Walking the Land

With the hay now bush hogged and cut to some tree lines, my husband and I decided to explore the area and started out with great purpose. He did bring along a stick from the garage and I had my camera in hand. The day before in the evening we saw two coyotes slinking through the rise a little ways out where the deer regularly cross from the tree line to the larger woods. One was a darker grey brown and in the lead. The second was a lighter shade grey and halted momentarily when one of us spoke. We had the window opened and it was calm. He stared and then bolted for the woods. It all happened so fast that going for my camera was useless. It was exciting but also worrisome. 

As we headed out I thought that having a Nikon was a good choice after all. With the steel body it may add weight on a trek, but with the strap would make a hefty weapon if needed. We walked down on the cut area not seeing much action anywhere and entered the tall hay and ragweed wall. It was well up to my head. The farmer hadn’t quite cut to the woods edge as I had hoped. We waded through the weeds stepping down on hefty thorny stalks until we met the tree line. We were dismayed to see the branches and the growth in there. A machete would have been handy. It was another wall of small trees and still the weeds between them. When we emerged on the other side, we were met with another yellow wall of ragweed to counter. We did find a deer path soon and even saw areas where they rested and it was a relief to step into an open area even that small. We decided to head back through some more trees attempting to come out at the creek edge and from there to the driveway. 

As we moved forward, we flushed out three pheasants or partridge. I didn’t see which species; it was such a sudden flurry and flight. We fought the high grasses again and were disappointed that the creek edge was dry from the hot weather and fairly grown over with alders as well. So I suggested we head for the road. I could see the sweat areas on my husbands shirt and I was very hot by then and getting tired. We didn’t think to bring water on what was to be a stroll to the woods. When we emerged onto the drive, he was still determined to find an entrance to some woods so we headed to the back woods where we have been before. It is easier to access and he wanted to find the lot marker there. Once into the woods I found it not so easy as it was in the fall that we had entered before and walked  through the trees. It had flourished with new growth and was a tighter fit to get about. He found the marker and the red ties and placed them on a tree branch above so that it would be easily seen next time. I didn’t get much to photograph on this excursion except for ourselves, a lovely Queen Anne's Lace plant, a butterfly and weeds. My battery ran out as we discovered apple trees and a refreshing shaded, sunlit spotted path through some trees. Note to myself to be sure the battery is charged and to buy a back up next trip into town.

Not discouraged form our attempt to gain access to the rest of our land, we will prepare better and attempt another foray into the jungle known as the other half, again very soon.

Seeing Patterns

bush hogginh

I am starting to get familiar with patterns on the land now. I have been sitting on the deck and watching the birds and the deer peruse their territory. A hummingbird that is very bold or not familiar with people have been visiting me on the front and back decks. It flies right to my face, only a foot or so away, stops and seems to study me, and then zips away again. These strange face to face visits have happened several times but I haven’t been able to lift the camera before he dashes off again.The deer have been almost as evasive of my camera, but I finally got a few shots. We are not encouraging them to stay long as we are protecting our garden vegetables from the many deer that habitant the area. One deer brings her two fawns regularly and there is a lone wolf, which I call him, because he appears by him self in the front area fields. He seems to be puzzled about us and will stare for a while as if trying to figure from where we had sprouted. 

We have two red tailed hawks that also make about seven or eight searches low over the fields in a pattern that is interrupted when it spots and chases prey. We can tell it has something in its sights as it weaves in and out and sharply turns and makes a dive into the grass. 

With the hay cut now, we can see this action much clearer as it doesn’t hide the activity in the fields any more. It will also allow me to investigate the area with some convenience now. I have access to the tree line as well. We haven’t cut all the acreage so some will stay wild and be more of a hiding space for the birds and animals and remain in a more natural state. There is a bevy of birds in the tree line and they zip in and out from the fields and seem appreciative of our recent cutting. We are told that the insect level will go down with the hay cut. We haven’t really been bothered too much with insects here. It could be the breezes that blow through. It can be calm and hot and suddenly a breeze will flow through the trees like a wave and cool the area. 

