Yes, memories from years past are now haunting my present
with the threat of what is to come. The leaves are no longer green and the
winds are no longer warm and inviting. There is a chill in the air that causes
you to pull your collar around your neck a little tighter and wish you possibly
had a scarf to rely upon. All these things we see now…we remember from years
past and we can see the writing on the wall. We have endured these conditions
before and just as the creatures of nature can tell, we also know what is
coming. It seems the squirrels are earnestly gathering their winter store of
acorns and walnuts…stashing them in empty knotholes or “planting” them for
future retrieval. (All of which will be forgotten…hence the term, “God’s little
gardeners of the trees”)
What is to come is not all bad however, for we remember
good things that accompany the fall’s arrival. We remember Thanksgiving and
Christmas….New Years and the beauty of the coming snow…even though we must also
remember the cold and uncomfortable times of winter along with all that beauty.
I like to search for a positive that will counteract every negative, when
thinking about the winter as I get older. I know that since we are retired and
we have plenty of time to get to the barn to feed and water the animals, it is less
stressful than the hustle and bustle of having to get work on time, so dealing
with snow fall is not nearly as abhorred and appalling as in years past.
Many times we choose to trudge on foot across paths to the barns;
for we can walk to where we need to be to feed the animals and we have four
wheel drive vehicles to go to the store when we need to. With the exception of
visitors coming…we have adopted the say that God dropped the snow here for our
enjoyment…and he will take it away when he was ready. That didn’t work well
though, for there was always someone getting stuck in the driveway…people that
weren’t smart enough to buy a four wheel drive car even though they chose to live
in the north! Go figure!!!!!
Once you can get yourself accustomed to accept this approach
and take on the attitude that it comes…and it goes…all we have to do is deal
with it and you can actually enjoy winter and simply stay where you can keep
warm. We go out and do what we have to and then return to the pellet stove, keep
warm, look out the window and enjoy winter life until spring arrives. (Hard to
do when you must leave home to make a living, I know…but retirement is coming
for you too.)
The day before yesterday I finished the fire pit that I
made for Vick so she could do her cauldron of mulled apple cider for the Hospice
gift shop opening on October 20th.
Previously, I dug a hole about three feet across and six inches deep, poured
three inches of concrete and smoothed it off. This will be where Vick will
build her fire for heating the cider. I inserted a post and made a wrought iron
gusset hanger with a chain to hang her cauldron of cider on and then welded up
a metal grate, on legs, to be used over a bed of coals. She can alter the
height of the chain for the hanging cauldron, so the cider stays warm and she
will use a ladle to serve from it. (Kind of a Halloween thing I guess….)
Anyway, she asked for it and I made it for her.
She worked on installing the plastic covers on the windows
of both barns to keep the winds which are ever growing colder from entering the
barns. The chickens will forever be grateful to her for that as the evenings
get colder and colder.
Yesterday, I removed the pool pump and hoses from the pool which
was shut down weeks ago. I’ll place them in the storage building until next
summer. We cleaned out the building late in the evening to make a place for the
old dining room table and chairs, along with the pool pump. We’ll keep the
table there until we sell it.
Today, we’ll put those things neatly in the storage shed,
along with the cushions from the deck chairs and lounge. We put them under the
rear deck roof last evening to keep them dry since it might rain today.
I again spent all of last evening on the computer, with
Vick on hers, running offense with Norton. My computer hasn’t been right since
I got that FBI Moneypak virus from a blog email. I crashed the computer last
week and reloaded my hard drive disc, trashing everything in the computer and
starting all over again, but a bug was still included with some of my return
files I saved. It was internal, so none of you got it…It dealt with something
missing from IE, so I trashed that crapper anyway and went to Foxfire. WOW…I
really have speed now!
Anyway, that’s what has been going on with us… Today, we
whittle away at our list of “to do’s before winter”…errrr, more importantly my
knee replacement date.
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