Digging Out!

When sitting down to begin this blog, I was deciding on an appropriate title and more than a few came to mind ...

"Three Bull Moose"

"Moving Wood"

"Wood vs. Propane"

"This sucks!"

... as we have had lots of excitement these past few days.

Friday morning started out with a phone call from the UPS computer lady letting me know that I should be expecting a package and would have to sign for it ... delivery would be sometime between 8am and 7 pm. Now who would send me a package at 'The Moose River Store' and expect me to be there to sign for it? So, I called the store and spoke to a very nice lady who said she would be happy to sign for it ... of course I would now have to buy something more than the usual newspaper when I went for the pick up to ensure that future packages would arrive safely. That afternoon, I headed to Greenville, in the opposite direction of The Moose River Store, as I had to send a fax ... luckily we have two places within a sixty mile radius of the house that have a public fax machine. Fax on its way and new ($25) bird feeder in hand, I stopped to pick up Garrick from school, in order to save him a walk home in the frigid temperature, and headed north to collect my parcel. Just as we drove past the entrance to our road, we passed an area of clear cut (recently harvested by the loggers) and glanced over to see three bull moose all grazing in the snow! Obviously, they know hunting season is over. I wanted to stop to take a picture but had nowhere to pull over as the snow plow had mounded all the snow on the shoulder and there was a car approaching quickly on my tail. I promised I would get one on the way back if they were still there. Fifteen minutes later, we arrived in Rockwood to not one package but three. (The other two were sent by someone realizing that I probably wouldn't be at 'The Moose River Store' from 8am to 7 pm every day!) So, after loading the packages into the trunk, I went back in for my obligatory purchase ... two six packs of beer costing me a mere $18.22! Finally on our way home now, we again passed the moose and ... someone was on my tail. So I ended up turning around again and going back a third time for my picture. By this time it had gotten a bit darker and the moose had moved further back toward the woods. As you can see, while I finally did get the picture, it isn't that great.

Though we thought the temperatures on Friday were chilly, Saturday was to be even colder. When I rolled out of bed at 8 am, it was a toasty 24 C below zero (-11 F). We never did see -15 C (5 F) that day. Our timing wasn't good as our wood supply on the deck had just run out and it was time once again to 'move the wood'! Worse yet, the pile that needed to be moved was frozen ... frozen to the tarp, frozen to the other wood, and frozen to the ground. I guess I should have forked over the $15 for a new tarp for that pile ... instead I salvaged a 'gently used' one with a few minor holes, all in the wrong places! Needless to say, it took more than a few hours to move firewood that will provide us with about 12 days of heat. And ... it gets better ... when we brought the wood inside, it needed to be thawed in front of the woodstove before we could actually use it. You can imagine the mess ... puddles of water everywhere soiled with leaves, dirt, and debris. Just a small side note ... Paul and Jack, our-ever-so wise contractor, warned many times against the installation of a woodstove. If I remember correctly, their two biggest concerns were (1) the amount of work associated with cutting, chopping, and moving the wood and, (2) the dirt. They told me that propane was the way to go ... you turn it on with the flip of a switch and no mess. Those warnings went unheeded by me, unfortunately. By Sunday morning, I had come up with Plan B: we would lug the wood into the basement to thaw it out before bringing it upstairs to burn. And I thought I had a mess on Saturday! It is now Monday afternoon; we have a pile of wood in the basement that is spreading water everywhere and has yet to be restacked ... again.

This may be explained, at least partially, by a minor distraction that started yesterday just about the time we had finished getting the last load of wood into the basement ... a Noreaster! Right after lunch, I threw what would be my last load of trash into the truck, and headed for the dump. On my way back, I called Garrick who headed out on the snowmobile; I parked the truck out at the main road and rode in with Garrick ... no more walk ins for me! By the time we headed for bed, there was already ten inches on the ground. Garrick started up the sled at about 9:45 and headed out to pack down the trail. He returned after more than half an hour, having made it only to the Y and back ... a total of about a mile. The snow had kept piling up in front of the machine and blocking the headlight making it impossible to see on a moonless night. And, when he had tried to turn around to come home, he sunk in the snow and almost couldn't get out. Needless to say, he was not eager to go out and pack down the snow again at 1 am so we skipped that run ... a huge mistake come morning.

