Archives
17/02: A Cold Wind
This morning it was warm, and raining - a little river was running down the street and through our driveway. The hens made their way out of the coop - and they were wet and cranky. I left for school before nine and, after class started, went down to my office to retrieve some papers - I crossed paths with sue (the photography teacher) and she said that a student we had in common came in late again, and she called him on it. He gave her an odd excuse about trying to get his hair cut, and she suggested the class cut it - he agreed - and she was getting scissors. I came down with her, and made the first cut (john had long - snow bum hair). The class took photos and documented the whole thing, and each student took a turn - and Sue cleaned him up in the end.During my morning class the wind picked up, the lights flickered, and the rain turned to snow. at noon their were reports of a lot of accidents on the Northway - a dozen tractor trailers blown over, trees down and electric out all over the county. There was a big branch fell on the back side of the house - but there was little damage.
By four in the afternoon the temperature had fallen to 17 - and all of the water in the driveway had turned to ice. This cold front is suppose to stick around for the weekend - tonight is suppose to be near zero - the coldest temperatures of the year. Its a dramatic change from the recent warm days.
Over the last few days Lizzie has at long last been going to sleep without one of us laying with her. So we say goodnight and make our way down the stairs. The girls snuggle up together under the blankets and Zoe reads stories to liz by the light of thier little desk side lamp, and the conspire, whisper, and giggle and finally fall asleep.
05/02: A Fort in the Woods
While we took advantage of the mild weather this weekend to cut wood, the girls spent the time building a fort in the field behind the stone wall. The property belongs to the Wesleyan Bible Camp, in this closest corner to us is a dumping ground for all sorts of things from old camps. The girls pulled things from the piles; old wooden pews, a big wooden spool for a table, a little agate stove and some old chrome sugar and flour tins. They made a nice little place under a pine tree.
03/02: Melting days and signs of insanity
It's so much warmer than it should be - through January, and now into February the warm weather continues, Today was rainy and in the forties, though it still dips below freezing at night. Sapping weather, and though the real maple season is a month or more off yet, many farmers are tapping the sugarbush early this year. We will put out our own taps, but not yet.This summer I spent a good deal of time rebuilding a high, deep stonewall in the woods behind our house. In a tumbled down area I built a straight edged passage and i have been very proud of my work as I pass through it every morning as i walk Bodoni. It is at the back of Pam's Property and she was eager to use it herself this winter with Vera, as she has a notion of picking up snowshoeing this winter. She called me Sunday afternoon to ask me about it and I said I would walk back with her and show her the passage. We walked past her garden and into the woods and around the corner and found.... nothing. The passage was completely gone. I felt I had gone mad. the gap that I had used just that morning was no longer, stoned in with a nice thin layer of freshly fallen snow on top. "Really, it was here this morning" I tried to reassure her.
Some of the neighbor kids were just messing around, and I opened the space back up again, but for a while there I thought i was losing my grip on reality.