Deb and I got a respectably early start this morning, bent on seizing the first of two bright and unseasonably warm mid-January days. When we arrived on The Mountain we hung out in Deb’s cousin’s garage for a while before transferring gear from the Jeep to the Ranger and heading back down the road to the cut.
We plowed straight to the top with zero difficulty, thanks to work we’d already done. Once parked, we unloaded the chainsaw and hand tools and got down to business.
Today’s project was clearing a turn-around spot at the upper end of the cut. That required felling several small trees and lopping overhanging branches, a task that didn’t take long. Afterward we set up our folding chairs among the tall, leafless oaks and enjoyed a leisurely lunch.
As I gazed out over the quiet woods, I saw a relatively flat area just below where we were sitting. Only a few seedlings and saplings grew there, I noticed, and it didn’t look like there were many rocks.
An idea hatched.
I grabbed the saw, walked downslope and cleared what vegetation there was, making an open space maybe 20 feet by 30 or 40 feet. Then I made my way back to our UTV trail, pruning offending branches along the way.
What we created was a campsite, or maybe a place for a fire pit, and a path leading to it. At some point we’ll return with rakes and shovels to pull back leaves, remove rocks and level the area. We’ll gather rocks and build a fire ring. Then we’ll let Nature put its soft touch on the spot again.
Deb, inspired by the presence of a nearby mature oak, christened the space “Dancing Tree.”
We eased the Ranger down to the road and over to the area cleared by the backhoe last month. Deb wandered among the ledges while I walked the perimeter and paced off some measurements. Later I joined her in the woods, and together we hiked up to near where we’d had lunch. It was the first time we’d taken that heading, and the experience gave us a better sense of that part of The Mountain.
We decided to take a different way back, bushwhacking in an attempt to connect our UTV trail to the cleared area. I can’t really say that we settled on a route, and ledges will make it difficult no matter which way we go, but we uncovered some possibilities.
Every day we spend on The Mountain is better than the last, and today was no exception. I don’t know why, but it’s true.
I expect we’ll be there again tomorrow.
I ended yesterday’s post with a warning. I’m well aware of how pessimistic it was, and I make no apologies for that — I love my country, I give a damn about my fellow Patriots and there’s big trouble coming, trouble like we’ve never seen before.
If you’re inclined to view what I said as alarmist or somehow unjustified, I encourage you to go back and read “Flashback: Peering into the fog.” Here’s an excerpt:
“If Trump loses we’ll also see violence from the Left, but of the celebratory, vindictive kind. It’ll kick off four years (at least) of the emboldened victors setting fire — literally and figuratively — to American life and culture. When the smoke clears, what remains will not resemble our country as we knew it.”
That was published to Ubi Libertas Blog in November of 2020, but I originally wrote those words 27 months ago. It was over a year before the election, before the entitled thrashing that devastated American cities, before WuFlu and pandemic theater.
At the time I couldn’t’ve predicted that a demented placeholder would be installed in the Oval Office to serve as a front for the Left’s totalitarian agenda. I’ve watched a year of The Unmaking of America, with more to come. In the last week alone I’ve listened to a pair of speeches — one on the events of January 6th, the other on “voting rights” — more cynical, more racist and more anti-American than anything ever uttered by an American “president.”
You can minimize my pessimism, I suppose, and you can dismiss my warnings, but you can’t deny that I was right. I take no particular satisfaction in that.
I’m right this time, too, by the way.
The threat is real and the danger is imminent. Put your affairs in order.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB