Firewood Envy

     I was never an envious person.  I saw things that other people had, but I just accepted the fact that they had stuff and I didn’t.  I really didn’t spend time being envious of their possessions.  There was however, one exception-- Firewood.

    Back in 1977 when we bought our house and property, it was heated entirely by a wood stove and the BC winters were cold and long.  It was always a major priority of mine to cut, split, and stack enough firewood to get us through the winter.  That was a big time-consuming job that required a lot of physical exertion.  I was constantly on the lookout for trees that had blown down or left after logging, that I could get for firewood.

    I was always envious when I saw the huge stack of cut, split, and dried firewood that some of my neighbors had and wished that I could be in such a condition, instead of hunting wood, getting it to our house, splitting it by swinging a splitting maul, then stacking it.  It was always such a big operation that I had to carry out every year in preparation for winter.

    Lately getting firewood has not been such a major chore, and that’s a good thing, because at my age, I no longer have the strength and endurance that I had when I was a young man.   One of the reasons that getting firewood is not such a big job now, is that our winters have not been as cold as they used to be, and every spring I still have firewood, that I didn’t need for heat, left over from the winter.  

    I now have access to an electric wood splitter that is on loan from a friend, so splitting wood is now quicker and a lot easier than swinging a maul.    Another reason is that we now also use electric baseboard heaters in the house to keep us warm, so we don’t have to use so much firewood.

    This all came to mind yesterday, when I noticed just how much firewood I have stacked and ready to use this winter.  It is nice to be in the situation where I no longer envy those people with their big ready supply of firewood for the winter.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

God Speaks

     I think it must be because I saw so many religious movies when I was a kid, that now, whenever I see a break in the clouds, with with the sunlight beaming down toward earth, my first thought is that God must be speaking to someone.  The beaming light thing is a phenomenon that I notice quite often in the Robson Valley, so this part of the country must keep God pretty busy.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

A Birch Seedling: A Satisfying Discovery

     Although you can’t really make it out in the photo, this pot of flowers is sitting on the big stump of a birch tree that once stood by our house.  Years ago the tree died and I had it felled.  The wide dark object with the whitish rim is a large conk (fungus) growing out of the nutrients in the old stump.  The top of the stump is now covered with moss and small plants.

    The other day when I was watering the flowering pot, I discovered something that made me feel really good.  Among the mosses and small plants on the top of the stump, there were some bigger leaves that looks like a birch seedling that has sprouted and is growing in the mosses on top of the old birch stump.      

    Seeing that was very satisfying to me.  I loved that big old original birch tree that grew there, and to see young birch tree growing in the same spot was uplifting, like life was regenerating itself.

    There are of course, no guarantees that the seedling will be able to survive in this climate-changing world to become another large birch tree, but right now, it gives me hope.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Wow, A Mother Deer With Three Fawns

     First thing this morning, I walked out to the raspberry patch to pick some raspberries to put on our bowl of oats.  When I rounded the woodpile, I was a bit surprised to see a deer standing by the raspberries.  I had seen the deer there a couple of times before, eating the raspberries so that was not a total surprise.  As I continued to calmly walk toward the raspberries, the deer slowly walked away a bit, keeping her eyes on me, but then she just stood there watching me.

    It was then that I noticed, over by our satellite dish, there were three fawns.  I was amazed, I had never seen a deer with three fawns.  I have seen deer with two, and deer with one, but never a mother deer with three of them.  No wonder she was had been busy stuffing herself with raspberries.  

    I had forgotten my phone, so I wasn’t able to take a photo, but I wanted one, so I walked slowly back to the house and got my camcorder.  When I returned back out to the raspberries, I was happy to see the deer family still there, so I was able to take some photos.  

    Eventually, the mother deer saw that I was busy hogging the raspberry patch as I was picking them, and so she wandered over to be with her three fawns.  

Take a look at my paintings by going to:  davidmarchant2.ca

Stormy Weather

     As one storm after another rolls into the Robson Valley, I find myself rather subdued and needing sunlight, but realistically all our dark skies and rain showers are very much preferable to the sunny, hot weather south of us causing forest fires in those very dry forests of BC.  The storm that blew in yesterday with its heavy rain, lightning, and loud crashes of thunder, terrified Kona, who trembled and cowered, and couldn’t be calmed.

    As I usually do whenever we have a thunderstorm, I opened the Lightning app to see how close the electrical activity was, and I was surprised to see just how many lightning strikes has occurred in our neck of the woods.  

    In the screenshot below, the blue dot shows our house, and the red dots show the most recent lightning strikes.  I was confident that because of all of the rain coming down, the strikes would not cause any forest fires.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Our Trusty Old Wheelbarrow

     We bought our “hobby farm” back in the fall of 1977.  When the following spring arrived, we had a tremendous amount of work that we wanted to do outside, to make our five acre property into the way we wanted it.  We didn’t have any outdoor tools for the lawn or garden, so we had to buy them.  One of the first useful items we needed was a wheelbarrow.  That orange wheelbarrow is still with us today and it is in constant use every year.

    During its time with us, it has carried the firewood I have cut and split, the weeds I have pulled from the garden, potatoes I have dug, junk destined to go to the dump, construction materials and tools I needed when rebuilding our house, manure from the barn when I had Angora goats, and even the large TV I needed to use when I was trying to aim my satellite dish which was in the barn paddock.  I also used it to mix concrete in.  

    All of that work I used the wheelbarrow for could be exhausting, and as you can see from this old photo taken shortly after I bought the wheelbarrow in 1978, it could also be used for a bit of relaxation.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca 

Like Lions Waiting By The Waterhole

     Every morning lately, I find myself thinking about those lions laying around by the watering holes in Africa, waiting for the thirsty animals to come for a drink, so they can attack and eat them.  The reason I think about those lions, is because the first thing I have been doing lately  each morning, is walking out to our raspberry patch to pick some fresh raspberries to put on our cereal.

    As I slowly walk toward the raspberry patch, I know what will be waiting to devour me when I get there, not lions, but mosquitoes.

    After several years of having practically no mosquitoes, all of the rain and showers we experienced this year, have created a mosquito problem.  Their population is not as violently oppressive as it has been in during those really bad mosquito years, when I feared to even go outside, but they are certainly more noticeable this summer than they have been lately.  

    I can go out to work in the yard or garden, and not be overwhelmed by the pests, but if I go over to the raspberry patch, a thick cloud of the mosquitoes suddenly appear, waiting and ready to attack for their blood feast, just like those lions by the waterhole in Africa.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca