All is well in our world.
Devoting Tuesday and Wednesday to woodswork freed my Thursday to prep for incoming winter weather. That was intentional. It gave me breathing room, allowing me to be more methodical about things.
Snow isn’t supposed to begin falling ’til midnight Friday so, technically, I had two waking days to get ready. But with 50°F and sunny predicted for Thursday, compared to cloudy and 30°F (with a wind chill of 20°F) on Friday, yesterday was the more pleasant choice.
Besides, according to the forecast, we won’t get above freezing between 11pm Thursday and noon Tuesday. Four overnights will be in the single digits, one dipping to 0°F or below. Prepping sooner just made sense.
Smudge and I executed a curbside-pickup run first thing yesterday. When we got back, I fetched a load of firewood and stocked the cabin rack. (I’ll do that again today, Friday, so that our indoor supply is topped off in advance of the snow.)
And then there were dozens of little things. Like bringing a shovel up from the shed and finding my long-handled snow brush. (Both are staged inside the cabin.) Parking the truck headed out toward the north end of the driveway for an easier exit if need be.
Now, how much snow are we likely to get on The Mountain?
The latest consensus — onset is close enough now to pay attention — is eight inches to a foot. Maybe more.
No ice storm this far north, I’m glad to say.
When I said (twice) in yesterday’s post that Wednesday’s accomplishment was “a long time comin’,” newcomers to Ubi Libertas Blog may think that a couple of months — December and January, when I built the Ranger trail and ultimately harvested the downed oak — isn’t that long. The history of the thing actually goes back a bit farther.
Though I wasn’t around when wind separated crown from trunk, I’m all but certain that it happened on May 26th, 2024. That’s the night a pair of EF3 tornadoes came within a few miles of The Mountain.
I stumbled across the tree about seven months later.
At the time, I dropped a pin and vowed to return. Harvesting another large oak felled by the same wind, however, occupied most of my attention. Then unexpected circumstances (having nothing to do with firewood) intervened. Late winter and early spring were lost.
Finally, in November of last year, I made it back out to the east slope. I stripped the tree of everything that wasn’t potential firewood. I bucked what I could.
And yes, right before the New Year I finished building the trail. The very next day I began hauling out what I’d bucked six weeks before.
I even did some of my processing there, the first I’d split rounds away from the wood yard.
Wednesday, almost 20 months after tornadic winds brought the mature oak to the ground, I trucked the last of it out of the woods.
It was a marathon, not a sprint. I never lost sight of the objective. The reward, born of persistence and sweat, speaks for itself.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable