More Winter Fun

Well, we're up to two feet of snow now, but today it's above freezing and ice is falling from the trees. Woohoo! Of course, right at dusk, after shoveling a path up my neighbor George's 1/4 mile long STEEP gravel driveway, I went down to feed the sheep only to find that a rafter with rot had given way and my roof was buckling. Oh joy. I could just see the whole section coming down as the rains started and the light, dry snow turned wet and heavy. But it was dark, in the twenties and I figured it would keep until morning and I could get it fixed before the thaw started. So this morning I was out there, up on a ladder, scraping two feet of snow and ice off the buckling section. Heavy stuff. I didn't dare add my weight to the roof, so I couldn't clear as much as I wanted. Gonna be a new roof this summer for sure. I was going to do it, but then the development juggernaut seemed poised on my western boundary and why spend the money if I'm going to sell and move in a matter of a year? But now...I don't know that we'll get forced off any time soon. So. New roof. Next summer. For now, I got the buckled rafter braced back into place, the weight off it. The whole thing is going to be a soggy mess as all this snow thaws and seeps but my hay is tarped and off the ground so we'll live. And after we got done...well, hey. It's above freezing, the dry snow is now damp and sticky and it's perfect for a snow man! How many times do you get to build a snow man in Western Oregon? When I take my midnight walk tonight, I think I'll bring a big rubbermaid bin and slid down the nice sled track the kids have made near the top of our street. Can't let the snow melt without at least one sled ride! Preferably at midnight. What a great way to celebrate Christmas Eve!

Snowlight Magic

It’s eleven thirty and I just came in from a walk in the snow light with Annie. I didn’t mean to take a walk. I spent much of the day shoveling my truck out, chaining up, shoveling paths so the sheep could get water and I could bring them food. Shoveling a path up my 83 year old neighbor, George's, steep drifted over driveway. Done with the snow!!! All done! Blasted stuff, I moved here so that I wouldn’t have to shovel….and so on.

And then I booted up, put on my parka, the old Alyeska one from Prudhoe Bay that my friend Page gave me, the one that always feels like a warm embrace, and took my wood carrier out for the nightly ritual of bringing in the morning’s load of wood for the stove.

Only the night was bright with reflected snow light, there was no wind, tomorrow...well pretty soon now, is Christmas Eve, and the cold felt crisp and clean. I dropped the wood bag and headed for the gate with Annie bounding gleefully ahead of me. My neighbor had chained up to take his wife shopping for Christmas dinner and the tracks gave us a path in the 14 inch deep snow. Instead of floundering we could stroll.

It was beautiful. Nobody has been out, no tracks, only a single set of tire tread in the whiteness. My neighbor’s icicle lights painted the swelling mounds of white with yellow light. As we left them behind and walked along the road toward Clatsop, the paved main road, the trees took my breath away. Rimed with ice, the heavy Douglas fir branches iced with white snow, backed by low, misty clouds, the scene was right off a Christmas card. Wow.

And then Annie alerted at one of the drives that leads to a few houses on the western slope above our street. A man shoveled snow. We said hello and I made a pleasantry about being out late in the snow. He wanted to get tout in the AM. And I walked up to Clatsop, promising him a road report when I got back. Packed snow on Clatsop, no sign of asphalt or other civilized accoutrements. It might have been a cart track though the Sweedish countryside. We talked a bit more…me about '79 and the week long power outage, he about '68 ‘when he was a kid’ andsix foot drifts blocked the county roads then Annie and I walked on and took Koelhers old driveway, watching for coyote spoor. Annie found plenty, I did not.

What a beautiful night!

Well, we're over 12 inches of snow now, in a city that doesn't get snow. Even TriMet is having trouble keeping the buses running and never mind on time. Annie and I spent the day shoveling out barn doors and gates so they work, shoveling a new path to the heated water tank since the four inches of snow had drifted in the path I shoveled yesterday. Filling the feeder and thawing the hummingbird feeder so that my cold little Anna hummers didn't starve (and one Black Chin who should have gone south looong ago). As I was shoveling out the truck to chain it up for when it was finally less nasty and worth getting out, a big V of geese went over just above treetop level, staying below the very low clouds. Clearly they were flying VRF. I hope they found some open water. It's still in the low 20s. So now that my shoveling is done and all critters are fed I can go back to learning CS4, a remarkable version of Dreamweaver and a program that makes Adobe Photoshop seem highly intuitive. My head hurts!