make a privacy border between the prairie and the back of the house next store that is for sale. 

We can leave the pines to hopefully grow and conceal the container a bit so whomever lives in that house won't be looking out the back at an ugly container. Woodchuck loved the idea and went to the land while I was at work and unloaded everything that was left in it. But it was too heavy for his tractor to move it and he called the company down the highway that delivered it and unfortunately, their skidster is down. So we wait on that one.

I had concerns too about how we can cover the culvert pipe to keep water in the pond during these droughts. The sheet metal keeps falling down and he can't keep going down there to put it back up, especially with how overgrown it gets at this time of year. We wanted to put something in that we can stand at the top of the ditch and pull on a rope and lift it, but I was thinking we would need some sort of pulley or lever system. He heard me out, now we just need to see what we can come up with. Stay tuned! The adventure continues..... 

Plan A, plan B, plan C

 Our trips to the land to work have been fewer recently as the heat and humidity have kept us at bay. Woodchuck works in the heat already 6 days a week, and I am not tolerating the heat well this year after working in it last year in a couple of my jobs. But on a trip out there recently, we were able to knock out a lot of different projects!

We started another burn pile up! We kept it smaller than usual this time because we weren't going to spend the whole day out here. The forecast repeatedly calls for rain, but we aren't getting it most of the time, and trying to burn on the days where they are calling for rain later (to help put out the hot ashes) is proving futile. (Don't worry, we dump water the pile before we leave.) While that burned, Woodchuck needed to get down in the ditch by the culvert because the metal he placed over the hole fell down. We had a strong storm a couple of weeks ago with high winds, and with the vegetation exploding as well, the metal didn't stand a chance. We are trying to keep as much water as possible in the pond, and I can see from the current on the other side of the culvert that this metal isn't blocking the water off completely. Unfortunately, he rolled up his sleeves and ended up coming into contact with something that caused some contact dermatitis on his forearm. I'm thinking it might have been the water hemlock, which thankfully he always wears eye protection! I have some Technu that I keep in the shower so that we can wash down when we get home from the land, but I might also need to keep a bottle of it out there by the hand water pump for situations like this. That stuff is the bomb!

He was going to try and just go down the bank like usual, but with the overgrowth, we couldn't see as well where he was stepping. I convinced him to put on the safety harness, and he hooked that to the tractor. 62 and still doing these things! 💚

Once that was done, and all of the equipment put back where he got it from (that will not last long!), we moved on to the back ditch drainage pipe. If you remember from previous posts, our first plan of action was to the cap the pipe (plan A). That didn't work, water was still running from under the pipe cap. So we propped up the end of the pipe with some fencing. On a recent trip out there, I wondered why I was hearing a small waterfall when we got closer to the ditch, and found water coming from several holes. Has it always been this way? Or is this new? We have been so busy and overwhelmed with our jobs, that we can't remember. And of course, I can't get any of my videos to load 😶 But we tried wrapping the pipe with Flex-tape, Plan B, and that immediately failed because there was so much water still pouring out of the holes. So then we went to plan C, which was Woodchuck's idea and one that I was completely against because I don't want to do anything permanent right away. Quick-set cement. 

As far as we can tell, this didn't work either. We aren't sure yet what plan D would be, other than him wanting to get another bag of cement. I cringe and fret.

On our way to our next land project, I spied a large mushie in the forest! While I was sad that I missed it at its peak, I was SO geeked out to have seen it at all! The head was bigger than my hand, and it was a stark white standing out on the forest floor against all of the browns. 

We had some trees that we needed to take down, one of which was a black cherry that was leaning over the barn. The previous owner of the land, who planted all of the trees, did a row of alternating black cherry and poplar, and none of the black cherries did well! Our idea was to attach a thin string on to an arrow and have me shoot the arrow over a low branch of the cherry, but Woodchuck got too heavy and thick of a rope and it would instantly drop the arrow. So I ran to my work cart and grabbed a spool of survey string (I call it plumb line), attached that, shot the arrow, and good to go! We pulled that string down, detached the arrow and attached the thicker rope to the string, pulled that up over the branch and we were ready to cut. Woodchuck cut while I held the rope taught and pulled as the tree fell so that it didn't hit the barn.

We also cut down a black locust that was growing just inside of the white pine edge of the front CRP. We have several more, in various sizes, to take down all in the same area. Woodchucks gas chainsaw ended up not working out because it was dull, so he ended up using my electric one for all of the tree cutting that day. I love that thing! Then we moved on to a poplar sucker branch that was overhanging the driveway (and again, there are a few more of those). The worst part of the day was identifying another Tree of Heaven on the land. This is the second one, in another totally random spot, that I have found out there. Thankfully I am finding them while they are young and controllable. 

We ended the day with a trip to the fair! I was able to treat us with the trip by using some of my tip money I made from work. I bought Woodchuck a ring as well, as he's always on the lookout for them! I think this stainless steel and tigers eye ring looks great with his hand tattoos!!!

I also really liked this idea for a picnic table, though I would need the seats slightly lower in order for me to able to get on them, lol. Maybe we can do something like this at the land in various spots?

I also managed to finish another dream catcher! The frame was made by us from our grapevines, then I used synthetic sinew and glass beads to make the web, and finished it off with some metal feathers and jingles. As of today, I am approx. 21 weeks away from getting out of the workforce. My leg will be very happy!!! I am SO excited to spend more time at home, resting/healing, getting the house ready for market, and working on art. Please visit my shop to see some of the things that I have for sale 💜 www.soapwoodartstudio.etsy.com

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hundreds of seedlings. 👆

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

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

                            Swamp milkweed, that disappeared within a few days👆

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

                                Japanese beetles fornicating and eating. What a life. 👆

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                Prairie Coneflower on the watershed. 👆

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

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

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

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

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

                                                                A kind of agrimony 👆

                                                                        Boneset! 👆

                                                        A precious little jumping spider! 👆

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

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

                                                I had ONE echinacea come back this year. 👆

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