Vade Mecum

Phone is out again. My guy was right out, late morning. He monitors the line now, to see that it's working (for all I know he works for NSA) and calls me in the afternoon, with his handy snap into the line anywhere phone, and tells me he's going to be another couple of hours, so that he can splice in a new piece of line. The line is beat to shit coming into the forest on Mackletree. Dozens of dead trees have fallen on it, the white oaks especially, since the ice storm, and then the fire. I'm a little sore, I have to admit. Slept late because I was back up finishing last night's piece, even if I couldn't send it. Because of circumstances I know that I spent 6 hours writing yesterday's page. That may be typical, I'd be lying if I said I know. Spending so much time alone, I don't differentiate that much between the ways I spend my energy. The Weather Service has given me another day, tomorrow, to get some things done, so I don't work too hard today. A finite but vast amount of wood, and it all needs splitting, but the new system, the hatchet and a three pound hammer, works very well. The last pieces, if they're unsplittable, you just keep as night-time logs. You load them through the top. I don't have a notebook, what I have is a folded sheet of paper: a shopping list and the numbers to call if either my phone or power goes out. Foot-free. I've cut wood in several places, and need to collect the rounds. I'll bust these in half and put them in the back of the woodshed. It's all wheelbarrow work, and I'll need to clip access through the briars, which means I'll be bleeding and bitching. It's fairly brutal, but I love it, and when I get back to the woodshed, with another wheelbarrow load of wood, I tend to kick my heels together. Uncertainty comes into play. A wheelbarrow load of wood might last two days or two weeks, but it's still cause for celebration, and I have 10 or 12 loads yet to haul. Just short of gleeful. I look at this pile of wood and tears come into my eyes. I can't imagine a better way to spend my time.