New Year

I am not one to get caught up in the black Friday, Christmas, new year, fiscal cliff madness. I guess the winter solstice means more and certainly has more reality to me. There is nothing like a plumbing problem over the holidays to put things into perspective. Spending time grappling with the Mysteries of plumbing and crawling with a dim flashlight in the crawl space puts me a little in touch with my caveman forebears. I try to imagine what it would be like to do it stoned on mushrooms with a mouth full of red paint, crawling bravely through the darkness. There weren't even any cave bears or other critters down there. I have been seeing lots of tracks, but it is hard to tell in deep snow. Stony creek has frozen over with the cold snap and soon I will be able to see fox and mink tracks on the frosty ice. It is interesting to see the daily trails back and forth on the ice. It is difficult to distinguish squirrel from mink, but squirrels are smart enough to stay off the ice. Both move by bounding so that their racks are paired, unlike a fox where the tracks are in series. I have been seeing lots of horned larks, thousands, more than I think I have ever seen. I thought I saw the white wings of a snow bunting a couple of times, but I cannot be certain. There has been a Towhee along with the usual winter birds at my feeder, that is something I don't see much of unless I am mushroom hunting. I saw a few goofy looking shovelers on a creek before it got really cold. Ihave had a little vacation from making handmade rustic willow furniture during the holidays and am anxious to get back to the shop.