When I awoke this morning at 6am to the phone ringing with yet another automated message, this one from the principal alerting me to the school closing, I looked out to see about two feet of fresh snow. So the road is officially closed! Garrick's first words when he got up were, "Yes! Powder riding!" So, he was eager to finish breakfast and get out to pack down the trail again. He changed his tune when after an hour, he was still trying to pack down the loop around the house. When I went out to sweep off the decks, I think his exact words were, "Whose dumb idea was it to live up here anyway?" (I remind you that it was his.) By the end of the second hour, he had managed to make it all the way out to the main road and back. (George of course had packed down the trail from the Y to the main road though.) And, upon entering the house, I believe that he summed up all of our feelings quite well when he said, "This sucks!"

Since this morning, however, the sun has come out. Everything is covered with fresh snow. Our world is a beautiful, pristine white. There are no tire tracks, no sand-covered roads, no noisy snowplows driving by. It will truly be a White Christmas this year.

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas to you -
Karyn

P.S. The wire did not deter the squirrel but I have resorted to providing him with his own tray of food which I refill at his beck and call. Tomorrow, I will hang the new bird feeder with the special anti-squirrel trap door ... we'll see how it goes!

Walk in #2

Okay before we get to the second walk in, let's just clear up some things on my friend the squirrel! So, he gave me the sad eyes and disappeared for the rest of the day. BUT, he returned the following day AND brought along two of his friends! Of course I had gone out and purchased a special squirrel feeder by now so I knew he would be delighted ... or not! Not only did he figure out a way to get onto the woodpecker bar, he continued on to the suet feeder and then found a way to get down onto the bird feeder! Then, he chewed the strap off of the bird feeder so that it fell to the ground and he gorged himself on all the food! I, being the Lehigh Engineer, patched the feeder back together again not by using my favorite material, cardboard, but by attaching a rope strap to hold the feeder up on the clothesline. He continued, then, to get back on the bird feeder to eat, in spite of the snowballs being chucked at him by Garrick (and to be honest ... me). It's not that I don't want to provide all the animals with food for the winter, but when the squirrel (and his friends) monopolize the food supply, the poor birds can't eat. Well, this set him off. He became so angry, that he then tried to find a way to get into the house! He was climbing on the screens of the porch and looking for crevasses near the doors. He probably figured that I must be keeping some food in the house (little did he know about my 'store' in the basement)! Well when he realized that 'the house that Jack built' was as tight as tight can be, he went back to the bird feeder for Round 12(?). Apparently, he didn't attend a very progressive nursery school when he was young as he just doesn't know how to share. He decided that the best way to ensure that the bird feeder would be his and only his was to chew off the perches that the birds sit on while they eat. AND, once this was accomplished he chewed a big hole in the thing so that the next day when I went out to restock the feeder, imagine my surprise on finding the food I poured into the feeder, ending up immediately on the ground!!! Today I'm off to purchase yet another feeder and this time, I will hang it on a wire strung between the two trees instead of the clothesline. Wish me luck!

So, in the midst of all this squirrel business, we had yet another bout of freezing rain. This time, I decided to be tough ... like George and Anne, his wife. Tuesday morning, we left for the school bus ... a little later than we should have, given the weather of the previous night ... ash can in hand. Well, it was treacherous. I don't think I hit ten miles per hour during the whole mile and a half. And, even at five miles per hour, I was sliding all over the place. I thought for sure Garrick would miss the bus but I was in no hurry to go off the side of the very narrow road, or should I say path, into the ditch where my truck might end up for the entire winter. Skip was late too so Garrick made the bus.

