November Pasture Fun

 So I'm sure this Election Day will be well remembered.

What did you do? I'd voted already, voted early. My goal for the day was to mix up Chicken soup, make bread, and head out to the woods to do battle with more Buckthorn trees. 

I'm doing the easy route first before I go tackle the harder stuff. I'd cleared 8 trees from one area that I've been working on. I didn't use the Black Bag method, but I did saw them down with a hand saw, then applied brush killer to the stumps [per instructions from DNR videos and foresting videos]. I then wrapped them in white bags and painted other stumps yellow so I can see if they sprout this coming spring.

The Black Bag method is supposed to deprive the stump and roots from getting sunlight and nutrition. I thought since I didn't have the bags, I'd brush the killer on the stump and wrap it in a plastic bag to deprive it of...I don't know...water? If nothing else, it will keep me from tripping over them for a while.

I've let the trees sit for three weeks to dry out a bit. Then I've chopped them up and put them in a small pile to burn. I make a small fire and just add to it.

That little job took me all morning. But the trees were burned and the coals raked out. I moved west to work on another section of pasture. Rich had cleared things with his skid steer quite a few years ago. I personally think that all that disturbed soil let in more Buckthorn Trees and nasty weeds.

Below are more piles I've made by clearing out multiflora rose bushes and Elderberry trees that have choked the area. In the spring I can pull most of those plant stumps up right out of the ground. But here I have won the battle of against the burdock!

There is a small outcropping of rocks that are really neat. Over the years they have become overgrown with the dreaded Buckthorn too. But since the roots have to be very shallow on the rocks, many have died leaving a huge mess.

I'm going to take that little area and do 'something' with it. Clean it up for sure, but I'd love to make it a place I can walk to and sit. 

The soil is very rich and fertile around the rocks.

I'm thinking of moving some ferns into the area.

Maybe I'm just a dreamer. But I needed an outdoor project to keep me from going nuts this November. 

For my inside entertainment, I've taken the huge balls of material that I inherited from my Grandmother by way of a cousin...and I am crocheting a new rug to be placed by the kitchen sink. Grandma used to weave her rugs, but I don't have room for a loom and crocheting is easy. Well, sort of. My rag rugs have usually turned out lopsided. However they are very functional.

Off I go early tomorrow as the sun comes up. 

Staying home is a good thing.

Covid-19 has sickened a whole house on our ridge as well as infiltrated assisted living in town, as well as one of the nursing homes. 

[One house is a lot ... we have 5 homes on our ridge.]

And so it goes..

Tonight as I sat out by the tiny fire I'd made for burning burdocks, I listened to the coyotes sing and off in the distance just as dark fell...

that male pheasant gave out on last loud call....

And the Hoot Owls began their nightly songs.

I'd gone to the store on Tuesday during the Senior Shopping hour at our local Quillians store.
I was the only human aside from the manager, check out person and a lady with her father.

I scored 3 potatoes and some apples and ONE onion!

A CrossFit friend of mine who is a Soviet Union Immigrant put things in perspective for me.

I still got potatoes. I still got groceries. AND I do NOT have machine gun fire nor do I have tanks rolling down my street.

We live out in the country which is pretty darned isolated. We live on a dead end road.

This morning my husband asked me if I could hunt squirrel. He then proceeded to give me a bit of a lesson of how you have to let them sit still in a tree and nail them in the head.
I recall my mother telling me the same stories. About how her dad gave her 3 bullets for the .22 and told her to come home with 3 squirrels. I think she never failed at her task.

I'm not saying that we'll have to hunt squirrels to survive. But I am saying that my hunting backround could help in a pinch.
And then I think about how lucky I am to live in such a place.

I was raised with learning the skills of fishing, hunting, and growing a garden. I was raised to learn how to put together a meal that did not come from a package or box.
[EWWW...I hate cooking!]
I learned how to make bread without a bread making machine thingy.

This week I have to trim...somehow...my mules hooves. Yes. Shelter in Place doesn't include hoof trims.
My eldest mule will help with spring foraging for parsnip roots and morels.

My other mules will be used for much of the same purposes. Foraging wild food. IF I had a harness and a plow I'd use them for turning over the garden. Alas, I don't.

I want Rich NOT to get sick. And he is perfectly happy being a Hermit. His VA Nurse called today and put off his visit with his PCP until October.

So tonight I set small fires to the burdock I'd pulled for hours.
I didn't think about all the world problems, I thought about Burdock and I thought about making supper.

And I did not think of all the what ifs....

And that is good enough for me right now.