Winter is Coming!

The wood is stacked.

The kindling has been gathered.

Spider webs are seemingly everywhere, and all are at face-height.

Winter is coming!

It seems strange to say that, early August, but the signs are unmistakable.  The sun rises later, sets earlier, and the early mornings have a slight bite to them.  Garlic has already been harvested, the potatoes are ready, some flowers have given up the ghost, and the chickens’ egg-production is lessening.

Winter is coming!

My seventieth year, snow atop my mantel, cobwebs adorn my brain, the machinery creaks and moans when activated . . .

Winter is coming!

The squirrels are busier than sweatshop workers in a Third World country, geese can be heard, colors are muting, pedals are falling, and vacations are coming to an end.  Thoughts turn to duct-cleaning, pie baking, and canning as pumpkins continue to enlarge and corn stalks sway in the breezes.

Winter is coming!

Nuts are being gathered by ambitious squirrels, resident birds are fortifying nests, greens are fading, and the last of the lettuce is picked.

Winter is coming!

Fences are mended where needed, driveway potholes are filled, drainage ditches are dug, coops are repaired, hoops are taken down, cloches dismantled, fertilizer is spread, fields are mowed, and children say goodbye to one more summer and pick out new plumage for school.

Winter is coming!

Anyway, winter is coming and I have chores to do.  Have a brilliant week as August sighs and prepares for the inevitable.  It was forty-eight degrees this morning in Olympia.  Nature is sending a message.

Bill

Inner Debates and a Farmer Tribute

Conrad home

The house I grew up in, in Tacoma, recently sold for $230,000.

Blow me away!

My parents bought that house in 1953 for $12,000.  It is 1,340 square feet of living space and a one-car garage.  When I lived there it was a three-bedroom, one-bath home. It just sold as a four-bedroom, 1 ½ bath home.  Mind you the square footage is the same, so there must have been some serious squeezing being done to accomplish that magical trick.

$230,000 . . . blow me away!

Bev and I bounce back and forth between staying in this house we own or selling it, downsizing, and moving into a tiny home.  We’ve been debating this for years now.  I’m not sure we are any closer to a decision than we were five years ago.

We are comfortable in this home and really that’s the main reason for staying.  As our kids love to remind us, we have equity in this home, and “equity is important,” they love to tell us, but important to whom?  Sooner, rather than later, Bev and I will pass on, so I guess the equity is important to those who would inherit but truthfully, we don’t much care about that.  This is all about the quality of our lives.  Our kids can fend for themselves, and how our equity affects them is not really a point of conversation.

On the other hand, selling and living in a tiny home on an acre of land has always appealed to us . . . take the equity from this home and completely pay for something small…no mortgage payment sounds heavenly right about now.

So the inner debate continues.  In the end the decision will really be Bev’s.  I’m twelve years older than she is, and chances are pretty good that I’ll die before her, so it all comes down to what does she want when that time comes.  I’ve lived in my truck before, so it makes little difference to me.

In the meantime, I’ve got firewood to stack.  Like it or not, winter will be here shortly, and firewood is our only source of heat, so this task can’t be put off much longer.  It might be eighty-five right now, but those temps won’t last much longer in our northern environs.

ANOTHER SIDE OF THE COIN

We went for a hike up in the mountains this past weekend, and on the way back home we stopped and visited with some friends who own a farm in the town of Mossyrock.  Now get this: Lydia and her husband Richie work 200 acres . . . by themselves!

You gotta love farming to work 200 acres of cattle and sheep, just you and your spouse.  Think about that for a moment.  Do you know how much land 200 acres is?  It’s about 150 football fields.  Let that sink in for a moment.  Two people!  The night before we visited them, Richie wrapped up his day of haying at ten p.m. I have no doubt he started at sunrise.

God bless the farmers of the world!

Have a great week living your fantastic lives!

Bill