It is early January, and the long period of winter is just over two weeks upon us. I have realized that something in my childhood screwed up my idea of when winter is. I think it may have been the school year, or the times I spent in California and Colorado conflicting. When I think of winter I automatically include most of autumn as well. Winter, in my mind, starts around the beginning of November, and impatiently I count the minutes till March, and the first day of Spring. In truth, winter barely takes up any time at the end of the calendar year, and is really the first season of the year. We go winter, spring, summer, then autumn. Winter ends the year too, if there is any joy in that. I don’t think so. Every year in the northern hemisphere is born and dies in winter. It’s just not right, in my mind, anyway. And all I can figure is that I got messed up when I would finish my summers as a kid, and soon push through the winter mostly indoors, buried in books. I was never a skier, so that was helpful in getting me out in the winters. My summers were often spent in southern California, so not only were they the warmer part of the year, but they also were wonderful to me. Funny thing about that though is that California was always green in the winters, and brown in the summers. Colorado was green in the summers and brown and white in the winters. So I grew up in a basically brown landscape.
I am trying to fix the way my mind perceives the way seasons fit into the year, and I am also wrapping my head around the Lunar Month. Spending more time connected to the outdoors has allowed me to really pay attention to how the full moon occurs as the moon rises at sunset, and sets at sunrise. When I consider how the ancient ones actually learned to track the movement of the stars and planets and moon and sun, it makes me to feel very disconnected from them, and from the universe we live in. And we modern people reckon ourselves smarter?
I suppose the long winter is a good time for reading though. I have picked up a few books lately that I look forward to getting into. It is not my strongest habit though. That is something I aim to correct.
The farm is not in major building mode anymore, and the focus there can go to the house this year. The farm is in fine tuning mode, and we have more than enough of some animals, which I will be sorting out soon. We also don’t have quite enough of others, which will also get sorted out when the right opportunity arises. Our chicken flock is more than adequate for us, and unless eggs get sold, there is no point in that. Our pigs outnumber our needs in the pot bellied variety. That has to be sorted out. We really do have two too many horses for our needs. And finally, we need more llamas. Everything else can carry on as it is. As for fences to build and trees to plant, there is more to do. The orchard is so far, an utter failure. I think cheap trees at Sam’s Club was a poor value. They have never thrived here. There is a local nursery that I think may be of much better use in this endeavor.
As for the house, it truthfully needs one room painting and the floors finishing, and a whole lot of shelving put in. There are places where the flooring will be a nightmare, but I have some ideas about that. Oh, the bathrooms are pretty bad, and could use a total remodel. I don’t love either of them. There are more rooms to work on, but they are currently livable, and therefor, not high priority.
This week has been pretty horrible with frozen pipes in the kitchen and a short in the electric that has sent out a quarter of the house, but did not trip the breaker. I am afraid I am going to have to call an electrician. I have checked and changed and traced to the point that there is little left for me to do. It is coming to time to send it to the professionals. There are a few more things I could do, but they are not very practical in hunting down the short, and I am sure an electrician could have that done in very little time. As for changing what I think it might be, an electrician is by far more qualified than I am. So, we will see. I try todo everything I can here, but I have my limits. I am near them now.
Kelsey J Bacon