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| No snow in the grove. |
Monday. Even though the dogs got me up at 5:45 this morning, I stayed up and didn't even need a nap. Was very energized. I got up at 7:30 every morning on my trip and will continue to do that instead of sleeping in til 8:00 or 8:30. Seems as though the longer I sleep, the more sleepy I am. Maybe Ben Franklin was right, early to bed, early to rise and all that. Even at 5:45 I could already see a bit of the dawn approaching. Welcome the Light!
I realized that I had forgotten to record RJ's experience with the wolves on his last trip Up Here in early December. Upon hearing that we had a wolf pack in the area, he decided to mark his territory in their manner - peeing on trees. According to what RJ heard, the higher up the tree a wolf can pee obviously the larger and stronger he is. Well, the wolves must have thought RJ was one BIG wolf and honored him as such. While he was packing to leave, between one trip from the cabin to the car, which he says couldn't have been more than seven or eight minutes, he came out to find a whole deer leg near the car. An offering? A gift? He left it there and when he came back this time no animal had touched it. . . And now that there is snow on the ground, he could see their tracks nearby but not close to the cabin.
And, speaking of wolf tracks, Larry saw some on our road when he and Elsie came to visit Saturday evening. They hadn't been there when he visited JB on Wednesday.
Personally, I think we should mark our own territory like RJ did. We could pee in a bucket and pour it into a bottle, then choose a large perimeter around our house on which to mark the trees. I know Jesse leaves his mark, but lets face it, he can only mark about 6" high. If we pour pee with a bottle, the wolves will think that Big Foot lives here and stay way the hell away!
Anyway, today we had peanut butter toast for breakfast made with the French bread that JB had baked on Sunday. Toasts up so nicely in the oven.
Still reading the great issue of "BackWoods Home" and "Back Home" magazines we just received. Good recipes and interesting articles.
I had lunch with my friend, Gayle, while on the other side of the mountains. We got to talking about the mental infirmaties of old age and she says that she has put notes to herself on the inside of her kitchen cupboards. There she can check lists of normal memory lapses versus dementia lapses versus alzheimer's symptoms. She also has a note that says, "If you forget who Gayle is call Jo (her sister) who is speed dial #4 on your telephone." In comparing our senior moments, it seems we both have very similar experiences. At least we are still on the "normal memory lapse" list.
As I write this I am noticing that the early morning breeze has turned into a howling wind, blowing the fresh snow all about. JB says that gusts up to 55 mph are predicted. So much for working on MAX. He and the dogs just went on half of their normal morning walk because the wind was so strong, plus he noticed that the west end of the wood shed roof was flapping and starting to come loose. He got a ladder and put in some more screws.
We were supposed to get snow but it stayed west and north of us. The wind died down to a breeze about dinner time, and we had a Full Snow Moon. Beautiful
Tuesday. Lite overcast and 20 when I arose at 7:30. Called Sandy for a nice, long, catch-up chat.
After lunch we opened up MAX. JB cleaned the spark plug and together we changed the fuel filter. Feeling very pleased with ourselves, we put MAX all back together and. . . the engine ran even rougher than ever. JB could barely get MAX to move! Neither of us are very mechanically inclined beyond the basics when it comes to engines. A talent I guess we really need living Up Here. We've just been very lucky so far. At least it was 30 and partly sunny with no breeze while we were working outside.
Plan B, once again, is to get the chains on JB's Jeep on Wednesday and see if we can drive it out to the main canyon road. We know we can get down to my Jeep from there, as neighbors are driving it in their vehicles.
After the failed MAX attempt, I cleaned up most of the branches that were littering the grove, blown down from all the winter winds. Then Dinga and I went for a hike up to the peak. Jesse was up the east slope barking, at coyotes I guess. JB went in to start dinner which was pork roast. He rubbed it with cinnamon, brown sugar and chili powder. Yummmm!
Completely forgot to record that when Larry and Elsie were Up Here Saturday, Elsie was telling me that they are finally getting eggs again. She had found some broken egg shells a few weeks ago and remembererd hearing about egg-eating chickens. If you have one that gets a taste for them, it's very hard to break them of the habit. She figured out which one it was and put it outside the pen for a week. That was one unhappy chicken, but they started getting a few eggs again, and now the particular chicken seems to be broken of the habit, not wanting to be kicked out again.
Wednesday. We have mostly clear skies and 20 this morning. Hopefully it will stay this way and we can get the chains on JB's Jeep.
Thought for the day: In Seattle you haven't had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it's running. Jeff Bezos
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