Winter Is Coming
Okay. So. You might be thinking: Nicole, what the heck are you talking about? It’s June. The first day of official summer was just a few days ago. Most surely winter is NOT coming. Also, I do NOT want to be reminded that here in Montana summer is our shortest season. So quit it with your mention of winter. Fair enough. I get it. Really I do. And. Well. Thing is, every season is tethered to all the rest. There is no separation.
Case and point. Mike just handcrafted another Empty Mountain upgrade: a covered shed for storing firewood. Now that we use wood for heat, firewood collection is an activity of household upkeep. Thus far, since moving out here on the land, July 1 of 2022, we’ve been simply collecting & cutting wood to last us for short bouts of time. And we’ve been using tarps to keep it covered from the rain. With how small our cabin is and how super easy it is to heat it up - and also given the fact that we’ve not been wintering over here since we moved into the woods after selling our house in Missoula - amassing wood simply hasn’t been at the top of the ol’ priorities list. But now that we’re a little more settled in and set up, we can start putting more attention to developing small improvements, comforts, and conveniences. No longer are we in the acute and stressful super new learning period of time of needing to figure out how to live off-grid and without running water in the woods. We’re starting now to move slowly into projects and upgrades that improve our quality of living.
When you rely solely on wood to heat your dwelling place, it’s a good idea not to wait until the temperatures drop or the snow flies to start gathering your fuel source. Build your roof before it rains. Now that we have a better way of storing wood, we’ll slowly start to collect, cut, and stack it over the summer months, so we are prepared for fall and the starts of winter. While we plan to head south for a spell later this year, we don’t anticipate departing until December. And we’ll look to return home in March. Montana weather translation (in case you don’t live around here): we’ll have plenty of opportunity to enjoy the bounty of cold weather and possible snow.
Living as we now do, we’ve acquired a few new household chores that we didn’t have when living in Missoula. But a few chores have also dropped away. I’ve been enjoying the addition of wood collecting and chopping. I appreciate having an actual relationship with our heat source. While turning a dial for the production of heat when living in town is a great luxury, it also makes it really hard to feel any sort of real connection to it. It’s really easy to take it for granted, too.
There’s a Zen Buddhist proverb that says: “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” By no means are we enlightened, but we are chopping wood and carrying water. So we have that going for us.
A poem by Nicole to close:
Winter is Coming
As strange as it feels,
now that it’s summer,
I need to start stockpiling
wood for the fall.
As odd as it may sound -
as here we are in June -
winter is coming.
No one season is
ever far from its siblings.
Each sets the stage
for the next show.
It is not a good idea
to regard each act
as a separate plot.
Practice to see & greet
winter at the peak of summer
and summer in the depths
of winter.
With the insight of interbeing,
we can more fully arrive in the
season at hand.
We need only look to the
land, waters, and sky to be
reminded.
How we live today
determines our tomorrow.