Posts Tagged With: quill gordon

Only 18 Below

Not whining. Not bragging. It is what it is. 

Categories: nature, Vermont, Winter | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

Unwanted Canadian Export

As the sun comes up this morning, the sky is as clear as clear can be. Not a cloud to be seen, unless you count the vapor of my breath — but it freezes quickly and falls to the ground as icy dust. Even the red stuff in my thermometer is seeking refuge, as the molecules of whatever-it-is drop toward the bulb at the bottom of the glass, huddling together in a shivering blob. Only the best thermometers will be giving any indications of temperature tonight. Some lucky people in these parts might even get to see that magic point where Farenheit and Celsius actually agree (in case you don’t own a really good thermometer, that would be 40 below zero).

I doubt cold air is covered in any trade agreement with our neighbors to the north (if it is, I demand to know what we are sending in exchange). I can’t think of any benefit to this mass of arctic air, this mind-jangling intrusion into a normally peaceful time of year. Unless, of course, its purpose is an increased appreciation of mud season and the blackflies of spring, but that’s kind of like hitting my thumb with a hammer because it will feel so much better when it stops hurting.

 I would like to reject this unwanted Canadian export outright — treat it like junk-mail and stuff the whole shebang into the postage-paid envelope and send it back. Let them deal with it. I don’t want it, don’t need it.

I read somewhere that there are something like 30,000,000 people within a day’s drive from here (half of New Jersey is already here, skiing and driving into ditches). That is a lot of people and if everyone would please take a few minutes this afternoon, let’s say just before kick-off, go outside, face north and blow just as hard as they can, it would be big help, I’m sure.

If that doesn’t work, I hate to say it but this may require Congressional action. E-mail your representatives immediately and demand they do something! Like swinging the doors of the Capitol Building wide open Monday morning so we can put all that hot air to good use.

Categories: Winter | Tags: , , , , | 6 Comments

Return of the Shack Nasties

Coming down with a case of the Shack Nasties is a gradual thing. Fortitude and stoicism delay the inevitable, slowing its progress for a time, but sooner or later the Shack Nasties set in. I’ve had them before, I have them now, and I will have them again but these, too, shall pass.

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Categories: nature, Rural Life, Vermont, Winter | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Shappell Jet Sled — Review

Shappell Jet Sled 1 –ATC (All Terrain Camo)
25″ beam x 54″ long x 10″ deep
Approx. 15 pounds

$54.99 from Shappell Corporation

My job involves a fair amount of lugging stuff (chainsaws, traps, trail maintenance tools & materials, etc.) and a lot of that stuff gets lugged in and out of the trees at the far end of the lake. I don’t cross the ice to get there, though; I take to the woods, working in the trees and the streams along the way, along a loop that covers close to two miles. Limited to what I can carry on my back or in my hands, I sometimes make several trips for one project or just tough it out, setting things down and switching hands every hundred yards.

I’ve looked at plastic toboggans and plans for homemade rigs to help transport gear but they have seemed flimsy, narrow and prone to tipping or weighed more than the stuff I need to haul. Enter Shappell Jet Sleds and the chance to try one out for myself, through a random drawing at the Outdoor Blogger Network.

Officially, this is a Shappell Jet Sled 1 – ATC (All Terrain Camo) and it is absolutely not flimsy. The polyethylene tub is rigid and light-weight. It also has a wide stance and looks to be stable, but if anyone is capable of dumping a load of gear in the snow it is me, especially with a product that has “All Terrain” right in its name. Let’s see how it does on the loop around my home waters. Continue reading

Categories: Product and Gear Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

In a Rut, But at Least I Have Crumpets

(If you stopped by hoping for a fishing story, perhaps you’ll enjoy this: “Fishing Hurts”)

It is easy to get stuck in a rut this time of year. The hours of daylight may be increasing but winter is just getting started and spring seems a long way off. Most years we get a bit of a break from the cold and snow when the “January Thaw” sets in and temperatures climb to above freezing for a few days but this brief warm spell is one gift horse I always look straight in the mouth.

Thawing means melting. Ice and snow change to water and dirt turns to mud. If that dirt happens to be a road, things can get interesting fast, especially with fuel trucks, UPS vans and people from other places driving back and forth. Most of the people from other places this year are from New Jersey, renting a house up the hill during ski season. I don’t know where they are headed four and five times a day — there just ain’t much to do in our little village — but up and down they go, making a real mess of things but mid-winter thaws are temporary. Cold weather returns and the road freezes again, leaving the rest of us to deal with the tracks those people made while we (wisely) stayed home.

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Categories: Humor, Rural Life | Tags: , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Cremation of MMX

Because the calendar — not our position in the cosmos, tilt of the Earth or phase of the moon — said so, a new year began on Saturday. I have often wondered if the Winter Solstice and the lengthening of days made more sense as the start of the year, but we humans are much too smart to fall for such a primitive, simple way to anticipate and mark the passage of time. With moon phases and other quaint folklore reduced to trivia in small print, our modern calendar has quite sensibly divided the year into months of un-equal, seemingly random length and managed to conjure an entire bonus day every four years which we, in our wisdom, tack on to the end of February, one of the worst months of all. Sensible or not, we use the same calendar as everyone else and Friday night was a night of revelry at Fish in a Barrel Pond. Continue reading

Categories: nature, Rural Life, Vermont, Winter | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Butt Wind

Sometimes it’s not what you say …

… it’s how you say it.

The sign at Singleton’s Store in Proctorsville means the same thing no matter how you say it.

Categories: Humor | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Shortest, Darkest Day of the Year

It is the shortest, darkest day of the year and the sun barely peeked over the barn. Not only is this week a time for friends, family and worship, it also marks the anniversary of the day my friend Eugene very nearly became a casualty in the War on Christmas, all because he wished good will, peace and happiness to one of his fellow men. You can read about it here, in A Very Eugene Holiday Tale (now with less cussing!).

Best wishes to all, now and in the coming New Year, from everyone at Fish in a Barrel Pond. Bring on the longer days!

Categories: Winter | Tags: , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Temporary Embellishments

There is a stillness to a calm winter day that no other season can match. The profound, stunning silence can make you believe you’ve gone deaf — at least until a tree pops from the cold, shattering the quiet — and the frigid, crystalline air can seriously create the impression your nose has caught fire. Days like this are part of the price to be paid to live in a place like this, but they are also part of the reward.

I joke in the fall about seeing the pretty leaves twice; once in their autumnal glory on the hillsides and again, a few days after they drop, as they clog the grates across the spillway. I also joke about waiting for the last oak to drop its leaves so I can be done with clearing those grates, but I never know just when that will be so I try to keep my sense of humor when those leaves are still coming out from under the ice.

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Categories: nature, Vermont, Winter | Tags: , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

First Winter Photos (Before Winter Even Begins)

I raised an eyebrow at the temperature when I stepped outside yesterday and that eyebrow stayed up for most of the morning and I walked around, looking kind of surprised, like one of those Botox ladies. I’m not sure how surprised I actually was, knowing for a long time that this day was coming, the day I trade flannel-lined dungarees for long-johns and wool trousers and my footwear consists solely of Sorels for outdoors and house slippers for in.

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Categories: nature, Rural Life, Vermont, Winter | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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