Archive for the ‘Chronicle’ Category
Thank You
If I was the kind of person who made resolutions, and I’m not, this would be the time of year when I would have plenty of company. I’m more inclined to make my life decisions in an ongoing fashion, …commonly, every single day.
Every silly thing that happens, each joy or challenge, every lesson that arrives, changes the dynamics of each day’s situations. I write about my experiences, in part, to help me navigate it all. It’s almost a form of therapy. That really should be no surprise. This is a blog. A web log. Each day, a chapter in my book.
Today is the last entry in the last chapter of my volume for the year 2012. It’s been a very good year for us. A monumental year, really. And, tomorrow is another day. There will be plenty of adventure ahead. Thank you for reading. I hope you will continue to follow along.
Until then, throw out all the stops and let this year end in your favorite style. Have some fun tonight and ring in the new year in the manner you best prefer. We will be home, entertaining friends, and basking in the glow of our fireplace. We’ll eat well, play some games, and share plenty of laughs.
Happy New Year, to one and all!
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Not Hard
In the last couple of months, since we have moved into the log home on our new property, I have told, and retold, tales of our finding, and ultimately purchasing this place. We have entertained guests. I have figured out how to use the tractor to plow the driveway. We have introduced ourselves to our neighbors. Still, it is yet to feel like this is truly our home.
We dove right in and started pulling out old fencing a couple of weeks ago, but, with the arrival of the holiday week, work on that project has been on hold. The pause has given us a chance to just be with the place. It is humbling.
There are many things we plan to do, most important of which, will be to add horses to our family, but for now, we are doing our best to gain a sense of belonging in this space, just the way it is.
I can think of a lot harder things I’ve had to do in my life.
Great Present
Yesterday I got a chance to play with the new ‘toy’ I got for Christmas from Cyndie’s parents, …after I successfully accomplished assembling it without any instructions. I am a manual-reading kind of guy, and I must have looked in and around that box, 4 different times, in search of a piece of paper that would define which screws are supposed to go into which holes. Left to my own designs, I came up with a plan that seemed logical to me and didn’t leave any unused parts, and now I have a shovel/plow, with wheels, that I can use when there isn’t enough snowfall to warrant using the tractor.
Therein lies the big challenge: determining how much snow it takes to justify using the tractor. We have been enjoying the beautiful views of light snowfall for a couple days now, but the accumulation has been very slow. After I got started playing with the new hand-plow, it became apparent that there was enough to make it worth getting on the tractor and doing a cleanup, but I was having so much fun with the new shovel that I just kept going with that. Plus, the snow kept sprinkling down throughout, and I’d rather not plow until this snow squall ends and moves out of the area.
Today, I hope to use the tractor to clean the 2/3rds distance of driveway toward the road, which remained to be cleared after I called it quits with the hand-plow yesterday. I made it all the way to the shop/garage, but that was it. I probably would have kept going, because I was having so much fun, but I was running out of daylight. That, and I’m growing self-conscious about the neighbors who seem to be enjoying a bit too much entertainment from observing my every move here. They have admitted to a fascination with my prolonged efforts in our driveway.
I don’t blame them, I expect my trial and error style of learning must look a bit funny. I can’t wait for them to ask about this latest device I am employing to remove snow. It works slick enough that I can brag it up until they want to have one for themselves. It provides great exercise! It is pollution free! There is no expense for fuel! It’s win/win all the way.
Isn’t that a GREAT present?
Moon Lighting
Yesterday afternoon, we were out walking and I decided to find the skeleton of the buck that was in our woods. I wanted to retrieve the head with antlers before any critters got around to nibbling on the antlers. As I was walking back up the hill toward the house, I spotted the moon rising in the east. I set down the deer head and stepped back to see if I could get my little camera to focus on the moon in the distance. It looked captivating to the naked eye, but I was skeptical that I could capture the view I was seeing.
It turned out okay. Not really remarkable, but sufficient in its representation of what I saw.
By the time we were turning out the lights to go to sleep, the views out our windows were aglow with a luminosity unlike anything I have seen in years. It seemed like I would need sunglasses to go for a walk. Tonight will be the full moon, but the forecast is for clouds and a chance of snow, so I don’t expect to see it as bright as it was last night.
Next month, the full moon falls on a Sunday, so if weather cooperates, that weekend could be an opportunity for a moonlight snowshoe hike.
Sounds like an excuse for a party…
Excitement Aplenty
This morning, we are lounging in bed a bit longer than usual, enjoying a day off from work, and a day off from holiday events. The excitement has been enjoyable for the most part, but there is something precious about the return to normalcy that follows.
Not all of the excitement has been the kind we wished to experience. On Christmas eve morning, as I bent forward to put on a sock, the pressure on one of my degenerating discs was too much, and I was served up a dose of prolonged discomfort. Oh joy. The kids arrived and we had a nice breakfast and exchanged presents.
Later, as we were preparing ourselves to leave for an overnight visit to Cyndie’s parent’s house, I spotted the tail end of one of our two recently adopted cats, Mozyr, moving past the glass of the door to the deck, and somehow he was on the outside of the glass! We do not mean for these cats to be outdoor cats, and we were about to leave for a day, with the temperature headed below zero (F) outside.
