Falling Star Shoots from Orion

A falling star shoots from Orion as the hunter rises in the east.  The days are short.  The temperatures at night have begun to fall below zero. Trees creak in the cold breeze under a waxing moon.  There is a dusting of snow in the air and on the ground: another winter in the North.

Our thoughts have gone to shoveling, firewood, four wheel drive, long underwear, warm insulated boots, anoraks & choppers.  Across the globe, Northerners are passing long nights with food, cards, tea, wool sweaters and music.

Waking at light, we go to work and come home to dark.  I've almost forgotten some of the daily images of the property because I never see them during the daytime hours.  The reality is that we're middle latitude and only a few weeks remain before the winter solstice.  After that, the days only get longer.

I've spotted a number of fox recently.  It seems like their numbers are up.  An extremely rare wolverine was spotted outside of Lutsen.  The largest member of the weasel family, wolverines are tenacious carnivores.  Typically weighing less than 50 lbs they have been documented killing prey many times their size.  With large ranges and low population densities it is very uncommon to spot one of these animals.    

We are living on the land comfortably. In the past few weeks I've been busy doing wood chores, putting plastic on the windows, installing our bed frame, waging a war on mice to keep them out of our truck at night and planning our projects for the upcoming year...

Firewood

I burned a fire in the stove today.  Although there was certainly a slight nip to the North Shore air tonight; it is not cold.  I lit the fire to remind myself that this work is worth it.  The fire is burning to remind myself that my efforts, which have at times beat me to outright physical disrepair, is a commodity that will burn long and keep us warm all winter.

I'm not minimizing the situation.  The nights are getting longer and colder.  Most recent nights we've been honestly burning the stove to keep warm.

It's true: winter is coming.  To northerners this time of the year means but one thing; it's a time of chopping wood.  Doting wool and fleece for the first time since spring is occasion enough to dust off the splitting maul and get to work.  My job this fall is simple: split 3 cords of birch and one cord of poplar.  This should be enough wood to burn in our stove for the winter.

Splitting, however, is the last step in processing firewood.  One can pay to get their wood supply delivered split.  I for one am that that type of person (at least while I'm young) to do it themselves.  To me splitting wood has simply become another chore that I do that takes my mind off of the "normal" life qualms.  It gives me an opportunity to exert energy on something that doesn't think or feel or has the ability to tell me off.  In turn, I'm able to simply beat the snot out of it.  It's great anger management!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not an angry person.  Processing wood is just another activity that helps me direct the rest of my constructive energy towards the things in my life that merit it.

On the physical level, there's an old saying that processing firewood warms you twice.  I agree.  In fact I'd say that it warms you five times: felling, bucking, splitting, stacking, and burning.

First Snow

The ponds along the Gunflint Trail are freezing.  A blanket of snow has covered the Superior North Shore.  The gales of November sweep across Lake Superior.  Waves crash ashore in a thunderous applause along the cobble beaches.  Nightfall comes early.  My eyes are slowly adjusting to the prolonged darkness.

I just finished trimming out the windows.  There's not much better than working with quality pine.  There's also not much that makes a place look finished than cased windows!

One of our newly finished windows.

Luna sitting at her post on the top of the driveway.

First snow cover of the season...

Seven Billion

As of today, seven billion humans inhabit the earth.  That's almost 122 people per each square mile of earth's land mass!  Humans, like the growing number of snow buntings leading us down the early morning country road are growing swiftly in numbers.

This fact takes me back.  It makes me realize how finite of a planet we live on.  It reminds me that everyone, starting in our small community of the shore of Lake Superior, needs to be responsible and sustainable in our consumption and management of earth's resources.

The thought of seven billion people on earth leads me to reflect on the resources that I consume.  After all, my project continues.  I'm clearing and burning balsam fir.  I spend my early evenings racing sunset by splitting birch firewood and hauling water from the well.  There was a beautiful wolf on the Gunflint Trail this afternoon.  Rifle season on deer opens this weekend.  We have meat, fish and berries in the freezer.  I drive to town everyday for work.

In my opinion, every human on this planet has to honestly reflect on how they live.   Everyone needs to do what they can do to live as sustainable as possible.  It's the only way that the burgeoning human population is going to thrive on this finite earth.

7,000,000,000 people and 1 rock: the numbers say it all in this one...