Today I am surrounded by a very dense fog. I estimate I have,at the most, 200 feet visibility. I can hear the wind blowing intermittently up over the rise. It sounds like a distance train. Here the trees are still. Everything is still. It’s peaceful and eery at the same time.

It’s hunting season, but hunters wont be out today. I imagine the deer have an intuitive, possibly clairevoyant understanding of this. They are probably just beyond my field of vision, walking their deer trails and grazing on the green things still growing. They probably know the best places to look.

I was out earlier today leash walking my big Chocolate lab. He likes to go off on adventures with our neighbor’s hound. Cooper comes to the door to fetch him. Usually I let him go and he’s back in a few hours. I’ve learned this has to stop at this time of year, but it’s hard to make a dog understand he can’t go play with his buddy. That needs to stop now. I got a call about a week ago from a man across town, more or less, telling me he’s spotted my dog, who is weaaring a tag with my name, phone number, and address on it. and is holding him for me. I mentioned he usually is off this another, a brindle hound. The man was up here hunting from WV and reminded me folks tracking a deer might just shoot dogs if they interfere. When I got to the fellow’s address, he had my guy and Cooper in the bed of his truck. I delivered Cooper home first. My guy hasn’t had liberty since. Cooper’s been over a few times and has been disappointed. It might be safe to let my guy out today ,at least from the threat of hunters, for a bit but like any sensible creaure he’s taking a long day’s nap.

The wind’s picking up and I see the tall pines close by the house have begun to intermittently sway. Beyond the nearby, I can only imagine as I’m tucked into the low cloud coverage on this misty day.

Today, for the second day in a row, we have had rain. Sometimes it’s been heavy and sometimes it’s been drizzley and sometimes there’s been fog in between. It has been relatively rain forest warm here and humid. This is not what Id expect coming into the middle of November.

So yeasterday I let it keep me in except for the basic neccesities such as chicken feeding and dog walking. But in my mind, I’ve been planting kale and cleaning up some of my raised garden beds and the little frog pond.

The little frog pond is actually a catchment for my rain gutter runoff, but every year, frogs come and lay eggs that look like transluscent grapes and eventually polywags come along. Im afraid not so many survive because with heavy rain the pond overflows and there they must go, I imagine. Eventually, though I rarely see them, I hear frog splashes so I know some survive and go off to have whatever frog life they are destined to live.

As there is a break in the rain and just a heavy mist all around I l’ll be off now.

Okay, It’s been awhile, years actually, approximately 2, since I’ve added a blog entry. I have been sadly neglecting my website and that is about to change. Things happened here on Spoon Mountain Farm. There have been high points and low points.

On the upside, I’ve hosted some really terrific Wwoofers. If you don’t know what that is It stands for World Wide Opportunities for Organic Farmers. You don’t have to be certified organic to be a hosting member but you need to share the spirit. For example I have never added any nutrients to the soil here except product (poo) from my various animals as fertilizer. I’ve never used any insecticide either. My farm is not a highly commercial venture. It’s a learning and sharing alternative forest micro farm. I’ve also shared my space by renting a tiny primitive but sweetly appointed cabin via Airbnb. Tiny Cabin on a Forest Farm, if you’d like to check that out. Additionally, the silver lining of the consequence of one of the downside entries below is I have been doing a load of artwork and that is making me so happy! I’ve started and art card business among other things. Months of watching the Great British Baking Show has motivated me to try lots of new things and to just recently offer fresh baked home baked goods, using farm fresh eggs and the very best ingredients I can find to add to fresh baked biscotti and fancy quick breads and other tasty things.

On the downside, Covid put the skids under a lot of my anticipated selling venues as well as classes Id hoped to offer here.A year ago this past April I had the silly misfortune to let a ladder slip out from under me and I landed about four feet below the rung I left behind and landed flat on my back. Well every thing worked just fine until a couple days later when there wasn’t a lot of improvement. Long story short, I compressed fractured two vertebrae. That sounds softer than I gosh, I just happened to break my back. But on the upside and i am forever grateful, it didn’t cause me pain and hasn’t had any lasting effects in a physical sort of way. The bad news was I needed to where this brace that would not allow me to bend, or twist or turn four 4 months and that presented a lot of challenges considering I live alone and their were animals to feed and things that needed to be lifted and carried. I had a ten pound limit, so I made many trips because walking was fine. However, this taught me to be more cautious and careful, leading to the decision to re-home my alpaca. As much as l loved their furry little faces and caring for them, hauling that grain and water buckets over rough terrain the following winter was a situation even I could see would be of no benefit to my future self. I miss that element of my life but the time exchange to do other things has been great. For example, Im focusing much more on growing perennial and flowers as well as veggies for the farm and to share.

Next up is to create a gallery page and a PayPal pay button. That’s and tomorrow s task and Ill tell you all about it.

A story about wood and warmth.
I’m heating primarily with wood. It’s been a year where I’ve been going through a lot of it. My friends and neighbors who use wood tell me I’m not alone in this. My wood is delivered by the truckload. Typically it’s a regular size dump truck. The men who bring wood around these parts count on me and other folks for their livelihood.
I have done enough of my own hauling of wood and splitting it to know their work is beyond hard and demanding, and possibly dangerous. I admire them greatly and I depend on them, because, while I’m living on a mountain on property mostly covered with forest, bringing down trees is not and never will be in my skillset. My capabilities bottom out at hauling fallen deadwood of a max of 2-3” diameter and sawing it into lengths with my trusty Stanley Fat Max hand saw. I know I could get a little chain saw, but they can buck and I live out here alone. We have volunteer rescue, the nearby hospital recently closed and there’s that. All in all, I’m erring on the side of caution concerning a chain saw. I wish to spare my loved ones the news their mom and granny bled out and was eventually found in who knows what condition given the amount of scavenging wildlife and Turkey vultures in these parts.

There’s a skill to setting a good fire in a wood stove. It takes forethought and planning . Weather watching is an important part of this planning because, obviously, wet wood doesn’t want to burn. If you must use dampish wood, you’ll be forever tending it to get up a fire hot enough to be of any value on a really cold night.
It takes more than those nice dry hardwood split logs that I have delivered to have a fire. There’s need for tinder and kindling and smaller, maybe softer wood lengths of not much diameter. You can use some poplar or pine for this but poplar burns fast and doesn’t give much heat . The burning of pine is not recommended except to use in small pieces to stat a fire. Too much pine and you’ll get a build up of residue in your stovepipe and chimney that could start a fire. If your stove is drawing smoke really well and giving a good hot burn, you probably haven’t too much to worry about in terms of chimney fires. It is, however, good to have your chimney and stove pipe checked and cleaned every season . You might skip one year, but I wouldn’t let it go past two.

Hunting, gathering, spilling, hauling and burning wood is one of those learn by doing life skills I’d never have imagined mastering ten years ago. Now, it’s just part of my lifestyle. I get some pretty good exercise In these winter months.

It’s lovely to sit in the evening and watch the flames dancing through the stove window, dogs stretched out. on the floor, maybe with a cup of tea or glass of wine, knitting, listening to an audiobook or binge watching a British TV series. That’s what winter evenings are all about, taking it easy, after the hard work is done.