Julian was still here, so he was able to assist in wrangling Mozyr, but the poor cat was not showing any signs of understanding we were trying to act in his best interests. It was a bit of a keystone cops escapade, with me indoors, just out of the shower, and wrapped in a towel, Cyndie, with a flashlight to look under the deck, carrying a bowl of food for enticement, and Julian, in tennis shoes, treading in the snow around the house, moving about a half-house length behind Mozyr as the cat did nervous laps around the building.
At one point, on the deck, with Julian on one side and Cyndie on the other, I was trying to get to the door to the right of the fireplace to open it, when Mozyr leaped into the closed door on the other side. The impact startled him into a panicked sprint out and around Cyndie, and he returned to another batch of tentative laps around the house.
When, finally, all things lined up to allow a door to be opened where he was able to find it, Mozyr dashed in the house and sprinted at top speed for the safety of the furthest spot under our bed.
We are home again, and the cats appear to have survived their first night alone here. It’s too bad my ailing back doesn’t return to normal in that same amount of time. I expect my problem is a result of the departure from achieving a daily walk, and sessions of exercise. I intend to remedy that situation with a renewed priority to find a way to fit it in, regardless the usual obstructions of my current working schedule.
I’m ready for a little break in the excitement department for a few days. Hopefully, the cats will be thinking along the same lines.
Calm Aftermath
This morning dawns with a fresh version of calm and quiet after our very long, busy, thrilling day yesterday, hosting our first significant ‘open-house’ / holiday gathering event. Friends and family, totaling 56 souls, arrived over a span of 10-hours to share “ooohs” and “aaaahs” over our precious new property and log home.
It is snowing here this morning, little floating flakes that are all resonating ‘calm.’
I could use a few full days of calm right now, but the holiday extravaganza that is before us for the next three, will dramatically limit the amount, for now.
We are grateful for the precious people who shower us with love and attention, and we wish all of them, and all of you who read me here, the very best (including some peace and calm) this holiday season.
Happy Holidays !
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Visible Difference
Good progress was accomplished yesterday, which begins to reveal the opening of space around the barn.
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I took a picture of a couple of our working diagrams, and then I tried to doctor the one on the right to indicate some of the old fence we are removing.
Moving Boundaries
We have finally taken the next step toward new fencing, which, ironically, involves the removal of the fences that were here when we bought the place. It is kind of an exciting undoing. Immediately, the previous boundaries are softened, which allows us to get a new sense for the lay of the land. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make the design decisions we next need to make, entirely obvious. There is still a burden of imagining all possible weather events, and all the potential usage situations and scenarios, in order to make the best possible choices for location and arrangement of facilities.
We are perched on the edge of next.
The myriad activities of the rest of the world swirl around, regardless where we are in the process. We are alone with our petty concern, which is of utmost importance for our days to come. It is a thrilling responsibility.
Our unknown horses, somehow present in our minds, will be helping us to create their new home.
Forest Garden
My friend and mentor, Ian Rowcliffe, uses the moniker, “Forest Garden Estate” to identify their property in Portugal, a place that has served as one of our primary inspirations for the land we have acquired and are developing in Wisconsin. Yesterday, I received a visit from an arborist who I have known for many years, and who managed care of the trees on our Eden Prairie property. At my request, he made a special trip out here to survey the growing things, and provide advice on issues of stewardship. The impression I am left with is that we, too, have a forest garden here!
I was aware of some evergreens, and obvious oak, maple, and poplar trees. Oh, and two willow trees.
Now I know that a lot of the evergreens are Australian pine, and may not be the heartiest tree for our region. We discovered some fungus on the needles of one, and analyzed the status of another that looks to have succumbed the drought of last summer and fall. We do also have some white pine, and the one we looked closely at appears to be doing very well, with thick, full growth throughout. He suggested I add more of those, and possibly some eastern red cedar, which I would be very happy to have.
He identified a butternut hickory behind the barn. I want to watch it for nut production. Sounds like they will be worth collecting, if any show up.
I learned there are plum trees and nannyberry viburnum (which produced an edible fruit) on the old fence line of our north border. It sounds like they are worth keeping, and will present a challenge for our goal of getting the rusty barbed wire removed. The guys pulling fence prefer to clear trees to make room for installation and maintenance of the new fence.
In several areas of the woods we have wild raspberry or blackberry, gooseberry, and elderberry bushes growing. No wonder there are so many birds!
Other trees noted were ash (which are likely doomed to the emerald ash borer that is making its way across our country), elm (which he was surprised hadn’t been taken by dutch elm disease yet), hawthorn, apple, red maple, sugar maple, choke cherry, blue beech, ironwood (hophornbeam), and both red and white oaks.
I hadn’t considered what spring will look like around here, but plenty of those trees will flower before they produce fruit, so it will be interesting to see how they behave. Some of them are growing in the partial shade under the canopy of larger trees and may not be readily apparent unless walking the trails through our woods.
I am not going to worry about the trees that are broken from past storms, and will let nature take its course. As he pointed out, I will have plenty of other things demanding attention around here, and the danger in dealing with them isn’t worth the risk.
If it didn’t get so darn cold here, I could add some camellia trees from Ian’s collection and we could call this place Forest Garden West. For now, we’ll stick with Wintervale, but I’m expecting the name we have chosen won’t do justice to the growing garden of trees and bushes that will be blooming here in the spring.
