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Home > Dispatches > Daily Dispatches 2020 >Daily Dispatch #94

April 4, 2020: Spring has Sprung, Sort of

I apologize for I am sure some of my dispatches read like outdated weather reports. I think that living off the grid, we are more weather-cognizant than most. Mainly, because we have animals, we get out every day, several times, no matter what.

My days begin and end with my tending to the horses, chickens, and goats. I would not have it any other way, although at 11:00 p.m. on cold winter nights I do have my druthers. In the mornings, everything seems so easy and time just flies. In the late evenings, everything seems difficult and the time drags by. The latter is most true in the winter. I just don’t feel like going out and picking up horse shit (this is what I call it at that late hour) when it’s in the single digits and the wind is howling. At these times I wish I could have the horses come inside. And together, we’d eat popcorn and drink hot chocolate and talk about upcoming summer rides.

Well today, we got a brief glimpse of spring. It was sunny and temperatures were in the 40s. And it was still, meaning no wind. I did not get out right away. I worked on Forks until 2:00 p.m., and then I did my body awareness work.

Yesterday, I revisited the White Highway. I went out for a short ski, but it turned out to be a long ski because I got turned around. I ended up going in the opposite direction of


Tyra

home, to the Wasilla Headwaters Trail. The corridor trail heading in that direction looks exactly like the Corridor Trail heading in our direction. I just kept going because I thought that if I was close to home and doubled back, that I’d end up where I ended up, anyways.

On the return trip I ended up at the Wendt Road Trailhead, which was on the far end of the trail. So essentially, I covered twice as much ground as I had planned on. A friend, getting ready to go for a bicycle ride, escorted me back to the turnoff to Murphy Road, then he followed me most of the way home. I was not as appreciative as I should have been.

I was very tired at the conclusion of this ski – I think I covered at least 20 miles. And I was sore, which was why today I resumed doing my body awareness work. I always wonder when I do this why I cease this activity because after I feel so good.

Today I actually felt good enough to go running with Tyra. The road terrain is no longer a sheet ice. Rather, it’s slushy, and in places, the dirt road surface is exposed. Tyra really liked the surface, and no wonder, she no longer had to pick her way around the loop. I later took Raudi and Hrimmi for a walk, they seemed to feel similarly.

Slushy roads are the second sign that spring is here. The first sign is ample light.

Winter, be gone I say.

Next: 95. 4/5/20: You Wonder but don’t Wander

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