So the first of the real snows have begun up here on Zen. Nothing crazy yet but, just about enough to be frustrating a couple days.
Last week we had three days of company up here.. I know; weird huh?1?
Funny thing is, for the better part of a decade, we have little to no visitors up here…well..human anyway… Until two weeks ago yesterday, one of the folk I worked along with for quite some time and her husband stopped by to visit and pick up one of Ma’s Baubles. I had to grin as the gals were in Ma’s office, looking at shawls and such. Ma showing her all the different shawls and how they can be used.. We had a fun chat, at least Ma and I enjoyed the company.
…Then that Sunday we had company coming in; nephew and niece. They popped in and even dropped off some goodies for us, venison and steelhead…That was unexpected and awesome…We had them up for and early dinner and way too much laughing. My niece takes after me in more than enough ways for some…Not my fault.. My sister would drop her off for my to sit while they would vaca….My isms may have rubbed off a smidge.
Tuesday we had the cabinet makers ,( finish carpenters ) come up , after being pushed back a week due to illness … When we got the call the week before, I started getting nervous about them coming up a week later… I knew this was coming in.. Only one day of snow , we ended up with around 5 inches, so just for looking at…However…By the time the guys came up, the main road was nothing but solid ice. They asked how the road was and I said, “Well, we get in and out without any problems…. They jack knifed on the first slope, slid their trailer backwards down the slope, and fortunately, slid into the field beside the road, stopping them. I have slid backwards down that slope more times than I can count, At the beginning of the road, where it “T”s from the for real road, the other side of that “T” drops into a canyon…I have hit the gravel with one tire over, thinking very deep and heavy thoughts, trying not to go over…A trailer wouldn’t have stopped till it hit bottom, and hopefully, the truck wouldn’t follow.
Anywho… The guys left the trailer below and came in… The little red farm ornament, formerly referred to as a tractor, still is moldering in its spot… Sooo.. I used the sami all chained up to flatten the road….and. well, Yes, Virginia, it made it into compact snow and ice…. Hey, they waited till it warmed up to freezing and the sun was out..If they would have come the day before, it wouldn’t have been a problem….
Our “road” ( actually a sad little dear path that I work on with a shovel and wheel barrow to keep in tact) Is like a giant cursive “M” bent at a 90 at the middle to head back up to us, so , You have the initial Steep slope of the main road to get up, if you don’t make a run at it, you aint gonna make it…. Then you have the next portion of the first slope, not as bad, but usually has impressive drifts…Now you’re at the first peak… Yeh, in front of you is another steep slope, downhill this time and it hasn’t seen any sun since August , so it doesn’t thaw, but, it does collect run off, to add the slippery layer on top of the ice…I have slid out of control on that many a time, as have the others up here..more than once we have had to belly crawl up the next hill before we could get our feet under us… Oh, but wait, it gets better… Now you are somewhat out of control sliding down the hill, well, just before it hits a relatively level spot * snort* not only do you have a hard right, but a hard right that actually turns back in the direction you just came from…and the steepest part of the road, fortunately, not as long , and yet.. most wrecks up here in 30 some years are right there…, also, no sun there so hard pack snow and ice..with the whole run off collection…Now you just have the long slow rise to my place….a little less than you have already come.
So they looked, took measurements and left…. many days go by, and they miss their appointment again and Ma; my better half, and I are starting to get concerned when Ma finally gets a call with pics of parts of the new cabinets..So yay.. they are being made…
The day slated for them to come up, we, of course had more fun weather, but we had made the run to the Post office the day before and, again told them that we had no problems….And, eventually they made up here with all the parts they needed to make the cabinets in their trucks…
Ma has been wanting these cabinets for around a decade now, planning and saving for them. Originally, we were just going to make them ourselves, which, of course, we could have, but major pain for us between all the other crap we are up to here, so when Ma said she found someone to build them for us, I was definitely on board with it. We designed it and all its cubbies and we already had the doors/drawers for it so , it took awhile to get them up, but it’s done now, and getting filled..till spring, it should only take a day or two..maybe three if it doesn’t dry fast enough, and I’ll just seal the shelves to match the originals.