As we were driving out to the bus, I was trying to decide whether or not I could get the truck back in to the house again. But when Garrick told me to leave the truck at the parking lot, I knew I wasn't the only one scared by my driving! Fortunately, I had brought a coat, gloves, albeit thin ones, and boots. But, I didn't have the cell phone. So, I dumped the ashes out of the ash can, and went on my way ... back to the house. When I slipped on the ice and fell about one third of the way in, I really had my doubts about staying here for the whole winter. I can't tell you how badly my knee hurt. As I was laying on the ground, wondering what to do, I realized I had two choices; I could get up and walk as best I could with my sore knee, or I could stay and freeze to death. Obviously, I made it back and the rest of the walk gave me some time to reflect. Since then, I remember to bring my cell phone and wear proper clothing whenever I go out, and I've packed an emergency kit for the car and the snowmobile. As soon as I returned to the house, I took ibuprofen and continued to take it for the next 24 hours, and I iced my knee, with a bag of frozen broccoli, for the rest of the morning. While I won't be playing dodge ball with the kids at Open Gym today, I am getting around just fine now.

So, we have been using the snowmobile for the past two days to get in and out of here. Garrick thinks it is the best adventure of his life; I, on the other hand, do not enjoy spending half the morning trying to thaw out after a ride back and forth to the bus stop! Tomorrow's high is supposed to be about -13 C (9 F) ... before windchill. With this in mind and since we received about six inches of snow yesterday, I am ready to try to bring the truck back in again. Anne told me at the bus stop this morning that the road was fine, but that was right before she got stuck trying to get out of the parking lot!

Garrick had a little sliding incident of his own yesterday. While waiting for the bus (I was long gone ... headed back to the fire on my snowmobile), he decided to clean the snow off of the truck. There was ice under the snow and he slipped on the ice and slid all the way underneath the truck. The only reason he didn't come out the other side was that there was a patch of grass under the truck that slowed him down! He said that he had to pull himself back out. Good thing the kids on the bus didn't see ... emmmmbarrassing! Guess he won't be wearing his Hawk sneakers to school anymore ... time to put on those not-so-cool snow boots for the winter.

Karyn

Lehigh Engineer vs. Squirrel

So ... who do you think won???

As you know we woods folk are quite busy people ... chopping our own wood, making our own bread, heating our bath water on the wood stove, crafting our own Christmas presents. So you might not think we have time for enjoying the wildlife right outside our door. But sometimes we just have to make the time and today was the day for me.

When I was washing the dishes this morning and I casually looked outside to check on the sparrows and my favorite plump woodpecker, imagine my surprise when finding a squirrel feasting on the newest addition to my clothesline bird cafe, the 'woodpecker bar'. I immediately ran out and scared him away. Round 1 - Lehigh Engineer?

Happily back at the sink, I looked up again and there he was. Round 1 - Squirrel.

So, Caroline suggested that I attach the woodpecker bar to a longer rope so that Mr. Squirrel could not reach the food. I trekked down to the basement, retrieved the rope from the camping box ... which houses everything you might ever need if camping and then some, huffed up the stairs, grabbed the scissors, and headed outside. When I got to the clothesline and attempted to cut the original loop of rope, I discovered that it was hard ... because it was frozen. This explained how the squirrel got out to the bird feeder in the first place: the rain and subsequent freezing temperature, made the line stiff so that he could now navigate the rope Paul and Garrick had strung between the two trees in order for me to hang the bird feeders. I tied the woodpecker bar to a longer loop of rope, grabbed my supplies and returned to the house. Not sure if I had quite outsmarted the squirrel, I placed my supplies on the kitchen counter just in case I might need them once more. Round 2 - Lehigh Engineer?

After a minute or two had passed, I once again peered out of the window ... to find my friend back on the woodpecker bar once again. Round 2 - Squirrel.

Totally miffed, I swiped my goods off of the counter and headed out again. Mind you that each time I went out, the squirrel let me get closer and closer before he darted off. And, when he did, he sat in a tree over my head and chattered at me angrily. So, this time I used an even longer loop of rope to attach the woodpecker bar to the clothesline; this one had to be over a foot long. Round 3 - Lehigh Engineer?

It didn't take him very long to climb down from his perch, climb up the next tree, gingerly scurry across one clothesline, hop across to the other and perch himself right back on that woodpecker bar! Round 3 - Squirrel.

