I thought it was the day after tomorrow. But no, it is tomorrow, Sunday. Then on Monday we’ll get a few seconds more of light back. Some say that a second is nothing. It is the space between two numbers. Those in competitive races have lost by say a tenth of second, so yes, a second can be significant.

In a month, I’ll be able to come home at 4:00 p.m., and it will be light out. Pete and I have been getting up when the sun comes up, for me, there needs to be enough light to pick up the manure without the headlight. This is very late. Today, the sun appeared over the distant mountain ridge at 10:55 a.m. I was still picking up poop, which gives you an idea of how late we got up.

The greenhouse roof took a beating

Another reason why we get up late this time of year – this cabin gets cold fast once the wood in the woodstove is burned up. It’s warmer if, say, I get up and stoke the fire. I’m now doing this routinely, around 4:00 a.m.

Pete took the dogs for a walk last night, so Ryder did not bark, her way of saying she needs to get out.

The wind has picked up again. It’s roaring. The weather service meteorologists are saying that we’re going to get 60 mph wind. Hmm – the basis for comparison is 90 mph winds. Now if we got 120 mph winds, the basis for comparison would be 150 mph winds. It’s all relative, mostly ants and uncles.

My basis for comparison is the side door of the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel. The wind is too strong if I can’t push it open from the inside.

Today, Pete and I went to Bugge Park and took note of the fact that both doors were blown off. The books were gone – Matthew the distributor, took them and is cleaning them up and will get them back in other places.

We then went to U-Haul and straightened up the boxes of books in the unit in preparation for the next two pallets, which may be dropped off on Tuesday. The previous two pallets contained a lot of textbooks, which we are hoping to send to Kenya. Pete’s going to call Kentex, the shipper, on Monday. If we can’t get them to ship the books gratis, we might be able to get the Rotary to pay the bill.

Our putting the materials in order and saying to one another that “these are the books going to Kenya,” made me see this as a distinct possibility. I repeatedly have reminded myself that there was a time when I didn’t think it would be possible, our sending books to villages.

I now have several boxes of books that are Native-speaking specific – I need to figure out where they are going to go and send them there.

The high point of the day was getting two bins of Legos – these batches have Lego trucks and little construction men. So we will start advertising Legos Club sessions soon. This will be on Saturday afternoons, at 1:00 p.m.

I hope the wind dies down so that tomorrow I can go for a horseback ride.

Home 342. 12/21/25:THE December 2025 Winter Solstice