Be prepared…there are moments where nothing much happens.

A tune by Bob Mcquillen, called “Amelia’s”

I rubbed a fresh coat of oil into my old workbench tonight. A pleasing ritual that I enjoy periodically. The wood heat in the shop dries out everything, including the bench…and me. I keep a pot of water simmering on the woodstove all the time to keep the air softer, but it just can’t keep up with Winter. So rubbing the oil into the wood makes the bench happy…and me too. I made this bench in 1982 as a college art project with lumber cut from the woods behind the shop, long before I had a shop here, or a house. The bench is the most used tool in my shop these days. Sometimes I just look at it. I love this old friend.

The music I was listening to in the background is a tune called “Donna’s Birthday,” written by Larry Ungar. It is one of my all time favorite tunes, here played by Larry Ungar and the band “Notorious.”

Ivory piano keys, various types of fiddle rosin chunks and, finally, tiny skipping stones from the Pacific Ocean

A road grader got stuck in the mud at our neighbors place last night. We got a lot of rain in a short amount time and things went bad fast.

And then.,.help arrived today around mid-morning and, after a fashion, things returned to normal.

We press apples at our farm every fall. We make a festival out of it. This is a video that follows the progression of the day from morning, to firelight music. It is 12 minutes long, has plenty of fiddle music, apples and joy. I hope you enjoy it.

Heather and I spent much of the winter in warmer places. We are back now. Gratitude to friends who sheltered us. Now back to puttering in the shop and helping Blane on a timber frame barn.

I have this new altitude App… and the winter storm rages on the island.

Woken by moonbeams streaming through the porch windows, I dressed in the predawn, walked to edge of the salt marsh and lit a small fire. The wind sashayed through the tall pines far above my head, marsh hens buzzed in the sawgrass and the moon danced across the full tide. And, then I got jumpy.