Chanting

"Wind, wind, go away (and stay away!)"  Yes, I know I'm taking liberties with an old childhood chant, but we need the rain and we sure don't need the wind.  A summer breeze is always welcome, but a howling wind is not.  It was cold yesterday and poor old Stove had his work cut out.  I lit the fire at 8 and, try as he might, he couldn't get the house warm until almost 4.

The view from my lap on a cold day.


Mike worked a long day on the deck and is making progress.  Many of the support joists were bad and needed reinforcement.  Of course, that slow and difficult work didn't show.  Now that he's laying the surface boards, it's going faster and looking good.

The previous storm had blown the tarps off the woodpile.  I brought three more wagonloads up to the porch (gotta keep Stove fed) and did my best to recover the firewood.  I have a wealth of cut wood this year and the pile is taller than I am, so that wasn't an easy job.

Mike called it quits about 5, just as the wind started kicking up, joined by a smattering of rain.  I'll say this for him, Mike is a workin' fool and isn't much deterred by weather.  I was glad Michael and I had gone for our walk a little early in the afternoon.

By bedtime, the wind was beating against the house and sounded like a freight train.  My personal pack (reminds me of a pack of huskies) snuggled up against me, nailing me in place, and my windy weather chant began.  "Please protect the trees and keep them all upright and branches in place.  Please let us keep electricity.  Please make the wind stop.  Please."  So far, all is good but for the gosh-awful wind.  I'll probably find the tarps in the next county.