I've been fairly good at keeping my written journal up to date but due to inclement weather and the lack of power for days at a time, I haven't had time to upload the entries...until now. So here it is, written 12/3/09:
I've been here 9 days and it feels like a lifetime. I catch myself sometimes wondering at this life I'm living now - the life of a mountain woman.
There are definite differences like the actual need to carry a knife with me at all times and creating a system where the wet clothes I take off are dry in time for me to put them back on.
I realized something tonight while I was doing the evening chores with my little sister. We had the six horses fed and hayed along with the 15 calves and we were in the process of driving hay to the feeder steer with the tractor when we passed Daniel and Katie on the snowmobile. They were loading the sleigh for their second run up the canyon to feed cows.
I waved and they waved back, our faces invisible thanks to goggles, scarves and hats. And it struck me, in those few moments between waving and me getting the tractor stuck on the fence, that not many siblings are living this life right now.
We made plans in the falling snow and 22 degree weather to watch a movie when we were all finished with the evening chores.
An hour and a half later, we were all safely back at mom's house, pulling off our hats, gloves, scarves, goggles, sweatshirts, undershirts, coveralls, jeans, wool socks and boots till we got to our dry layer of a long sleeved t-shirt and cotton pants tucked into our dry layer of wool socks.
We have this bundling up thing down pretty pat. To the point we're actually sweating in the precipiation and freezing temps.
My only regret is my sometimes lack of strength.
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