It's cold and it's getting colder
It's gray and white and winter all around.
--John Denver
It's gray and white and winter all around.
--John Denver
It's very cold here. Below zero. In some parts of the state, the high temperature was -2. It's supposed to drop to the teens below zero later tonight and the twenties below zero and colder in some parts of the state when you factor in the wind chill. When it gets this cold, the house creaks and heaves and pops from contracting in the cold.
One year, my next door neighbor accidentally locked himself out on his deck in the middle of winter. He had no key, no phone, and no stairs to get him down to ground level. So he opened his grill and started heaving charcoal briquettes at my house to try to get my attention so maybe I could let him back into his house. The only problem was, I thought the sounds of the briquettes hitting the house were just winter house-popping noises in the cold and never paid it any mind. (He did eventually get back inside, no thanks to me.)
As long as I'm dressed warmly enough, I really do love the winter. I used to walk 3 miles every day. Even in the winter. I used to cross country ski too. I don't do either very often any more, mostly due to time constraints, but I enjoy both, and enjoy being out in the winter. Skating too. When I would go deer hunting with my dad, I loved sitting in the woods in late November. Sometimes snow, sometimes not, but usually a little by then.
Many years ago, I read the book My Side of the Mountain about a boy who ran away from home and went to live on his own in the Catskill Mountains. He made his home in a tree trunk, lived off the land, and survived in the wild year round. I was absolutely fascinated with the idea. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could do that at Cushing - the place where my folks owned 80 wooded acres. At some point, I told my dad and my cousin Mark (who my dad hunted with) about thinking this was a really cool idea.
They both burst out laughing! They told me I wouldn't think it was such a neat idea come winter when it got cold. That I didn't understand what it was like to be in the woods all day. And so on. I was really furious with them. FIRST of all... It's not like I was a stranger to the outdoors. My parents raised all of us in the outdoors. We camped almost every single weekend of my whole life growing up. I knew what it was like to be outdoors in unpleasant conditions. SECOND of all... I would not be so stupid as to venture off on something like that totally unprepared. Anyone who thinks they are going to move to an outdoor environment had better know what they are doing. And THIRD... Why would you laugh when your child is telling you something that's important to them? It was then and there I vowed that I would remember things that my parents did that bugged me that I would try to remember and never do to my kids. Heaven knows I have irritated my kids enough, but let's at least try to remember the things that bugged me and not repeat them.
I never have given up my dream of moving to the woods and living off the land. My husband knows that eventually, I would like to get a principal's job as close to the Canadian border as possible...which to me, means living off in the woods, in a remote area. It's why, driving home the other night when the winter night was so beautiful, the thought of simply continuing on north to Canada seemed so appealing. I love the quiet peacefulness of nighttime. Winter is an extension of that. It adds a layer of silence and majesty.
One year, my next door neighbor accidentally locked himself out on his deck in the middle of winter. He had no key, no phone, and no stairs to get him down to ground level. So he opened his grill and started heaving charcoal briquettes at my house to try to get my attention so maybe I could let him back into his house. The only problem was, I thought the sounds of the briquettes hitting the house were just winter house-popping noises in the cold and never paid it any mind. (He did eventually get back inside, no thanks to me.)
As long as I'm dressed warmly enough, I really do love the winter. I used to walk 3 miles every day. Even in the winter. I used to cross country ski too. I don't do either very often any more, mostly due to time constraints, but I enjoy both, and enjoy being out in the winter. Skating too. When I would go deer hunting with my dad, I loved sitting in the woods in late November. Sometimes snow, sometimes not, but usually a little by then.
Many years ago, I read the book My Side of the Mountain about a boy who ran away from home and went to live on his own in the Catskill Mountains. He made his home in a tree trunk, lived off the land, and survived in the wild year round. I was absolutely fascinated with the idea. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could do that at Cushing - the place where my folks owned 80 wooded acres. At some point, I told my dad and my cousin Mark (who my dad hunted with) about thinking this was a really cool idea.
They both burst out laughing! They told me I wouldn't think it was such a neat idea come winter when it got cold. That I didn't understand what it was like to be in the woods all day. And so on. I was really furious with them. FIRST of all... It's not like I was a stranger to the outdoors. My parents raised all of us in the outdoors. We camped almost every single weekend of my whole life growing up. I knew what it was like to be outdoors in unpleasant conditions. SECOND of all... I would not be so stupid as to venture off on something like that totally unprepared. Anyone who thinks they are going to move to an outdoor environment had better know what they are doing. And THIRD... Why would you laugh when your child is telling you something that's important to them? It was then and there I vowed that I would remember things that my parents did that bugged me that I would try to remember and never do to my kids. Heaven knows I have irritated my kids enough, but let's at least try to remember the things that bugged me and not repeat them.
I never have given up my dream of moving to the woods and living off the land. My husband knows that eventually, I would like to get a principal's job as close to the Canadian border as possible...which to me, means living off in the woods, in a remote area. It's why, driving home the other night when the winter night was so beautiful, the thought of simply continuing on north to Canada seemed so appealing. I love the quiet peacefulness of nighttime. Winter is an extension of that. It adds a layer of silence and majesty.
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