Warmer weather today. In the 20s, and the wind almost entirely stopped. Carolina Blue skies too – really just a lovely day. Three coyotes swung by last night, one crossing right in front of the house. The deer have fallen into a pattern the past few days, taking a trail that crosses by the stream.
I did a few practical things, cleaning all my pots, then scrubbing the stovetop and the kitchen counter. It was a nice day to be working with water warmed by the wood stove. Outside I was able to de-ice the waste line from my toilet, running warm water through the line, then detaching the pipe and knocking the ice off. Not terrible work – in weather below freezing there is no smell. And quite timely – going into January with no ice built up at all is quite good.
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when you speak of the deers and coyotes, do you actually see them, or just their tracks?
Deer I see all the time. I know them by sight now and I’ve given the ones who come around most often names. Yesterday they walked past my front door as I was writing, and they came back by the same route today. The coyotes I have never seen, though their tracks are everywhere and I hear them calling to each other constantly too. [I’ve seen a coyote only once, in New Jersey.] I’m amazed at their capacity to be seemingly omnipresent and also never seen – almost no one around here sees them.
And one way or another, the snow makes it clear that they’re around much more than you could ever believe. There are a lot of tracks around my cabin now.