Ted fulfilled most of his life's bucket list when he spent 25 years bringing a derelict farm into the 20th century. The only other item on his list is to manage a forest. Today's adventure took a tiny stab at that.
Our task today was to find the three wood duck boxes that he'd installed last winter on the Lone Pine Marsh Braham Tract. Folks from the Northumberland Land Trust wanted a clearer access to the boxes for the ducks. Ted said he'd do it. It was weighing on his mind, so today was the day.
That's a long way to carry an extension ladder and a chain saw.
The first box was easy to find.
You can see the wood duck nesting box just under Ted's elbow.
The second box was slightly south of the first one. Hmmmm.... should have worn my gardening boots. I had to pick my way on the humps of marshy grass, carrying the chainsaw. Ted wore his work boots for safety, and he managed to get both of them waterlogged.
Thank goodness for zoom. I could stand afar and not get wet.
Below is the first box and I'll show you the second one later in the post. No excuse for a wood duck to miss this home now.
Now for the third one: we walked back 500' north and east to find the third box. This should fulfill Ted's dreams to manage a forest: we had to bushwhack our way to the edge of the pond.
The vegetation is junglelike. Not sure how that fancy rainbow appeared on Ted's chest, but isn't it cool?
After 15 minutes of bushwhacking, we reached the shore of the pond. Some purple loosestrife flowers greeted us. "Welcome to the west side of the pond. There is no tree with a wood duck box here."
Doggone.
It's one thing to dream of managing a forest when you are in your twenties. It's a different story when you are 70 and actually doing it. We'll wait for the leaves to fall of and look for it then.
This is the entrance to where it is not.
And, this is the second box, ready for spring.
“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”
Paulo Coelho
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