I've been doing some catching up today.  I seem to suddenly have several "projects" pending, and got a bit behind in my computer work.  I heard from Don Walker yesterday that someone in Michigan wants to set up an ice-out contest like ours, so was able to get some info out on that; then someone else needs photos to do a calendar, so I needed to go through files to find photos that could possibly be used, plus there were several e-mails I needed to answer.  

 We walked this morning, climbing the hill to Jamie and Marie's - well, Fred ran, I walked, or maybe "chugged" up would be a better word.  When it was so cold and blustery, I skipped the hike up the hill a few times, and it doesn't take many skips before I lose muscle and stamina making it extra difficult to climb the hill when I finally get back to it.  The air was nice, but the wind was really cold this morning, in spite of the bright sunshine.  We didn't get much snow - about six or eight inches total - but it blew around, packing down and drifting some.  Just before the storm, we watched our logger picking up brush to be chipped.  We wondered that his load stayed in place to get down through the woods to the landing, but apparently it all went well, and he took several loads of brush out, cleaning things up pretty well so it wouldn't get lost under all the snow we expected.

 I'm still getting used to the view from our bedroom windows since the logging began.  This morning the sky was bright and beautiful, but our skyline out back is completely different now.  The top picture is how it used to look; the bottom photo is how it looks now.  It's roughly the same view, but the big trees close to the house are gone.  We saved the small oak tree shown at the right of the top picture picture, and a small maple to the left of it that has a red tag on it in the bottom picture.  Looking in the other direction, towards the pond, is quite different, too.  It's amazing how I'm seeing the contours of the land now in a way I never did before.  We have walked the area so many times, I thought I knew just about every knoll and rock, but now it looks entirely different to me, and I have to think hard about what I'm looking at - is it where the lower trail was, where the apple tree was or where the big maple with Don Encarnacion's sign, "Mary-Jane Junction" stood?  Soon I'll be able to see the big white rock above the house, and the ridge where the old logging road was.  The encroachment of the trees has been so gradual, I really hadn't noticed, but I'm sure noticing now.  I like to think of it as "redecorating the land around us."  It's like cleaning house and putting everything in order ready for a new start.

I'm going to enjoy seeing beyond the tree line around our property.  It's amazing how it has opened it up.  I'm still waiting to see if we'll be able to see way down the pond towards Route 2.  When my parents built this house, they were able to see the pond, but it has gradually disappeared behind the trees between our house and Don Encarnacion's.  Could be as the view gets broader, the neighborhood will seem smaller - we might even be able to see lights at Don's and perhaps Pupino's.