Friday, December 23, 2016

White Christmas?

December 23rd  and it is snowing!
Hope it sticks around for Christmas. I don't even remember when was the last time we had a white Christmas. Of course Mrs. A, would have me tarred and feathered for hoping it sticks around, but I can always fall back on every husbands excuse: "It's not my fault".
We did finally get out the tree and set it up and got it decorated. I took care of the lights, Mrs A took care of the decorating. That may seem to be a misleading statement, as it is a pre-lit eight foot tree with a thousand lights, but it is in three pieces and all of the different sections have to be connected correctly. It is kind of difficult finding all of the wires and hooking them up correctly. Took me a couple of tries.
Watching the snow is so hypnotic. Something about falling snow puts me in a trance-like state where I can sit there for a long time just staring out the window.
The downside is that I have to go get another wheelbarrow load of wood out of the wood shed.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Home Fires Burning

We heat with wood.
Having 3 1/2 acres of trees supports that.
Electricity is expensive and wood is free (more or less).
I love sitting in the living room with a fire in the fire place and a good book.
I currently have about 3 cords of dried aged Alder in the wood shed. That will get us through this winter. I have another 2 cords of Maple drying at the back of the garage. I want to have enough dried and aged to last a year ahead.
It has been so busy I hardly have enough turn around. Thanksgiving we had a bunch of people over. I had purchased a 20' X 20' X 12' shed from Kieth, and we put that up. Vinnie and I felled a small maple. It was fun. Vincent had never run a chain saw, so I taught him how to start and run the saw, then introduced him to splitting wood. He claims that he had never split wood before, but I found that a little bit too much to believe.
Shortly after Thanksgiving, Rick lost his job in Utah, We were planning to have him come up and paint the inside of the house next spring/summer. Although I was not ready, we (Carol) decided it would be good for everyone concerned if he came up and did it now.
So for a couple of days before he got here, we were busy getting things ready, things like taking down the drapes, pictures and nik-naks. Then a week of going from room to room moving furniture, then a couple more days of getting everything back where it belongs.
As a result, here it is Dec 17th and we do not have a single decoration up.
Tree? What tree?