Wednesday

It was 15 F this morning but it didn't feel as bad as yesterday since the wind wasn't blowing. It was still cold though.

I took a lot of photos this morning, the light was good in the east as well as purple mountains in the west, guess they are the purple ridge instead of blueridge this morning.

I imagine it is very cold on that ridge top.

I watched the smoke from Coleman's house come up in the still air, our house is even lower in the hollow and my fire was hot and not putting out much smoke which is good. Running clean as the old steam locomotive engineers called it, efficient. I put an old style wood stove in Coleman's house and it is hard to get it real efficient though I have seen him do it.

Another view from halfway down the road.

It warmed up nicely this morning and got up to freezing which felt really nice. Aggy the cattle dog/border collie cross was impatient for me to continue down the trail on our walk. Still some snow hanging around in places.

Brought in a light load of wood, I didn't used to mess with the small stuff but this year I have been burning it on warm days and found that it keeps the fire going about right and saves burning good wood. So it is worth bringing in and I expect to use it by friday or the weekend when it warms up.

Heated up some turnip soup for lunch, real peasant food but it has that tangy mustard taste and Roma tomato sauce which further pushes the taste.
I went to get Dusty this afternoon and he had somehow unchained the gate and was gone. I guessed that he headed for the creek as that is his favorite escape plan for some reason and soon I picked up his tracks where the ground had thawed some. I walked half a mile across the creek and over hills and was on my way back when I heard a twig break and started searching. He was in the creek walking around, guess he figured I couldn't track him there, mr. cool hand luke. He saw me and decided to walk over to me and surrender for a peppermint. So back through the ice cold water and down part of the trail to the lower bridge and I took him over it to test my engineering and it didn't even move with a huge draft horse on it. He went into the stable with the electric fence which should hold him if he goes walk about again. I barely made it to the bus and then an appointment at Boones Mill. Now I am tired from all the speed walking this afternoon.

 So I guess I can rate the foot bridge for at least 1/2 ton. I made it to handle heavy wheelbarrow loads of wood and bicycles but didn't make it wide enough for vehicles as I don't want them to have access since we have had problems with people trespassing using them.