Mud

I used to say that Chicago has 4 seasons: June, July, August and Winter.  The Northwoods is a 3-season place: Winter, Mud and Bugs.  We're well into mud season this month.  For my southern friends, mud season happens after the 2 feet of ice in the ground finally heaves up and melts.  It's nothing like mud in the south.  This is a monster that has a life and agenda of its own and is ravenous for boots, tools and small children.  Mud is my least favorite season.  Bella likes it, though.  She wallows in it and is always carrying a mudpack.  Eventually the rain and cool weather will end, though, and Mud will be over.  Then it's on to the plague of the month Bug season.  It has already started with last year's ladybugs and cluster flies hatching out of the siding.  We've also seen the first ticks, though since the grass is shorter this year they aren't as intrusive as last year's nightmare-inducing swarm.  Next will be the mosquitoes, followed shortly by flies, gnats, no-see-ums and then a new round of mosquitoes, flies and ladybugs.  Sounds great, doesn't it?  But these little annoyances are part of the reason that this beautiful part of the world is so sparsely populated and I guess that when push comes to shove, I'd rather be dealing with a cloud of gnats than a Walmart moving in across the street.  The bugs and mud, along with the winters, keep the riffraff out of our neck of the woods, and I'm ok with that.

Happy Anniversary...

So.  One year ago today we arrived, exhausted and crabby, in the Big Woods.  It had taken us a total of 3 very long days to get here; the moving van that Tony was driving wouldn't go faster than 45 mph and we had all the stopping to care for animals and humans along the way.  Additionally, we picked up Janette in Illinois and in the middle of nowhere her truck broke down.  What a trip!  But at last we made it to the house and got everyone unloaded and inside.  The next day the horses and sheep arrived, having been shipped by "professional" shippers who, I thought, would do a better job than I could.  It was obvious, though, that they did not stop halfway to let the horses rest as they'd promised--little Al was so exhausted he shook like a leaf the whole first day he was here.  While we were unloading and temporarily fencing the animals, Mom bent over to pick up a laundry basket and fractured one of her lumbar vertebrae.  Well, the fracture was a long time in coming and the laundry basket was the last straw, but still, it was quite unexpected and most inconvenient, not to mention painful for The Mom.  After a week of messing around with that, we ended up sending her to the nearest hospital, about 25 min from here, where she was examined and diagnosed.  They didn't have a single bed left, though, and sent her on to Wausau, an hour and a half from here.  She stayed there for a couple of weeks and then was bedridden until well into June.  During that same period, we had to bury Jezebel, Mom's toy poodle, and Amelia Ehrcat, my tortoiseshell cat.  It snowed several inches in the middle of May, and the first of the insect plagues began, with hundreds (I do not exaggerate!) of ticks coming in on clothing and puppies.  Somewhere toward the end of May I had a short but very satisfying nervous breakdown, after which things started to improve slowly...

The animals had absolutely no respect for their fencing and escaped on a regular basis.  Then I would have to grab a scoop of grain and hunt them down, sometimes a half a mile away.  We'd all march home then, with me in the lead shaking the grain scoop.  Then Bella and Al, who would alternate between leading and following, depending on how nervous they were about losing out on the grain.  The sheep would bring up the rear, bawling the whole way.  Our few neighbors must have been amused...

So we spent the summer getting fencing installed, getting the barn fixed (the whole south end was missing--it looked like someone just tore the whole wall out in order to easily remove the old milking equipment) and mowing down tall grass and overgrown plantings.  The sheep and horses helped with that one, as they were able to escape their fencing and eat whatever was insight.

By the start of winter, we had the perimeter of our 5-acre farm fenced and the barn closed up enough to keep everyone out of the weather.  It was hard to put the animals back by the barn; it was kind of nice to have Bella leaningover the deck rail peeking into the back door.

 But they are a lot happier to have their boundaries set, I think, and as long as they don't starve to death (an event they are certain will happen sooner or later) they don't complain much.

Mom has recovered as much as she's going to and is doing really, really well up here.  Back in NC, she was confined to her recliner for the most part but here she is very active and able to help out with the housework and cooking.  I now have time to think about doing some repairs cosmetic stuff in the house, and time to play with Bella.  We will do some trail riding this year for sure.  I hope to get Mom a cart and harness for Al Capony for her birthday this year and hopefully we'll be able to visit Janette in style!

Where did the time go?

I can't believe it will be a year on Wednesday since we packed up the critters and all our worldly possesions (more or less) and made the big move to the little house.  Our first year was spent mostly trying to survive the first year, but from now on I hope to use this blog to keep track of what goes on here in the Northwoods and share our news and my thoughts with family and friends.  I'm a big believer in journaling; being able to go back and see what you were thinking and how you were faring in the past often helps to keep the present in perspective.  So in the next couple of days I'll try to sum up the last year, post some pictures of the place and figure out how this blogging thing works.