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