I decided to take some time for myself today and clean up the woods trails and the graveyard. Started with cleaning up the grave site. I do it every year and spend some time visiting with my old best friend. The best dog I ever have known is buried here. Its not much of a grave or a fancy marker but Dizzy Lizzy was not a fancy dog. We spent a lot of time sitting on that log together pretending to squirrel hunt but really just sitting there watching nature play out around us. When I finally croak its all arranged for me to be planted right next to Dizzy Lizzy and a simple marker " He rest a man and his best friend, together forever." While sitting on the log visiting with Liz another old friend sneaked up behind me and bleated making me about jump out of m skin. A doe that I somehow became friends with while sitting on that same log 5 years ago. She was still a speckled little fawn back then. LOL I held a carrot I had in my pocket out for her and she liked it. She used to come up to me hinting for a vegetable, a peach or a apple a lot. Now days she might pester me once or twice a year if I am lucky. LOL I was going to get a picture of her stand two feet away from me, but the camera made its beep and scared the hell out of her and she jumped over me and bolted out into the field and spun around to see what strange monster was after her that makes a BEEP sound!!! So I got a picture of her at around 50 feet. Finished up my visit with my best friend and headed over to the Ginseng patches to see how they are doing this year. Ginseng is my favorite hobby. I don't dig it or sell it anymore just collect seeds and try to keep patches of Wild Seng alive and growing. Not many wild patches left anymore. Grabbed some picture of some of the older plants. This one is 88 years old this year (Can count the notches on the neck to see exactly how old a plant is) The one to left of her is 47 years old. and about 16-18 of her 1 year olds under her. Going to pop them up when they go dormant and move them to another hill side to start a new patch. This one is 15 years old and one of my prettier Ginseng plants. Although this one is in the running for the prettiest plant. She is a 29 year old. Ginseng is looking amazingly good this year despite the heat and lack of rain! So I moved on up the trail to another plant that popped up in the middle of the trail about 8 years ago. I decided not to grade her out and made jig in the trail around her. She is a Lady Fern and she just keeps getting bigger every year and the jig in the trail keep becoming a bigger bow around her. Finished my long loop around the trails and hit the SW corner County Road and headed back to the house and some AC it was starting to get real warm at this point Had been a long while since I just went wandering around the woods trails. I really need to start walking the main trail loop every evening again. It is good for clearing the head, getting some exercise and just enjoying nature. And now that trails are all cleaned up and mowed down to the mulched leafs, it is a easier walk of about 2 miles (Lots of winding and looping on the main trail)
Nice ,,, your Dizzy Lizzy story took me back to my favorite best friend,, ol Spot ,, she didn't like guns ,, anytime I grabbed a gun ,, she'd hide under the bed till I put it up. But if I dressed up in cammies and grabbed a rifle and walked out in the woods at 05 ,, she'd be right beside me ,, I'd find my spot ,,sit down and kick back,, and ol Spot would sit there constantly scanning the area ,, if she heard anything russeling , or walking thru the area ,, her ears would perk up and she'd be pointing that way . Other times she'd lay there with her head in my lap till the russeling happened again. Not sure why she was like that ,, but sometimes we'd sit out there for 3-4 hours ,,, just enjoying the peace and quiet.
Its funny you say clear your head by taking a walk. Most people don't even know what that means. I think our bodies are built to move and staying still causes all sorts of mental, physical, and spiritual problems. They say that Ginseng is endangered in our area. The state says there are only 20 plants left in the whole state but you can still pick them. Do they realize that their lies are obvious? I saw at least 20 on my walk this morning.
Liz completely owned me and had me very well trained! She even made me buy her a throne to rule from. And claimed my Afghan as her own!!! Then she got a ear infection or so it appeared at first. It turned out to be a fast growing brain tumor that just destroyed her and slowly caved the whole right side of her head in. This was last picture of her before the Vet came out and set her spirit free. We both knew the end was near and she didn't want to leave anymore than I wanted her to leave but she told me "Dad its time I just can't take anymore!" Even in the last days she would not leave my side and did here best to be with me every step of every day. What do you do when the Pit bull won't get out of the chair you want to nap in? YOU USE THE PIT Bull as a bed! How I like to remember Dizzy Lizzy! Always ready to go wherever I went whether it was 10 feet or 100 miles. I swear she came back 5 Months later as Baby Poo (Izzapoo what I always called Liz). When Izzapoo was born instead of going to a teat, she kept bumbling her way to me, the only way she would stay on a teat is if I put her there and left my hand beside her while she nursed. As Baby Poo grew the More Dizzy Lizzy she became. Not long after this picture she started scaling the pressure gate that kept the pups in the laundry room every night and I would wake up every morning with her curled up against my neck. And just like Lizzy, Poo became my full time guardian and is with me every step of every day. A few differences, Baby Poo is a 80 pound half pit half Aussie Shep. Baby Poo HATES other people and won't let anyone get closer than 10 feet to me. She does tolerate Mrs T5R but does not like or trust her and always keeps a close eye on Mrs T5R just in case she is up to some sketchy stuff. She loves to ride in the truck whether it is 10 feet or 100 miles but she can't go to town or any where that there