A very tough day for me. I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. Sometimes I can get away with doing very little, but not on Wednesdays. These are Pete’s long days at school, and so I must pull the cart when he’s gone. And it’s a heavy cart.

The day pretty much began with my letting people know about the Bright Lights Book Project Adopt a Book program. I had this idea, that perhaps I could get people to take a box of books – take some for themselves and then give some to friends.

Ryder and Shadow in front of downed tree

I sent out a lot of messages. We’ll see tomorrow what the response to this effort might be. Pete spent time before going to school, at the Meeting House, putting books up so if when the pipes are thawed, the books don’t suffer from water damage. I later got his phone message. This was a HUGE endeavor. I would have liked to help ,but he would have had to give me a ride to and from home. And there was plenty to do here.

I took Tinni for a walk. The road is in good shape right now. The plow and grader and sander have not come through and taken the surface down to ice, so it’s not extremely slippery.

Tinni was, of course, glad to get out.

I next took Shadow and Ryder for a very lengthy trail walk. We checked out Peaches Trail and Siggi’s Loop. This was a real slog because the partially snow packed ground was so uneven. I just had to go slow and be patient. Ryder must have felt similarly because she walked behind me most of the way. In those places where the going was easier, she raced off with Shadow.

Pete was right – numerous trees were down on the ridgeline of Peaches Trail, in the area I called Death Row. At first I thought, oh, no big deal, we can use a hand saw on this and that – but then I came to some very thick downfall. Yep, we are going to need to get a chainsaw in there.

I took a photo of the dogs next to the downed cottonwood on the Jim’s Road Trail. It is going to take a lot of work to cut it up. The fellow who purchased property up the way, he is going to be astounded when he sees this. He is definitely going to have to figure out how he is going to get his truck to his property.

Got home, cleaned the goat pen and chicken roost. If, like last week, I do this once a week, it’s a fairly easy task. The longer I put it off, the harder it is to do.

I feel calm when I have finished this chore because I know the animals are again comfortable. We have five chickens in their little roost area – I have to clean it every day or it starts to stink.

Brought in wood.

Later, more emails and this dispatch. Not bad, what I did today, considering I felt like doing nothing.

Next: 13. 1/13/22: Up and Down