Friday, October 12, 2012

Yesterday I stopped at Mary's Diner in Port Sanilac for breakfast on my way up to Sans Souci. I stopped again in front of the old VFW hall there and picked up a few more horse chestnuts, serendipitously, as it turned out. 

Although I am disappointed that nothing has been done in the pole barn for about three weeks, I had a wonderful day up in Michigan's Thumb on Lake Huron and spent several very productive and relaxing hours working in the north east deciduous 'forest' removing scrub trees, pulling out grapevines, and tossing wood trimmings into the south ravine near the bluff.

                               The following photos were taken last spring.
    Although the leaves are still on the trees currently, they will soon again look like this.

I long for the day when I can take my Icelandic Sheepdogs with me so I don't have to rush home to take care of them after only a few hours up there. Kata and Pila have visited singly and together and loved it. Once I have a bed in the FS/NX, the water is connected and there is a fenced area, I should be able to spend the night there and work at my leisure.

While hauling branches from the north on the left across the field shown above to the ravine on the south to the right, I noticed that most of the black walnut and horse chestnut seeds that we planted recently have been dug up by some animal and eaten so I will move on to "plan B" - which is to plant the seeds in a pot at home, leave them outside to rest during the freezes and thaws of winter, watch for spring germination and, then, if it happens, take the seedlings up there for transplanting next year. I am very curious to know what animal dug them up. Raccoon? Opossum? Deer? Pig? Turkeys? Fox? Ah! Nature!!

I started to remove the broken off stump on the right in the above photo. As I removed some bark and starting sawing at the base - yes, using a hand saw, I noticed an unusual species of ant that I had never seen before just under the bark. Of course I stopped, as anyone who knows me would understand. The torpid ant colony included several workers, eggs, larvae, winged adults, and at least one mature queen. After being rudely exposed to the elements by me, I hope they were able to recover. I have enjoyed learning about ants since I was a kid. I have read several of the works of Edward O. Wilson including The Ants written with Bert Holldobler. 

In my evergreen forest, seen below in the distance behind the pole barn, I have seen several mounds of forest ants similar to the species I've read about in Northern Europe. The road you can see in the distance cuts through my forest and runs through my property to the plain in the foreground where I will build, hopefully soon, at Sans Souci.

The two-tiered deck, shown below in late winter, sits on the bluff, faces Lake Huron to the east and is shielded from the sun in the summer by the trees surrounding it. It will be a perfect spot to drink coffee and tea in the morning, cocoa in the afternoon and other adult beverages in the late afternoon and evening. I hope I have visitors. That's what the NX is for!

My immediate neighbors to the south, John and Nancy, have offered to mow the phragmites seen in the photo above in the distance below the decks by the water's edge if they have my permission to use the black topped access road on my property which leads to my beach. Yes! They do. Have my permission. 

I have met several neighbors including Denny and Margaret to the north, and to the south; I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.

My Lake Huron beach looking east towards Canada.