We’re Off!
We are off to a walloping start for the new year at our place. We took care of some details that have been lingering unaddressed during the time we were overly focused on our open house/party, and the Christmas and New Year holidays. Cyndie now has Wisconsin license plates for her car, and I learned that our energy company does the billing for electric and propane, independently. I applied for auto-pay, but it only went into effect for the electric bill. I was past due on the propane, because I needed to apply for that separately. Who knew? It’s all taken care of now.
We made some great progress in designing the layout of our future horse spaces, and the fencing that will define it. Our special friends, Barb and Mike, were here to ring in the new year, and helped us identify a miscalculation (confusing ‘feet’ for ‘yards’ in our numbers), which allowed us to move past a stumbling block that was truly foiling our attempts to plan. Then they graciously accompanied us in trudging through the snow to ‘test’ our layout in real scale.
I remain pleasantly encouraged that we have plenty of space to accommodate what we currently have in mind. It’s not a perfect science, since we don’t know which of our potential plans will actually be achieved, in the long run, but the possibilities appear to allow room for us to fit any of the variety of visions that are floating in and out of our dreams.
The owners of the fencing company came to our house on the afternoon of the New Year holiday, to consult on the current status and future planning. We came a couple of steps closer to choosing the type of fence, and are now leaning toward a vinyl-coated high tensile wire strung between wood posts. It will help keep the total cost of this phase of our project down in a range that almost fits our budget.
They will be pounding some stakes and stringing temporary lines to help us visualize how the fences for two paddocks around the barn will look.
These are significant steps for us. In the month-plus since we started talking with this company about our wishes, the progress has felt rather hobbled. There is a very good aspect to the delay of progress, in that, we have had time to adjust our perceptions and work on our imaginings of what we wish to create.
I take it as a good sign, that none of the changes that have evolved are very significant. Overall, it is pretty much on plan with our combined visions.
On top of the energy we felt from working on that project, our inspirations were led to spend some time together exploring the possibilities for a dog, or dogs, that will be good companions for horses, and visitors, and our cats, and us! We share a feeling of attraction to certain, but not all, herders, for our situation. We like the Belgian Shepherd, Australian Shepherd, Sheltie, and Great Pyrenees. All tend to have similar benefits/challenges. It will be a tough choice.
There is plenty ahead for us in 2013. It feels like we have picked up right where we left off in 2012, and we got a pretty good start on day one. Hang on for another wild ride!
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!
.
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.
Renewed Wish
Again, from “Previous Somethings,” this time, 2010:
Merry Christmas to you, one and all!
Real Poem
I took a look back in the “Previous Somethings” archive, to see what I had posted on earlier Christmas eves. Here’s a gem from 2009:
…There is a Christmas poem that ranks right up there as one of my favoritest, and in a lot of ways, probably influences my penchant for writing with a melodic rhythm to establish phrasing of a line. I am particularly impressed by the date it was originally published: 1823. 1823! It is Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit From St. Nicholas.” Read it again, and let it remind you of the first time you ever heard it…
A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS.
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap—
When out on the lawn there rose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter,
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon, on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of mid-day to objects below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blitzen—
To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall!
Now, dash away, dash away, dash away all!”
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So, up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With a sleigh full of toys—and St. Nicholas too.
And then in a twinkling I heard on the roof,
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack;
His eyes how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little month was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump—a right jolly old elf;
And I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye, and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle;
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”
