[Morning frost on groundcover raspberry leaves]
These days it's icy all night and sunny all day. At night I wear a wool hat, longjohns and a sweater in a 20 degree sleeping bag with a wool blanket and down comforter on top. In the afternoon I'm stripped all the way down to a t-shirt so I can be comfortable while I work.
[Another view of the most spectacular color display on the land. It's even more breathtaking in person.]
As I write this, I can hear our newly reconditioned chainsaws purring away as today's woodcutting crew removes recently dead trees from the forest to make sure we're warm this Winter. Once it's out of the woods and away from the poison oak, I'll be jumping in to help buck, split, haul and stack it.
The situation with the "visitors who aren't fitting in" is very tense right now. One of them was going to leave two days ago when the couple"broke up". Last night he wordlessly appeared at dinner and nobody wanted to cause a scene because it was my birthday party. The caretaker on the land realizes that the situation needs to be dealt with so I think today will be the day. It is not acceptable to create a violent scene in the middle of the night and think that we will silently let it drop if you spend two days in the parking lot.
Yesterday as I crossed the meadow, a new bird appeared in a wild rose bush eight feet away and sat pecking open the rose hips, apparently looking for seeds and bugs. It was a Downy Woodpecker with the most beautiful stripes on her face. This tiny woodpecker only stands about five inches tall. It's the fourth woodpecker species I've seen here this year.
[Image from the iBird Explorer app]
Yesterday I received some butt-kicking but disconcerting news. I was expecting to whip out a line of hand towels to bring in some quick money while I design and produce some garments for the big Renaissance Faire in March. Actually, they need to be designed and photographed for the contract which comes out in October. Uh, eek! Good thing I spend all my time thinking about weaving! It's high gear on a shoestring.
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