While they spent the day working on that, I got a text from our new neighbor, he asked me to pop over…worked for me, way too noisy at the house.. He had out his little tractor and was trying to figure out plowing his place. He had done a decent job though he did it oddly, but hey, it worked… He then asked if I would do it from then on and I. of course, said yup.
No chains, small blade, physically smaller than mine but, it runs…So he asked me to just take it here and I could clear us and him…Well, I think, even with chains and a bigger blade she would have problems clearing the road but at least we can get to our piece of the road and hopefully I can use the sami to keep a path..all depends on WHEN the snow comes… If I get a foot at night, I doubt I can touch much of anything, but it’ll depend on the type of snow… So I told him,
” First, I’ll see if I can break out with the sami. Then I look at my roof, if I need to clear it, I’ll see if I have time to make a path between our places then the roof, then I’ll work on clearing.” He was happy with that so we’re good. He is only up here part time so that should work.. if it gets too bad, I’ll just let him know so he doesn’t try to get in and get stuck or worse, wreck. He tore up his truck last year trying to get out.
So, I waited till the next day to bring the tractor over due to the work going on here.. and saw that it was out of diesel , so when we hit town we bought a can and filled it, which was just enough to fill the tank.. So it has the same size tank as my baby tractor but about 10 more horse… Was hoping it would have been closer to 45 horse, but hey, not mine.
BUT, the cool news is, he has a buddy that said, when he could, he would come work on my tractor for me so hopefully we’ll finally have that back up and running. Which I need for both summer’s fire control and winter’s snow control..
The cabinet turned out pretty nice. I’ll have to stain it come spring when I can open the whole house back up to let it air. Ma had to pick up a bunch of birch ply to make a whole bunch of shelves which she cut yesterday.
We already hauled in a LOT of canned goods to fill it, it made a decent dent in our goods we set up, so nice to have it at hand rather than in the shop where it gets so freakin cold in winter and so hot in summer, though I keep them in coolers to temper it all.
Things warmed up enough to get rid of a lot of snow, not any of our paths though, they are solid ice, and will be for a while.
We have a good twenty four hours coming up this week that is suppose to be really crappy. I mean, we are suppose to have a LOT of wet coming maybe today, but, in theory, only one, well basically two bad days..Yup the first days of Yule… like EVERY year.
They have said up to a couple feet, then, as of right now more like a foot, but also down into single digits so, good luck starting anything to do anything about it…We’ll see, supposedly the next day it is to warm up and rain which if it actually did what they say, it’ll level it all back down and not a problem..course, three degrees colder and all that great rain will be snow or ice so…..
So it looks like later this week, I’ll be putting up the Yule posts, Probably Christmas eve with a short note on Christmas.
We don’t have any plans of course, black sheep and all…So we’ll just be hangin.
Final Thoughts
Trying to catch up on a few Posts all at once is a little scattered , but we made it through it together. If I do both my holiday posts, I’ll go for Friday and Saturday…and a note on Sunday ( 23-25)
It really has gone fast this year, We STILL have apples to can!!!! As well as chicken broth and meat as well as Pasta sauce and cranberry juice/sauce…. Our entry is full of apples rather than wood and the freezers are packed.. We’ll get there, I am sure, We simply have a lot going on and the occasional visitors suddenly it seems, which is fine by us…I am sure Ma enjoys chatting with folk other than me.
Puttering around up here on the ice walkways, can be annoying, but, for the most part, I just go with the slide and try to keep my feet more often than not.. there is no plan “B”. And.. it’s only like a few months… I am sure I’ll be a little more grumpy once the storms hit, but for now…
It’s just another day on Zen Mountain
Zen Mountain's Sunday Post and Short Stories 