Changes? The environment - trees and bushes grow and die, I still attempt to save them from deer... life continues. The most marked change is in me; seven years older and perhaps a bit wiser - at least a bit more patient.
Weather is a thing - it's why I bought the property. Last year there was a drought - nothing too severe, but enough of one so that the grasses weeds and flowers didn't need trimming at all through the season. The result was that all the plantings I have been doing over the previous years finally had a chance to get taller than the weeds. Now I need to remember what it is I planted. :) Lilacs, maples, Christmas trees (some of which still look like shoo -in's for Charlie Browns Christmas), and some other things are finally beginning to look like what I was expecting. What hurt during the year of the drought was that I planted 90 poplars. Without irrigation, only 18 survived. I planted 60 more this year, and there has been a lot more rain so they all look very healthy.
I also "upped the game" and rented a brush hog.
I always thought they were enormous and unwieldy machines that would decimate the sacred land. Then I got older. The weed whacker was a step up from the scythe, a tool I still enjoy using, but shorter time upstate and sorer arms and shoulders lead me to seek more mechanization. I took three (sometimes four) days to weed whack the driveway, weeks to do it with the scythe, and 3.5 hours to do it with the brush hog. Love technology.
Wild things are growing and dying too. Many trees and bushes are filling in and looking robust, others are fading. It looks like I have lost all the ash trees along the driveway, probably to the Emerald Ash Borer. The only positive there is I get to practice using a chainsaw, and perhaps get some firewood. A surprise this year was the loss of the pine that greeted us when we got to the cabin. It seemed to die overnight, so I am guessing it was Pine Wilt disease. I made very short work of removing the branches with clippers, hand saw, and a ladder for the higher spots, then shifted to the chain saw for the trunk. It was only about 30' tall so not too difficult. I counted about 25 age rings.
That's all for now...