This time I ran upstairs to get ... the blow dryer, thinking I could heat up the clothesline, get rid of the ice, and make the clothesline floppy again so that he couldn't get from the tree to the food. But the cord on the blow dryer was not long enough so now I had to go back down to the basement to get the extension cord. Luckily on the way I had a brainstorm, being a Lehigh Engineer; I would get paper towel tubes and put them on the clothesline so that my little pet couldn't walk all the way to the food. Well when I got to the recycling bin, I found only one paper towel tube but also found two toilet paper tubes. I quickly ran upstairs, again grabbed the scissors and hurried outside, back to the feeding area. I cut the tubes lengthwise and put one on the clothesline on either side of the woodpecker bar and then put the long tube over the loop holding the bar itself. Round 4 - Lehigh Engineer? Nope!

So I went back to the basement and snatched a small soda bottle from the returnables bin and a paper plate from ... the camping box. I cut the bottom off of the soda bottle and put a hole in the middle of the plate and went back outside once again. By this time the tubes were laying uselessly on the ground, thanks to Mr. Squirrel. I put the upside down soda bottle over the loop and then added the paper plate on top. Round 5 - Lehigh Engineer? I wish!

It did take my little friend a while to figure this one out but to my dismay when I looked out the window about 30 minutes later, he was gorging himself on sunflower seeds once again. Since I had not seen him land on the food bar, I had no idea how he had masterminded this. So, I went out and scared him off the bar once more, then returned to the house to watch. He scurried across the clothesline, and headed down the loop. He then cautiously would hit the paper plate but not head down. When he hit the plate just right, he slid down it and onto the food bar. I was amazed but not beaten!

I dug through the kitchen garbage can and pulled out the plastic top of the oatmeal container, rinsed it off, put a hole in the center, and took off once more. As I was removing the paper plate and replacing it with the top to the oatmeal container, the squirrel sat on a branch not three feet from me. He did not say a word; he did not make a single sound; he just looked at me with these sad, sad eyes that went right through me. I don't know if he finally gave up or if my final solution really did work, but he didn't come back for the rest of the day. So, not only will I have those sad, sad eyes looking at me for days to come, but now I will have to head down to Greenville so that I can get him his own special feeder ... just for him. I guess the saying 'winning isn't everything' rang true for me today.

Karyn

Walk In #1

Sorry ... no visuals this time ...

The weather has been a bit crazy here for the past few days. Up until Tuesday it had been fairly chilly but yesterday it warmed up so much so that I think we had a 40 F swing in temperature in less than twenty four hours. Unfortunately it rained and the rain turned the little snow we had to slush which then turned to ice last night when the temperature dropped again. This of course left the road in great condition ... if you like ice skating. So, fearful that I would not be able to get in and out on the ice, I took the truck out yesterday afternoon and did my first walk in as I definitely could not use the snowmobile yet.

Garrick was thrilled to be able to walk to the bus stop this morning ... or maybe not. He had to leave the house at 6:40 am, in the dark, in order to catch the bus at 7:15. (Sunrise was at 7:03 today.) I was considering going with him but the fire was down and really needed to be stoked so I had to pass on the opportunity. But, Caroline and I did walk out this afternoon to go to Open Gym. We packed flashlights as we anticipated that we would be walking back in in the dark tonight but fortunately, George came to the rescue. As you know, he is not a wimp like I am and he again was wondering what exactly I was doing living up in the woods. He had no problem driving his truck over the ice and even proved to me that he could do it without using his four wheel drive.

Tonight 'they' are predicting about 8 inches of snow which is not enough to close the road. So if 'they' are right, I may have to head out again to get the truck and bring it back in; hopefully I will be able to use the snowmobile this time though. If 'they' are wrong and we get more than a foot, poor George will be taking his truck out and walking back in sometime after midnight. And either way, Garrick is hoping for a snow day.

Karyn

It's a Red Bag Day!

Woke this morning to -20 (think Anders Celsius) ... and that was before windchill ... and the wind was whipping. The house was 14 C and that was only because the furnace had kicked on during the night. Thank goodness Jack had the insight to install those heater fans in the bathrooms for us when he built the house ... I'd never get Garrick into the shower before school otherwise as it usually takes four or five hours to get the temperature inside back up to 20 C when it is this cold outside.

So, today is what we have coined in the Ellwood house as 'a red bag day'. In other words, it is so cold that I will spend most of the day in my one piece, red fleece 'bag' (with a hole for each foot). Because it would be hard to imagine the beauty of this bag simply from my description, I have included an oh so flattering picture of me modeling it for you! Good thing I won't have any unexpected visitors ... although the Jehovah's witnesses did manage to find me about a month ago.

