The thermometer must have thought it was in a high diving contest - it plummeted to -30C last night - the coldest temperature we've experienced since we arrived near the base of Green Mountain, Fosterville, New Brunswick about a year and a half ago. Since the ice is leaving the Arctic regions in droves for warmer climes, I expect at the rate it's migrating southwards, we could become the new North Pole. It's time to button up the flap on my woolly, long johns; hate to get a touch of frost bite on my two lower cheeks. I wasn't sure what to expect this morning when I went out to the barn - didn't know if the chickens would all be frozen in a row like a lot of shishkabobs waiting to be baked over an open fire. Although it was bloody cold in the barn, seems like the animals and the chickens are all fine, looking for their morning feed and water - somehow they just don't cater to chawing on the ice - I have to keep taking water to them every few hours because it doesn't take long before its turned to ice. I can't believe old Luki boy, our faithful guard dog - he just lounges about in the snow and ice as if he's taking a Mexican vacation and waiting for a waiter to fetch him a cold drink. As for Sarah, me and the girls, we're all hunkered around the wood stove wondering who's turn it is to fetch some more wood for the fire.
I fired up the wood stove in the studio after I finished feeding and watering the animals and even though at least a half an hour has gone by, my fingers still feel and look like skinny, bright pink popsicles; at least my breath isn't fogging up the monitor any more as I type up this Blog. Not sure how much time I'll be spending out here today as I'm still working on Sarah's pantry. Although George Probst and I installed the shelving unit we actually harvested from the forest and cut into boards a couple of days ago, I'm still in the midst of clear-coating them with Varathane - have one more light sanding before I lay the final coat on. Since becoming friends with George, a master cabinet maker and carver, besides learning about building useful things, I've quickly grown to appreciate the value of trees even more so. All of the wood we harvested came from already dead trees - until they begin to rot, the wood is still excellent to use - the grains so beautiful and natural. However, it's Sunday today, so instead of doing any actual work, work, I believe I'd rather just sit around a bit, give my aching bones, joints and muscles a rest - might even pour me a tub full of hot water up to my neck, turn the skin a lobster red colour and lazily read a book - one that doesn't matter if I suddenly drift off, take a snooze and drop the sucker in the water. It's too bad we snorted back the last of our Fireball (cinnamon flavoured whiskey) - nothing tastes better than that when it's poured into a steaming mug of hot chocolate on a freezing cold day.
Does anyone remember when the saying was, "go west young man; go west", well I used to live almost as far west as a person could go and still remain in Canada and what my wife and I discovered, "go east young man; go east" might be a better proclamation. Although the winters are definitely a lot more severe than they are where we came from on Vancouver Island, I don't have any qualms or doubts about ever returning - despite all the aching pains that one seems to acquire if a person lives long enough, I'd still much rather live here on our frozen 50 acres without a push button central heating system. There's just something to be said for grabbing an arm load of dry wood, piling it into the wood stove, striking a match to it and then watching the flames dance away, almost hypnotically, while listening to the crackling chorus it generates while just sitting back and relaxing with your cold feet just inches away from the fire. Us humans aren't really naturally adequate to withstand the cold - even if I let my eye brows, the hair on top of my head, my face and in my nose and ears grown very lengthy, it still wouldn't be enough to keep me sufficiently warm. I'm not sure what would kill me first - freezing to death or shivering so violently until I broke every bone in my body. And you know, that being said, I still haven't figured out why the majority of the human race doesn't take better care of the trees and all the creatures that live within the forests because we need them as much as the very air we breathe - and oh yeah - the majority of the air we breathe comes from the trees. People in general just don't get it - that we and everything around us are one - we cannot exist without the other - well, that's not quite true - everything else would exist a lot more effectively if we weren't around.
Time to throw another log on the fire, give the creatures that rely on me, some more water - check the thermometer again - nah - don't have to see what the temperature is to realize that it's dang cold - cheers, eh!
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