When Things Move Slow then Clean & Clear!!

The weather has lessened a few degrees, enough to make it feel a little cooler at night (NOTE: VERY little – but you can feel it)!  However, during the day that difference of 2 degrees is not enough to change much at midday.  So it is still slow-mo time at Freedom Acres as I go there on Sundays to work.  The other slow-mo is the speed at which other things are happening … like getting going with Duke Energy and getting all the pieces together to submit the permits for the overall work including the shipping containers.
I have become quiet a champ at not letting myself get totally crazed about the pace at which things move.  It is what it is and I do whatever I can each week to move others along.  But, as I tell my clients, I know there are things that are actually out of my control so I need to do what I can and hand the rest up to the Universe to handle.  The Serenity Prayer has become my non-stop chant for now.
As for the things I don’t need others for, I have pulled back my monkey mind quite a bit for the sake of not pushing my body beyond it’s limits.  I need to remind myself that there is a reality to some physical things.  I am actually 5’2″, I actually weigh 90 lbs, I am actually almost 66 years old, and that sun actually is hot. LOL.  Some might call this just good common sense, but as a woman who has let very little stop me in life it is a victory that I am sure the Universe has been waiting on.  I have some suspicion that my “pulled-back” mode probably still spins circles around others … but comparing is an ugly game no matter what we compare ourselves to (others or younger versions of us, etc.), so I just keep dealing with me.
So, I have resorted to cleaning and clearing areas of the land at a slow pace with the required water and shade breaks.  O, Hallelujah!  This week I busied myself with continuing to trim and clear the long windy path from the single wide gate to the home area and continuing to clean and clear the little tree clump spaces in the home area. I managed to spend 4 hours on it with a few breaks in between.  The good news is the path I worked on is heavily wooded and so I was in the shade for most of that.  I was also blessed with it being a little overcast by the time I got up under the trees in the home area.
Last week I had a snafu with trying to chainsaw branches by holding the chain saw above my head (one branch out of dozens finally swung in an unpredictable direction and hit me … I am OK, but I will have quite a scar from that rip on my arm). Sooooooo, back to my Dad’s quip about every job is about having the right tools.  I got myself a few new tools.  I got an extension pole tree trimming 8′ chainsaw and a manual extension tree pruner. These tools were life changing.  The manual extension pole pruning tool would cut branches up to about 3/4″ thick and the extension pole chainsaw trimmer could get everything else that was thicker.  They both doubled to get things on the ground that were under other growth that I couldn’t reach without the extension poles. Brilliant!
There is a greenbrier vine filled with thorns (I think it is Laurel Greenbrier?) that is out of control on the property. I assume the rhizomes (root system) has been growing for years and is extensive, aggressive and strong.  It literally has climbed all over the trees throughout the property.  It looks like, to me, that it is suffocating the trees as it winds itself throughout the branches and around leaves.  I get that every part of the environment is part of the eco-system of the land but, as I was cleaning and clearing this Sunday it became an obsessive mission of mine to free the trees from it as I came in contact with them.  I was cutting vine after vine at the ground and then cutting it off the trees as high as I could reach.  I am not under the delusion that this will stop them from coming back up but I imagined each tree I released signing a sigh of relief as I removed it. 
The windy path to the home area from the single gate on the SW corner to the NE corner was the biggest goal of the day.  I went a few feet at a time with the brush cutter and my two new tools.  I cleared and cleaned the new growth in the path and trimming and cutting back the branches and new growth on the sides of the path.  Talk about an upper body workout!  Last week while I was at the property I had one heck of a time turning the Jeep around at the gate so I cleared out a whole area there to be able to do a smooth turnaround. WhoooooooooHoooooo! Athie, the Jeep, can now bump through without fear of damage.
Along the way I discovered new mushrooms (Russulaceae Fungi) and more beautiful weeds/wildflowers (Giant Ironweed & Plains Snakecotton).  I am using the PictureThis plant app to figure things out and check on what is possibly poisonous.  I am particularly intrigued by mushrooms, but so many of the ones I have uncovered are toxic to humans and animals so Gracie and I need to stay clear and take photos from a distance.
I have been pulled to doing a lot of reading from authors, mainly Indigenous women elders and shamen, who speak about connecting to the land … beautiful Gaia.  I am so moved by their connection to and how they honor the land and all the beings of the land.  I find myself, when at the property, “feeling” the plant beings and the land more each week.  I have been thanking them all as I move through them and as I cut their branches, promising to feed them back into the land for their natural cycle of life.  I am developing a deeper understanding of what a gift each plant, weed, insect, fungi and even the aggressive vines are to each other and the planet and to us humans.  I know I am just beginning to connect but it is such an expansive experience. I know I am truly blessed to be able to be on this land and serve it as it will take care of me.
As usual, I have posted videos of this week on the Freedom Acres YouTube Channel.  There are videos of the clearing the property, an update on the rainwater collection tank, the Root Organics fertilizer saga and Gracie is continuing to manage all the work I do from her new spot in her Jeep bed where it is cooler.  Feel free check them out by clicking HERE.  Also, feel free to subscribe and you can get notified when new videos go up! 🙂

I won’t be at the property this coming Sunday as it is my 1st Sunday-Catch-Up-Weekend when I handle the rest of my life off the property. I will be continuing to move the various pieces of the whole project that are still left to move forward.  I will keep investigating growing things, creating women’s circles, discovering about the peoples whose land this was before, and ways to be as sovereign as possible, etc. There are lifetimes of things to learn in this remaining lifetime. 
I never know what speed things will move at.  A plumber has been secured. The permits will get submitted and hopefully I will get movement with Duke energy. I will keep trusting the Universe. I am considering that even though I cannot be living on the property for my birthday that I could still spend it on the property …. so who knows that might be event happening the next time you hear from me.  I always welcome any good MoJo, sent in our direction, for Freedom Acres, Gracie and I for all of the continued progress.  It is so much appreciated!!!  I send you love and freedom til the next week!!