POLITICS AND NATURE

Taking advantage of the Sunday and the lull before the supposed storm I still didn't believe would get here, I took the dogs out to cut some wood. The area is a pinion-juniper forest. Not much dead juniper around the area due to its popularity, which is fine by me. The pinion burns hotter and last longer although it is a pain in the ass to cut. Pinion pine has a lot of small branches that can be a hassle although they work well for kindling.

Zoe and Marley wandered around playing and finding stuff to get into and do whatever else dogs do when left unattended. Marley discovered water, which he is always want to be near, coming out of some sort of large, aluminum sheeting laid over the top if the picture went further past his head. Being so near the power lines is a bit spooky but I figured he's a dog and I can't imagine the Forest Service having some sort of toxic waste emerging from under some man made thing that would be available to an assortment of animals big and small, so whatever, it was fine. He hasn't gotten sick yet and I figure he's ok. He's spent the last eight years running free through the forest. Again, I'm sure it is perfectly fine, it is probably some sort of wildlife tank. I'm just not positive. Spike hung out near me as I cut the wood while the other two explored.

It was a decent haul of wood in a fairly short period of time, although there's more to go back and clean up. A lot of that little stuff I was talking about. I hear tell of places in Alaska, I think it was Homer, where people use wood burning stoves to such an extent that it is hard to breathe. We don't have that particular problem up here in Flag. Down in Phoenix, there are days where the pollution is so bad, people can not burn wood in their homes.

It's amazing how closely politics and nature can be intertwined. Environmental politics requires a great deal of diversity and home spun ideas and humor. Little things like governmental interference come with large scale, industrial projects which force people into a realm of environmental politics that can turn nasty and even be counter-productive. I suppose that's why I like Flag, there's a fair amount of freedom here and a lot of open space.

I'm far from a totally green individual. Jean is much more so than I am, but my knowledge is always growing. I drive a gas guzzling truck but it's made in an environmentally sensitive manner (as much as that can be), I don't drive much and, quite frankly where I do go, I need it. We heat our house with wood from the forest and live as close to the land as we can with comfort.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. The storm was a brewin. It began on Sunday night late and has continued until just a little bit ago. It's about quarter to one Monday night/Tuesday morning and I just looked out at a blanket of white but no snow coming down at the moment. It is not a blistering, cold storm like Minnesota or South Dakota, it was a gentle, continual flow of snow through the day as I sat researching Bali.

Winter Really Makes it Home

The greatest things about winter are hard to place into words. This first picture of Jean is while we made a snowman. Sometimes I have a hard time putting just about anything into words but, be that as it may, the joy of seeing the Earth blanketed in white, no end in sight to the flakes falling to the ground elevates Winter in the seasonal milieu. Flowers and trees are resting, waiting it out like a bear. I headed out in the late afternoon to shovel the driveway once so I didn't have to dig two feet out in the morning and after that was finished, decided to start the snowman. I haven't built a snowman in a long time for some reason so that was great fun. Jean came out and the dogs cruised around, Zoe shivering, Marley seeking snowballs.  

It was really a nice winter afternoon in the early part of December, the beginning of the end for 2007. More to come soon on the scale of excitement....new adventures on the horizen, it was a good year and all that. I suppose I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

The point of this is the delight of the season and the way that snow makes winter come alive.

I remember so many winters in Chicago with the sky cloaked in grey and darkness (not to demean the midwest or that fantastic city which is home to my brothers, sister, and nieces and nephews, and everyone I grew up with and which still lives in my own heart). It doesn't stand out that way in my childhood memories. Perhaps that is childhood, or just maybe the sky wasn't so dirty and we had more snow back in the 70's.

It's different here out West. I've lived in the West for approximately sixteen of the last twenty years and between the mountains and valleys I have discovered my home. Something about the West simply shouts out the glory of God and the astonishment of creation. That, of course, is why natural areas need to be protected from what appears to be a never ending development into strip malls and shopping plazas. Remember: The old saying "you can't stop progress" doesn't mean you can not reconfigure progress, re-conceptualize it, and mold it to form current knowledge and ideals. Any back to this story in photos. I think they're fun.

And so, here are the pics of the snowman at twilite and in the darkness after we returned from a quick, half hour ski. One of the cool parts about when it snows hard is that cross country skiing is only five minutes from home. I have no idea why the font changed on the website. (Honestly, I went back to make some changes so that all the letters are the same but I've made it even worse, screwed up the formatting in addition to the fonts. Oh well--I guess I'll leave well enough alone for now--figure it out for the next article) Obviously, something to do with the pictures. I took a bunch of shots in the dark and there are a couple of Marley, in his element, in the snow, below. I'll just let the photos do the talking. Now it's very small. It's not so bad being very small, Pooh told Piglet.

Marley's shots

Evening and Night