Merry meet all,
In Pleasant Bay, the pack ice still coats the ocean surface. Everyone would be seated in front of the wood stoves, with knitted shawls warming their shoulders, and sipping hot tea from their mugs. Woodpeckers pecking at the house walls and moose straining to the upper branches to feast on fruit tree bark. It is almost impossible to grow fruit trees there because moose want the bark. I miss the wood stove.
The rabbits’ fur turns white in the winter there. But somehow the critters and the people there manage to survive the cold winter there. There is no grocery store or gas station or hospital. It is a long drive over the mountain. So you have to be mindful and careful. The snowplow doesn’t come often to Pleasant Bay. We have to be actually tell them where Pleasant Bay is. So if the snow isn’t plowed, you go nowhere- for a few days.
There are ways to amuse yourself. You can go snowshoeing, skiing, hiking, watch the eagles fly over the ocean, and go on long meditative walks. You can chop wood for fire, learn how to play crib or just relax and watch the fire burn in the wood stove. I like to be outdoors though. You can shovel snow and maybe collect sap from the trees or watch the wildlife. See? things to do. I can saw wood, stack wood and collect wood. I wonder how many people do that, in our increasingly hectic rat race society. Today people send text messages. Wel I have never sent anyone a text message. But I have survival skills. I can ride horses and grow my own food. I like to think I am ahead of the game.
You have to conserve your wood supply for the wood stove too. Don’t use it all up at once. You have to let the wet wood dry out, even damp wood. A real big log can take a long time to burn. sometimes two days to burn. So you have to consider that and the size of the wood stove inside it and that it may be better to burn small or medium sized logs. All this plays a part in heating your home and staying alive.
Don’t freak out if you see sawbugs. They have roamed the earth since the time of the dinosaurs. The ash that burns from the logs should get shifted or stirred in the wood stove. This helps the next log to burn.
I don’t know how a person could ever be bored. I hope I have shown you that there is lots to do in a tiny community of 300 people. The tiny fishing village is where I grew up.
It is awesome to get to escape to the country to remember yourselves, hear yourself think and watch the amazing power of nature.
Blessed Be, Lady Spiderwitch )O(