I enjoy sitting on the deck and listening to the music in the trees as it starts at one end and flows through to the other end of the line. The branches seem to sing as the wind blows in and out and the chorus is embellished with the many songs of the birds. I know we must have many species by the variety of the chirping. The hawks shrill call is most recognizable of them all. I photographed many of the plants before they were cut with the bush hog. I intend to find out all the names of them and know what is growing on the land. Some like the daises and Queen Anne Lace are apparent but I was not sure of many of the common weeds. I will gather some tree leaves as well and make an effort to name the many varieties here. I know the alders as they line the creek running and cutting across the fields which drains the rain water. I will call it Alder Creek. 

Tadpoles getting legs

We are home now with the installation of a rural mailbox. A trip to the near town gave us our address. It wasn’t the one we had assumed but with a check of the post offices discovered the postal area cuts between our neighbour and our lot line. So we are in the next town with a different postal code. That was a surprise and we had to change again some of the address notifications we had sent out.

Momma and fawn

Storm clouds in big sky

We are also getting to know the area better.  The knowledge of the area is coming to us from default. A nail in the tire had us searching out a nearby service station and we had a lovely chat with the owner. He sent us from there after a spare tire change to the next town where we could buy and install a matching tire. So we looked about that town as well and had a coffee in the local shop while waiting for the car. On the way home one afternoon we stopped at the nearby community centre for a strawberry tea. We sat with an older woman who was alone at a table for four , as the other tables were quite full. We received much information about our neighbourhood and met her daughter and spouse. I wish to investigate the older stones in the accompanying cemetery. The daughter seem to be the historian for that cemetery. Meanwhile our daughter signed us up for involvement in the centre, so expect a call one day. Of course we are meeting people like the farmer who cut the hay and other services we have needed. We are definitely feeling more like home here and now visitors are fulfilling their promises to come to see us. A couple have just left and we expect more soon. We aren’t set up fully yet or have the house organized but are managing to receive people. That is making it our home as we introduce them to the house and local towns.

Living on the Land

It has yet to be one week living in the new house on our land. It has been stressful moving our belongings and settling in to the new area and new lifestyle. The new lifestyle is a shared experience with our daughter and grandson, so accommodating everyone's habits and routines will take some time to adjust to and incorporate. We haven't as yet moved our furniture and other items from the "before" house. We made several tiring trips loading the cars with what we felt would make us comfortable in the interim until the "before" house sells and all items at once will come into the new house. I suspect there will be a combo yard sale as we weed out items we don't need and are duplicated.

Mounds of Top Soil referred to as Anthills by some.

Meanwhile we have spent a few nights in the stillness and the darkness of the countryside. Maybe it
is the construction soundness of a new house or just a quiet area, but I haven't heard anything during the nights. And it is definitely very black out there. We are also adjusting to a very long driveway of 1400 feet to the road. The distance from the road may be another reason for the stillness . It should indeed be an interesting experience in the winter snows to come. The house area is not landscaped yet and we have mounds of top soil piled along the drive where it was scraped off for the road construction. This will be used to level and grade the yard area so that we can finally seed and not be hostage to the muds in the rains. I am also missing my flower gardens which  I experienced in the "before" house. I will pot some of those plants requiring thinning and bring them here to the new house. But I shall have to patient until the grading is complete. My daughter, however, has the vegetable garden in already.

There is a deer in that hay!

Whether we enjoy fresh produce will be up to the deer and my husband's attempt at a garden mesh fence to hold the large creatures off from that area. They are not as timid as I thought deer should be and look at us with indignation as we yell and whack sticks to chase them away. There are tracks everywhere so it wasn't unexpected that we would be visited by these animals. There is at least six in a herd that may all show up or a few at a time. I was surprised at how large and solid an animal they were, as they jumped away from fairly near the house. The scarecrow is obviously just a decor for the garden. I shall have to get a good photo of the deer the next visit by waiting a little more before trying to run them off and before the mesh fence is complete. I am sure that they will visit in the next few days as they have been regular in their appearances.

Another project is the cutting of the hay in the  fields. It has become very high and gives the deer cover and courage to visit. I do not wish to run into any other animal residents while trying to force a path through the hay. Although I haven't heard from anyone in the area that there are ticks here, I prefer not to test out that theory. The hay at present is acting as a fence to keep me from exploring further into the fields. So a call will go out for the farmer that will bush hog the land for us. Then I plan to walk the entire area  and take out my pencils for sketching and painting. I desperately want to record the area in my art.


