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 think I would get the firewood stacked faster if I did not examine every piece. Mother called it lolly gagging. Teachers said I did not pay attention. And Miss May, who lived next door, said it was woolgathering, but sooner or later I would have enough to knit a sweater. Or write a blog or create a painting. Seriously there are some interesting things in your woodshed. And stacking firewood is not dissimilar from the Zen revolution of Chop Wood Carry Water.  "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water" And maybe checking out all the unique pieces of wood isn't exactly what the Zen masters meant by chop wood, carry water. But I find piece in doing routine and repetitive tasks. Gandhi spun wool, literally. I stack firewood or drive the empty miles of the high plains or carry water to my studio plants. And sometimes I find enlightenment and sometimes a good photograph or a painting or great piece of wood ...