You know it is cold when ... the olive oil in the basement 'store' has started to congeal ... the lake, which has a layer of ice in some areas, is generating steam because the water, which is definitely below 32 F, is so much warmer than the air ... your fingers begin to get numb when you wash your hands and the hot water still hasn't reached the kitchen faucet even after you've soaped and rinsed and sang three rounds of Row, Row, Row your Boat ... your nose hairs freeze in less than a minute when outside!

I went out this morning to warm up the truck ... and put the ash can in the back. While I didn't actually expect that I would need it this morning, it has become a kind of morning ritual for me (and an insurance policy). Then, I brought a few pieces of wood up onto the deck for later. By the time I returned to the kitchen, I was beginning to lose some of the feeling in my fingers. As we left for the bus stop, Garrick said as he walked out the door, "It's not too bad out here." He then threw his backpack into the truck, grabbed the ice scrapper, spent 20 seconds scraping a small area on the front windshield, just enough so I could see, threw the ice scrapper in the back and said as he jumped into the truck, "I think my nose hairs are frozen."

We arrived at the bus stop. Just as the top of the bus appeared over the hill, the neighbors turned up. George got out of his truck to retrieve the newspaper ... he was wearing his mukluks (snow boots); a flannel shirt, which was unbuttoned; and no gloves. Guess I have some toughening up to do ... wimp that I am!

Karyn

P.S. We never even hit -15 C today (that's 4 F)!

Slippin' & Slidin'

When we arrived back in the woods on Sunday night, the road was still covered in only dirt. By Monday morning, it was a different story though. While it had only snowed about three inches that night, the blanket of white snow transformed the landscape beautifully. Garrick headed out to start the truck and clean off the windshield with our newly purchased ice scraper. Before leaving for the bus stop, I grabbed the ash can from the fireplace in case I would need a little more traction to get up and down those hills. As I was running a little late, I went barreling out the door and down the ice-covered porch steps before landing very ungracefully on my ass. Happily, the lid on the ash can stayed put. Other than that, the ride out to the main road was uneventful and I didn't need any additional traction.

Later that morning I ventured out for a walk in the snow. The sun was shining and the snow was pristine, only marred here and there with various animal prints: deer, moose, grouse, and squirrel perhaps. On my way home, I passed a small pine stand and was startled by a noise that at first sounded like rather large bird wings but in hindsight, after seeing moose prints nearby, I thought that instead it might have been a moose snorting at me. I left the area rather hurriedly and went home to immediately search on the internet for moose sounds, being that I had never heard a moose before. Nothing sounded similar to what I found but I can assure you that I will be walking with my bear bell in the future.

We have found the best animal watching, however, can be done from the kitchen window, making dish washing the new favorite chore in our house (before dark anyway). Paul and Garrick hung both a bird feeder and a suet cage last week and when we arrived back from the long weekend, our newest neighbors had arrived. We have been enjoying the antics of about half a dozen sparrows and a pileated woodpecker ever since. The woodpecker loves the suet and hangs every which way, including upside down, in order to satiate his never ending appetite. We're wondering if one of these afternoons he'll no longer be able to lift the weight of his belly with his wings. We also saw a grouse yesterday, scavenging around under the eaves of the house where there was no snow. And in the afternoon, on my way to meet Caroline on her way home from open gym, I thought I saw something that looked as if it were a fox hurrying into the woods.

Since our first trip out on Monday morning, the road has become quite icy, in some cases requiring both four-wheel drive and second gear, though neither helped Peter on Wednesday evening when he almost jackknifed off the road while trailering in our 'new' snowmobile. So I continue to carry my ash can with me wherever I go, each time gingerly descending the porch steps so as not to do any more unplanned ice skating. We have been faithfully listening to the weather broadcasting from green-VILLE, Maine (as the computer lady says). At this point, I think we are all hoping for that snow storm that will close the road once and for all as it seems to be better than slip-slidin' away. I'm not sure if we'll feel the same way in February after two months of sub-zero snowmobiling to just run out for milk.

Karyn