Winter Solstice at Sunnywood

It is 5:27 p.m. I have fired up the generator simply to power the modem long enough to upload this post (how much sense does that make?) and a battery-powered LED light clipped to my shirt allows me to see the keyboard on my laptop.

We celebrated Winter Solstice with family and friends---those who could make it on short notice, since the date had completely escaped us. Thanks so much to the intrepid! A skinny, not-quite-Charlie-Brown tree top graced by fat-butt Santa---ritual outdoor fire in the icy-cold wind---dogs!---good cheer and good people.

I am always thankful for the end of the shortening of days and the promise of the return of light, but found myself thankful more than ever this year. Since our necessity now is to make the inside of the house livable, we find ourselves working inside during the time of year when good light is rarest. On cloudy days we can lose good inside working light as early as 3 p.m., even with our southern glazing. Some days we are often working under generator-powered drop lights for four or more hours. I keep thinking about the sensibility of our dogs, who accept seasonal rhythms. Ciara, our big Newf, has begun barking for her evening walk as early as 3:30---something she might not do till 8 p.m. in June. If she had it her way this time of year, she'd come in at 4, eat dinner, and bed down for the night. But we must push to make this house livable so that we can get on with life, and hopefully be in a position to let Sunnywood Farm begin to live up to its name by spring.

We are still without electricity, having prioritized interior walls and closets---and firewood!--- for the time being. And while we were prepared to be without running water for the winter, we'd planned on a fully functonal Bison hand pump, which we don't really have. As far as we can tell, there is a break/leak in our line from the well, so the pump doesn't hold its vacuum, and needs one or two hundred strokes to prime. We have developed workaround systems, filling lots of vessels for washing and bathing while it's primed, but it's another complication we hadn't expected.

Yet nothing can convince me that we don't have so many unexpected things to be thankful for this season, and we are very glad to be where we are and where we're headed. Happy Solstice and happy holidays!