Where it was not before

Last year, we built a shed for our home in the woods of Northern Michigan. A shed is somewhat of an understatement, for it could pass for a large gate house, or perhaps a small guest house. It has a front and side porch, covered to protect it from the rain and snow. Windows on the front, rear and side. Eight foot walls with an eleven foot peak. A cross-gable roof. Etc., etc. Everything except plumbing and electricity.

We desperately needed the additional storage space. But our lot was too nice to spoil with just any old shed. We wanted a shed that didn’t look like a shed. In fact, it had to look like a smaller version of our house. The same pitch of the roof, the same front door, the same wood exterior, the same color.

Don’t tell anyone about this at the township, but we built the shed without a permit. I am fairly certain (but not absolutely positive) that we didn’t need one. Our local ordinance requires a permit for any ancillary building (like a shed) if built upon a permanent foundation. And so, we did not attach the building to a foundation. Hence, it is not permanent. The only think that keeps the building on the foundation is the weight of the building. Gravity is a beautiful thing.

I went to the shed yesterday, for the first time this spring. I was surprised to discover that the shed was completely surrounded by poison ivy. Not just a bit of poison ivy here and there, but thick and virtually everywhere. It’s as if someone planted it and cultivated it.

The surprise came from the fact that the poison ivy was not there last year when we built the shed. I know it wasn’t there since I spent a fair amount of time on that piece of ground.

Poison ivy needs moist soil and lots of sunshine in order to flourish. What puzzles me is that this is the same soil that was there last year, and I am reasonably certain that we have the same Sun. So why do we have poison ivy this year and did not have any last year?

I frankly do not know the answer, and yet it is another reminder that nature is always changing. It is never static nor stagnant. Something causes something else, which causes yet something else, and so on. Whatever sequence of events led to the poison ivy this year, didn’t happen last year. But it did happen this year and, so, I now have poison ivy.

Our beach changed a bit too this year. Lake Michigan brought in an extra layer of sand. The ice buildup and strong westerly winds must have done this. The new sand completely buried my fire pit. It was easy enough to build a new one and I kinda like having the extra sand.

The lake level is up nearly a foot this year, although still lower than the historical average. Who knows exactly why. If it snows in Canada next winter, or it there is a bit less evaporation, the lake level will come back up. Or, it could go the other way around and the lake level will drop a bit further.

Simple cause and effect. Maybe if it rains in Ontario tomorrow, it will lead to something, which will lead to something else, etc., etc., and I won’t have any poison ivy next spring.

2019 update: I wrote this post in 2005. Until I re-read it, I had completely forgotten about the poison ivy. It is now 2019 and fourteen springs have passed, and the poison ivy has NOT returned.