March 24, 2014 Spring!!

Turkey tracks on the lower road on the south ridge.
Little arrows pointing in the opposite direction
it was walking.

Friday 3/21. I was looking forward to Spring for so long and thinking it would never get here, that I completely missed its arrival yesterday!  I am usually right on top of the equinoxes and solstices.  But here we are, officially into Spring.  Hurray!  So I celebrated with two oatmeal/raisin cookies for breakfast.  Thank you, Elsie.

On our morning walk, the north ridge and grove were full of birds.  I could see several kinds, including robins and juncos.  JB is much better than I am at identifying the birds and remembering their names.  I could also hear a woodpecker, wild turkey and the blue grouse with his mating call..

I finished the fifth Jason Bourne book and started the sixth.  There are eight so far and I am on a roll.  There's a great line in book five about a PDA.  The guy calls it his "PET: personal electronic thingy."  I love it!

I can see buds on my lilac and nine-bark bushes, when less than two weeks ago they were all completely covered with snow.  You wouldn't even have known they were there.

The dogs and I went hiking about on the east ridge after lunch and then I worked a bit in the wood shed.  The row of kindling was leaning precariously outward, so I re-stacked it.  Also pulled out the really tiny twigs and stacked them separately.  I think we are going to have enough wood left for next winter!

After our afternoon walk and feeding the dogs, I lay down for what turned out to be a delicious two-hour nap.  My, that felt good.

I am often surprised at how much I enjoy writing about our weather, but as I think I mentioned before, I have never lived where I have had such an intimate relationship with it.  Today, like the past several days, started out clear, but clouds began moving in around noon.  There was always some blue sky though, and the sun shone most of the time.  Our high for the day was 31.

I watched the movie, Narnia, this evening.  One of my favorite movies and books.

Saturday 3/22.  I got up at 7:15 am knowing that JB would be calling around 8:00 am when he left Seattle.  It's a good thing I did get up so early as he actually called at 7:30 am, getting an early start.

The morning began clear again, with a temperature of 20.  And again, the clouds began moving across the sky around mid-day.  But it was warmer, with a high of 36.

On our morning walk, the dogs flushed a couple of grouse out at the south ridge.  Dinga is also flushing out the smaller birds that she sees in bushes.  And the birds are everywhere.  They certainly didn't miss Spring's arrival.

JB made good time and after running a few errands Down There, was home at 1:30 pm.  The main canyon road is mainly bare of ice and not yet too muddy, but our road was very icy, so he had to go slow with MAX so the tracks wouldn't come off.  They tend to do that on hard surfaces.  But this will be the last trip down with MAX for sure, as one of JB's errands was to pick up the chains he had ordered for Miss Kitty.

It was so good to have him back.  The dogs thought so too.  JB said that after a week in Seattle in March, he could already feel the webbing between his toes start to grow back.

He brought the mail and lots of newspapers to read, and the most heavenly GF chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting from Trader Joe's.  After dinner we got back on our TV series' schedule and watched two episodes of season three of The Walking Dead.

Sunday 3/23.  Another clear morning with a temperature of 24.  And a big breakfast with newspapers and magazines to read.  So nice!

When doing the dishes, I realized that having JB back for just two meals created about ten times the amount of dishes I would have used. . .

After lunch, JB went out to clear a couple areas of snow with the tractor on the road to the south ridge where it hasn't melted.  I brought in wood, and then we put the chains on Miss Kitty's back tires.  The chains for the front tires have to be cut to fit.  We tried her out with just the back ones on, as most of the ice is soft now.  JB drove her down to the short cut to RJ's and back up again.  The dogs had a nice run and I had a great ride.  Don't think we'll need the second set of chains til next winter.  Tomorrow we will drive Miss Kitty down to my Jeep at Larry and Elsie's to get the few items that JB didn't have room for on MAX.  

Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze's article in the April/May issue of Home Power Magazine is a must-read for anyone planning to live off the grid.  She and her husband have been doing just that for 28 years now and have probably come up against all the challenges such a life affords.  But, like us, they love it and "wouldn't trade it for anything."

Monday 3/24.  It is 24 and clear this morning.  And JJ - the jig is up.

Thought for the day: For every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of potential happiness.  Edna Trammell from Guideposts magazine