Looking At Longer Days!

 Yesterday was the shortest day of the year, so now our days will get a little more sunlight each day and the nights will get a little shorter. The winter solstice is in England, large crowds gather at Stonehenge to celebrate. The further from the North Pole one is in the Northern Hemisphere, the less difference there is in daylight hours. In the Southern Hemisphere, in countries such as South Africa and New Zeland, the opposite is true - the December solstice marks the longest day of the year. For us, it is also the first official day of winter. 

As we prepare for yet another onslaught of severe weather, we may find ourselves wondering what the heck is happening to "normal" weather patterns. Predictions are for Vermont to continue to see gradual warming, extending our frost-free season by up to several weeks. They are also predicting heavier precipitation - which means more and heavier rains but less snow. I believe! 

I'm reading a very interesting book right now, The Yankee Pioneers, A Saga of Courage, by Samuel B. Pettengill. It isn't a new book - it was published in 1972. But Pettingill writes in this book about the early settlers who came to Plymouth, Massachusetts and how they migrated west and north. He mixes extensive research with common sense to reveal some of the hardships those early settlers endured, especially when they pushed northward into the wilds of northern Vermont. Most history books don't have much about the nitty-gritty details of what they faced, and that is because paper was scarce and pens and pencils unheard of by most. Early Egyptians wrote with a stylus, on papyrus. It wasn't until 1564 that graphite was discovered and fashioned into writing instruments by encasing a piece of that mineral between two hollowed-out wooden sticks held together by string. Germany is credited with mass producing the first pencils in about 1662, but pencils were not manufactured in U.S. until about 1812. Whatever the first settlers had in the way of pencils were brought from Europe, and were a luxury here. Besides, they really didn't have much time to keep journals or diaries. Therefore, very few records were written by those earliest settlers. In the larger communities, documents were written with quill and ink; but none of those things would be considered essential tools when heading off to carve a homestead out of the wilderness. 

In this book, Pettingill tells of men plodding through four to six feet of snow in March as they proceeded north towards Canada. He tells about there being no open spaces, only forest. The only way land was opened naturally was by fire. There were Indian tribes who roamed the area and some were living in the area of Newbury, Vermont. They utilized the more or less open land next to the Connecticut River in the ox-bow area, planting a few crops. However, most only moved through the dense forest between there and Canada, to hunt.

So, when we think we're getting punished with a foot or so of snow, think of those souls, trudging through hip-deep snow, on snowshoes if they were lucky enough to have them, hauling a sled with all their worldly goods. No horses or oxen to help - no grass or hay to sustain those animals. So it was all man-power. And woman-power.

I was interested that a preacher named Nathan Perkins left his home in Hartford, Connecticut to civilize the heathens that he assumed described those early settlers. In his journal he writes about "crude and godless" conditions, and complained that the food was (to him) unpalatable and accommodations at inns were filthy. After spending more time in the "wasteland" of Vermont, he concluded that in spite of the hardship, the settlers were happy. They worked hard, didn't complain, were thankful for what they had and proud of their homesteads, regardless of how meager. He was impressed that the wives worked as hard as their husbands and didn't complain, and drew a sharp comparison to his own wife, who, he was sure would complain bitterly, making life miserable for him. If you are interested by Mark Bushnell wrote about the Rev. Nathan Perkins in VTDigger in 2017.

I often think that sometimes modern-day people simply have too much of everything without really working for it, so they really don't appreciate what they have, nor do they have a clue about the value and pride gained from working for what one has.

Right now, what I have is a house guest. Granddaughter Tangeni's cat, Thor, is spending some time with me while they visit Jo-Ann in Texas. He is settling in just fine. We spent much of the afternoon watching the birds at the feeder on the living room window - he gets really excited and his mouth chatters and his tail whips furiously as he paws at the window, trying to reach the little birds. After the feeder was fairly empty and things had quieted down, two very large turkeys marched up close to the house. That excited him, but I think he realized how big they are and wasn't about to go after them like he would have the chickadees and nuthatches, so he was much calmer watching them. Right now he's napping next to me as I work at my desk. He's only about a year old, so he has lots of energy, but like any youngster, he needs naps! He likes belly rubs and petting and is lots of company -- and very vocal -- but his voice is tiny, so it's more amusing than irritating. We're getting used to each other - I think we'll both enjoy his stay! 

Most of us are getting prepared for rain tomorrow along with very high winds that will likely knock out our power again. This time will probably be more dangerous than the recent outages we had a few days ago; with the severe drop in temperature, people are going to be caught in a really bad situation if the power is out for very long. Many people who live in the north country have auxiliary wood stoves (or heat with wood anyway), but there are some who have heating units that won't run without electric power, and they need to be prepared to somehow keep their families warm and their water pipes from freezing. Travel may be really difficult due to flash-freezing on roads, so please be careful. We hope that by Saturday night, the weather will be calming down-- but this could be a Christmas to remember - for all the wrong reasons. Be safe, happy, and plan ahead thoughtfully!