April/May 2021 Island Trip – Day 9

Today was good. After sleeping in, and then indulgently reading in bed for an hour, I decided to tackle the metal scrap pile. Everything I could safely extract is now in the truck. There’s a whole lot left, some fencing wrapped around fence posts that will likely find their way to a burn pile this fall, large things I can’t ID, and lots of bits under the heavy stuff. It’s a start. Our AN will use his excavator to load what’s left into the truck on another trip, and a huge magnet will remove it!! This load will go to my mainland metal recycle place. It feels good to make a start on it.

Next was to start the closing-up checklist. This went smoothly. So well in fact, that I’m feeling very positive about a relaxed exit tomorrow. I took a jar of jam to my east neighbor who was down with vertigo 🥴. We visited for 40 minutes. She, at 71, works her booty off (like, building small structures ~ she’s kinda my hero), and thinks this came on from doing too much. It’s something she deals with regularly, but not necessarily frequently. I left her with her pup on her feet, showing her what to do: Nap.

After a late snacky lunch I decided to do some auxiliary mowing. The mower wouldn’t talk to me. Nothing. Next was to RTFM: Read The F-ing Manual. After a call to my DH to ask how his volt meter worked, this situation sent me to town with the mower’s battery, fuse, and battery charger. Turns out, mower batteries last three years, max. The guys put this one through it’s paces, and declared it dead. It was 2.5 years old. We had a couple of seconds of silence. Once back at the property, with the new spiffy (sealed!) battery installed, the mower coughed to life, and I sliced new swaths. Pics to follow as it takes a l-o-n-g time for my iPad to catch up to my phone in the country 😂. I was able to mow from the orchard area to the meadow below Stella, connecting the two areas (the creek between the two areas is dry enough now that the mower won’t sink). I LOVE it! It makes the land cohesive. Instead of the apple trees being ‘way over there,’ they’re ‘right there.’ I also worked on the area where the big alder stand came out last fall (our AN will be very happy 🙃). It was slow going as the land is very uneven, but again, it looks great. One of reasons I want to take all this pasture grass down to 5-6” is so I can really see the shape of the land. As of late this afternoon, I know where 7-9 river birch will go… Because I mowed like a possessed woman.

After grass tending fun, and putting the mower away (sweeping it off and praising it!), I went for a walk along the upper five acre tree line looking for the seedlings I planted two months ago. Of the ones I saw (didn’t walk the whole property) two of the pines look good, one is struggling. Both vine maples are pushing beautiful spring leaves. A stroll in the woods, which I’m getting to know now, revealed a large rusting contraption that looks like it’s been there for 50-years. Possibly before the woods… There are a sprinkling of huge old firs, and the rest are very small (less than a foot in diameter). 3.5ish acres of these woods are really enchanting. When I was a kid, there were a lot more alder in the woods. I also trekked around the east side of the upper five acres. There’s a high water table there too, which I didn’t know. The alder stand in this area is providing firewood/habitat at a fast rate. A river birch area for sure…

I’m ready to head home, and yet could keep myself happily occupied here too. I have a quilt to pull together by early Saturday, a meeting Friday, veggies to plant, and my first Covid vaccine next week. My next trip is scheduled, and I miss my guy.