are other people. Took her to the grain elevator with me once, Old friend that owns it shook my hand as I was leaving and Poo literally flew through the driver side window (Through the glass) and chased him up a bin ladder. She takes this "YOU DO NOT TOUCH MY DADDY" stuff a little to seriously! There was one day I could not find her any where, which is very much out of the normal. It was at about the same time I took the above picture so she was still only 1/3 grown. I called, I searched and finally started walking the woods trail. I finally found her, sitting on the log just staring at Lizzy's grave totally ignoring me and every thing else. I sat down beside her and we sat there a while and it was like Lizzy had never left. Then without warning she jumps off the log spins around mid air, hits the ground facing me and spring right back up into my chest, knocks me backward off the log, grabs my hat and takes off at a dead run for the cabin. But kept running back down the trail to toss my hat up, catch it, shake the hell out of it and tease me with it and repeat all the way back to the Cabin.. Where she was sitting on the porch with my hat laying beside her when I finally caught up. Exact same game Lizzy played with me when she decided we were done sitting on the log. Any time I can't find Poo now, I just head to log and there she is sitting on it staring at those two rocks. Almost like part of her is here and part of her is in the spirit world and she is communing with herself. Then we repeat that hat ritual when she is done. I have got wise to that jump off the log spin around part and get cannon balled center of the chest! Big difference between a 25 pound Jack Russel Lizzy and a 80 pound Poo Tank!!! So I dodge to the side as soon as she jumps off the log but she still grabs the brim of my hat as she passes by and runs off with it. Poo even took ownership of my Afghan and slept in the pink command chair until she got so big that she collapsed it. I used to think OK I am just projecting Lizzy onto Poo but over the years it has became clear that its not me projecting. Just to many things and quirks that were unique to Lizzy that Poo has in her. Different but the Same.
Man ,, that's a hell of a story ,, took me from smiles, to tears , back to smiles . I'd sure like to get another dog ,, ole Spot used to go everywhere I went,, even to work,,, she wouldn't stay home ,, and when I did leave her at home ,, she made me regret it when I got back. But I'm just running the roads to much these days ,, maybe when I slow down in a year or so I'll start looking for another one . Congrats on having the best friend ever made .
Not really lies on the Ginseng. Almost all of the wild has been dug. What you will find is a lot of wild simulated that is from seed spread around to reintroduce it where it was once abundant and all dug out. I used to hike the Shawnee a lot when I was in my 20s and wild ginseng was still fairly abundant there. Last time out a couple of years ago I found a couple hundred plants over the course of 5 days and all but two of them were wild simulated. Wild Simulated falls somewhere in between the cultivated strains and the wild strains pretty easy for the trained eye and hand to tell the difference between wild and wild simulated seng. Not saying wild simulated is bad as it is better than no Ginseng in the woods. I am as guilty as many other of buying a couple od pounds of wild simulated seed and taking it out to where there used to be wild patches and raking it in. Sadly when Wild shot up over $1200 per pound back in 2013 people hit the woods hard and dug up every root they could find and destroyed entire patches that were hundreds of years old and had been dug and managed by multiple generations. Wild Goldenseal went way up in price that year as well and is fairly hard to find now as well for the same reason. I took a snip from the 88 year old plant and sent it to a University Lab for genetic testing and it is 100% Mid Central wild strain. Been collecting seeds every fall and stratifying half of them and putting the other half around the base under the floor leafs for 14 years now. And have gone from the 14-15 wild plants that were originally here to a whole lot more. Went back to the half dozen patches I dug as a kid that were discovered by others and dug clean and found a handful of 2-3 year old plants hanging on. I dug them up when they went dormant and moved them here and reseeded the patches with wild simulated seed. Patches have a bunch of 9-10 year old plants now. The roots I moved and planted here are 11-14 years old now and the same mid central strain as the Natives here so no need to segregate them. Shame I dropped all those 1x6 boards with rusty 3 1/2 nails sticking up out of them all around the patches here. I really need to get out there and get them all found and picked up LOL its always a shame when illiterate and color blind trespassers can't see the PURPLE POST I have Every 25 feet around the woods or read the NO TRESPASSING signs in between every PURPLE POST. They have done a pretty good job of finding those missing boards for me over the years though.............
As far as taking a walk to clear the head.......... I think you are right the vast majority of people now days just would not get it. Most People sit inside and walk on concrete. People no longer know how to see, listen or smell everything around them. They have screens that have narrowed their perceptions from a few inches to a couple of feet of screen space and that has became their reality. Even when they do go outside and venture off the concrete they have their ear pieces in, eyes on a screen that is smarter than they are and are pretty much oblivious to everything around them.
Rough start to the Lake Project with both machines breaking down on day 1 with in a hour of each other. Now there is progress being made!
Nice plants! I tried to grow some in Massachusetts a couple years back, but I don't think it took. Although there are some ginseng-looking plants where I planted the seed. I'm not sure if it's ginseng or a look-alike. Not sure if it will grow in Massachusetts, or if we're too far north.
