The Homestone

Saturday, February 25, 2006

twenty two below

On our trip into town the other day, we see the shops are setting out their racks of seed packets and spring planting supplies and, the catalogues are arriving in the mail. Stokes seeds, Richters Herbs and the Lee Valley Garden catalogue... It will be a few months yet before we can think about popping our seeds in the soil. She's a frozen world on this high plateau! This past week was looking rather promising ~ like the beginning of the end of winter but not so... The willows bushes at the creeks edge had begun to show their soft grey buds and tiny blades of green grass were appearing at the edge of the shop and next to the house where the sun beats down... But it's gone cold again and we've had more snow. We've been keeping the wood stoves and the furnace cranked. This morning the thermometer read 22 below and it's supposed to get colder tomorrow. David was up on the roof of the house yesterday to clean out the furnace chimney while I cleaned out the wood stove in the kitchen. The colder it is, the more wood we burn, the more upkeep required tending chimney's and the accumulation of ash in stoves. We have a big old Enterprise Savoy in the kitchen - she's the heart of the house to be sure. In the out of doors, the sheep are content - they have their shelters and their summer hay and their warm winter wool coats. The girls; Missy and Mrs' are the two BIG ewes on either side of 'Sunshine'. We expect a lamb or two any day now. We'll post some pics of the big event of course and the days and weeks following... And so it goes ~ we work to stay warm and dream of spring while enjoying every incredible moment of this winter wonderland. The skies are spectacular! The moose wander in and out of the meadow, the coyotes too... leaving tracks that tell stories of their nocturnal wanderings. Life is good. We build our wood rings and get to know more wonderful people from all over the planet! There are wooden rings winding their way right now to Germany, Australia, Denmark, the UK, Illinois, Colorado, New Jersey, Texas, Kansas, Virginia and Florida. It's 7:30am and the forest of trees surrounding the meadow cast their morning shadows sharply against the frozen ground. Truly spectacular. It promises to be a bright sunny day! Shine on and power up!!

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

yodi visit

A couple of quick pics of our resident coyote and his latest visit ~ January 31st.