We are beginning to feel a little like this is home and should be settling more as we bring in some other belongings to the house and become familiar to the area and the towns. It has been a very impacting transition. And we recognized all the newness is the stress that we are feeling now. That will dissipate as we become familiar with a routine. Twenty-two years in one house and place does not shed as quickly as expected with a total change in lifestyle.

Near the Natural Spring

A mile or so from the new house stands a natural spring site where many in the area stop to collect water. It is an active popular spot. Over time it seems others have augmented to the natural beauty of the woods environment. There are a few benches built into the woods inviting people to come in and enjoy the site. Another addition is a flower box where someone has planted colourful blooms. It is slightly rocky and steep but open with worn paths up the slope and deeper into the trees. 

There is a spot paved off the main road where two cars could comfortably park and access the water. The water comes from a pipe into the rock and flows into a large wooden barrel that overflows with another pipe running the water into a ditch. Mention the spring on Greenhill road, and everyone seems to know the location. 

I had entered a project offered by the art house site out of Boston. It asked for entries to take on a mystery project. Intrigued, I decided to take up the challenge as I like the fact it would mean giving away your artwork as a public site art piece. I began the piece and immediately thought of the spring area for a public art site. Looking up into the woodsy area, an artwork could not be missed.  Enthusiastically I decided it was a good opportunity to get back into my sculpture. I wanted an easy material that would take the elements. I had some winter stone plaster and cement product that I thought would work well especially as there was limited time to the project and sculpture is a slow building process. It had been a few years since I used this material.

While I got the wire mesh structure ready and applied some burlap dipped in the winter stone to the wire as an armature, the package from the art house project arrived. In the entry was a theme I hadn’t expected but I was already into my piece. Luck was with me and my idea piece suited the theme perfectly. The theme was, “Robots take over an elementary school.” I chuckled as I had the child already in process and it was waving with a hello, enthusiastically. This is how I think robots would be received coming into an elementary school.  I would use a more contemporary method because of time and exaggerate the body language but make the face realistically so that it is received with familiarity by viewers.

When completed, my husband attached it to the site and it showed up well in the woods environment, seen easily from the spring well head.  I am sure it will be received with a chuckle as it greets the people collecting the water. It is anonymous as the mystery part of the project and will be interesting to see how it is accepted and if it remains on site. Each time we go up to the land during the build or when we move there, we will view the sculpture piece in the woods at the spring. MY little touch of self in my new home.

Spring Bursts Without Me

The next visit to the land to check on the house construction was met with a scene of white and pale green buds and blossoms that had bloomed since my last visit. I was excited to see that the grasses were growing higher and hay was beginning to get higher on the surrounding untouched field. It was also a panic as well. For if the hay grows too high, it will prevent me from walking on all the field that I was planning to explore. The summer we posted the poles for the proposed road up the hill, my husband and the over six foot tall contractor were lost in the hay. They used their long poles to wave to each other and find the road direction to stake the poles. I am much shorter than both these men. We had plans to bush hog the field and control the height of the hay, but as we are late finishing the house, so is the plan to cut the hay before it gets too tall. I will have to wait and be patient once we are into the house and later into the season.

Meanwhile where we had plowed up the grounds for the house build, the grasses were not too high yet and I wandered up to the tree line to investigate the numerous types of bush and trees coming to life in this new season. I haven’t yet bought my guide book on flora and  fauna of Nova Scotia so that I can learn the names of the species. I took a few photographs and will check online for some tree types to match my pictures of buds and repost results of pictures there. I do notice that I can get a CD of identification of trees from Natural Resources and will call  for that item.

I haven’t yet seen any mammals like the contractor had seen and strained my eyes toward the far tree line hoping to see some deer or small movements in the grass. So far on the land the birds and insects is all I have taken note of in my search. I did notice the hornets that were enjoying the heat off the deck seemed unusually large to me. Maybe having been left to their own devices in this abandoned hay fields, they have managed to grow rather large. I wonder if all the species I will come across will be somewhat healthier for living here. That could be a bit of a worry depending on what kind of mammal we run into while outdoors.

