Sidetracked Charley

The Wood to be stacked When I lived in Questa with my late husband. I participated more completely in the gathering of wood to heat the house. We would initially venture up the Cabresto Canyon to an area dead and down trees could be harvested. Marc manned the chainsaw and I fetched and carried back to the trailer. Then home to unload.  After three or four days of gathering it was time to split the wood and stack. The local myth was the more cords split and stacked the more secure the marriage; the more stable your residency. On the day I moved out and over the mountain there was five cords of wood by the garage. I had totally participated in every single piece of that. But on December 10th the day after I moved in to my house in Black Lake I had to begin looking for wood to burn. I hadn't a clue how to get the precious commodity if I didn't have a pickup, a flat bed trailer, a chain saw, and a log splitter. I discovered the full pickups of wood in the parking lots in ...

Halloween Snow Halloween is generally when the ski areas begin to make snow. It is considered a point in the weather that temperatures are such that snow can be kept on the slopes. Halloween is also myth holds when we get a first snow. But it is usually just a teasing snow. A couple inches here and there. But this year it was 10 inches at my house, 12 inches at my friend's house up the hill, and the ski area maintains 16 inches. After last year's non-winter I was totally unprepared for it to arrive this early this year. Firewood had not been delivered and I had only enough for one fire in case the power went off. And it did go off. For almost eight hours in one chunk and then off and on much of the rest of the day. Fall had seemed like it was going to last forever. My attentions had been on putting the garden to bed, and mulching all the beds. Even sowing some seeds for the first snow to cover. Hoop house frame But with the power off an no wood in the ...

I wrote a poem this morning on Creative Journey about fall creeping into the valley. It seems early but I only have to look at my photo files and garden journal to know it is about time. The grass is not as gold as in the photo above but that may be because of the extended monsoon season. But there and there is a branch on an aspen which is already gold or a Virginia Creeper vine turning red. There are just so many images you can put in a poem unless it is the Iliad. But as one is writing it so many images spring to mind. And I found myself thinking long about the signs of fall. The hummingbird feeders are down to two which I fill only every other day. That is down from three filled three times a day. There are now more seed pods than bulbs on the holly hocks. I shall miss them. Under house heat does not go on until the end of October but I plugged in the heated door mat on the deck outside the studio. It was gift. I would never have bought myself one. But when it fails...

Replenished Wood Shed I think it was around the 17th or 18th of February when everyone started talking about snow . You will note in the photo above there is lots of uncovered grass. The January thaw which began in December right after a minimalist white Christmas continued all through January and half of February. Oh, not that there wasn't talk of snow. The weather channels and sites always seemed to threaten snow. And there was a small, slight chance here and there that issued an inch or less which because of temps instantly melted. Snow became something which happened in Boston or Maine, and all but the ski areas here seemed rather grateful. So when the talk of a major storm heading our way first started we all rolled our eyes and said, Oh, yeah, sure in unison. I was nursing the last of two cords of wood (October and November called for more fires). I was looking at the garden beds and planning for spring but there was just something about the wind or lack there of. Or...