I had noticed when we turned in that the lengthly drain ditches, yet to be graded to the gravel road top, had something dark and moving in the shallow water running to the main stream at the bottom of the hill. I walked back down from the house the fourteen hundred feet of driveway to the road. There were black tadpoles filling the ditches and I stopped to photograph. Another research project for me to see what species of frog will develop from these tadpoles. Another fear as it has only been a few weeks that we could hear the spring peepers along the highway as we drove. We had once rented a house having just moved to our present home, and it stood across from a marsh. For a terrible week, we were serenaded by spring peepers day and night, but mostly night. At one point madness had set in and I opened the bedroom window after midnight and screamed at them to shut up. I had been awake for nights at this point. The chorus immediately stopped for all of fifteen seconds before resuming. As romantic a sign of warm weather finishing our long winter that these peepers sing to us, I fear that next spring a week of madness waits for us.

 http://www.bedfordart.ca

As usual my visit up to the house, did not leave me with time to take out the art supplies or get right into the woods. The construction still requires our diligence and we were off to make some needed purchases. I had carried my sketchbook from the Art house coop museum project, but didn’t have time to open the book. This is a world wide project where an artist fills the small book with her art and sends it back into the Boston museum where it will eventually go out on tour with all the others. In my second year of the project I want to record the land with drawings. I will have to wait until I have more time on the land to use my art tools. It is to be hoped that as we get closer to completion on the house, that time will come and I will have some artwork for this blog as well.  http://www.facebook.com/bronzecast        

Discovering My New Home On 49 Acres.

The time is coming close where I will move onto the land. Many visits, although short in time, has made me eager to permanently relocate myself in a farming and rolling hill region. And with summer nearing I do not want to miss the unveiling of plant and animal species ,as anxious as I to come out from the long winter. Throw in the fact that the house has been late to complete and the few years we owned the land , only once able to climb the hill to the top because of high hay; I am more than ready to experience dawn and dusk at our land.

With camera in hand on each trip I photographed the house construction noting stages and progress. Now I wish to turn the lens and my hand to discovering what else lives and moves about on the 49 acres. Up to now the builders have had the pleasure to view the regular appearance of about 6 deer in a herd on their daily crossing. They have seen a red tail hawk that appears to be a regular resident as well the eagle I did have a chance to watch overhead at one visit. Then there have been pheasant and quail running through the field and bordering woods. I feel that I am missing out but hope they all put on a show for me once I arrive. 

Are these populars? Next project!

I will search for a book with pictures and detail on the indigenous plant and wildlife of the area, so that I can learn what grows and lives there. Then if adding to the species is necessary I will follow protocol on what should inhabit the area. With solar energy and heat pumps bringing us into a greener era of our life, we should also respect what would be the proper species and get to recognize what and why they are abundant. 

Watching the weather patterns as well will be a new subject to study, just as the farmer that mowed his fields must have participated. Our neighbour whom will grade our soil and clear our long drive, says he knows how the snow lays and drifts so can drain the area around the house when completed. I didn’t realize the science involved in grading the lawn area for maximum drainage. Most of our neighbours are long time residents and know the area as well as all who live there. There is a wealth of information I have already been privilege to with this chap. Although there is new construction with a few neighbours ,so that we aren’t the only newbies on the land, it is prudent as the new residents, to watch and learn the habits and ways of our neighbours. Two already have used the back acreage for snowmobiling for years so that will go on uninhibited. Apparently with their ownership of trail comes a protective nature and was told they would disperse anyone nosing around while we aren’t there.  A benefit for sure for us in exchange of tolerating the movement of machines and with so much space, there isn’t a problem with sharing.

We have even given up the idea of removing the two old vehicles collapsed and rusting in the woods where they were dumped many years ago. It was my first thought to have them removed. but as no one sees value in the process of removal, and the costs looking dear, maybe just leaving them to the elements and the curiosity of visitors, is the way to go for now. So long as they don’t represent a danger, especially to our eight year old grandson, the woods will continue to encapsulate them. And he can use his imagination with the vehicles. This is something we can take our time to revisit. Already I seem to be moving into rural or country mode.

OLd Ford becoming part of landscape

So while I wait to get my camera and canvasses and paints out on the land and the area, I envision the possibilities ahead to a new adventure and life style. I will continue to record my discoveries and art works once I get to the land and my new home. http://www.bedfordart.ca