Life at SoftAcres 01/29/19 - Images: A Day in the Life of Mid Winter

I wanted this to be a photo journey through a simple mid winter Saturday. The goal of the day was to make some charcoal for water filtering and ashes for laying out on icy trails. But it was also a therapeutic time, getting back into life at a very frozen IcyAcres.

Every Mainer who works outside all day knows there must be fuel...

Bacon.

Looking out from my living room.

Three rough eggs and the rest of the cheddar.

I also brewed some really strong coffee. I had been cleaning out my dead section of spruce trees. This is the time to do brush clearing! I could just tip over dead trees, gather them up and chop them for the fire...

Making charcoal isn't just about burning wood. It has to be slow and well controlled...

Drying  out larger logs for a base.

As the center burns away, the larger logs can be laid across the pit, with more sticks piled on.

Snow is added to slow things down, and let other parts catch up.

You want to stop the process before you get to a white ash stage.

Now time to open it up!

I've been shaping the snow banks with my machete to see what a similarly shaped stone and concrete structure might look like... 

I can imagine seats up this high. with shelves above.

Radiant heat can dry things even several feet away...

One really gets a cold feeling when walking back around front and away from the fire. You can tell what I haven't shaped yet along the snow banks. This is behind the shelter...

This is the path out to the compost. Pretty rough shape. Soon to get more snow.

Even when it is overcast, I can always tell if the sun has gone down, because the snow starts to glow with a violet hue...

This part of the fence reminds me of a kind of bone structure.

Looking north.

I was tired by the time darkness settled in. It had fallen to 10 degrees F. Still I wanted to be outside. So, I took my little flashlight in my teeth and walked way down to the dead spruce trees and chopped another one down, hauled it up, chopped it up, and continued my charcoal vigil...

When there was nothing left to burn and my body was aching to sit down, I watched as the fire grew dim. This was a good day. It was a pure day, with a simple objective. Hard work, enjoyable and productive. I was heated only by own effort, I added clean charcoal to my water filter, and have a pile of white ash for the icy pathways.

Indoors, I made some kidney beans and pork, with little red potatoes and boiling onions, salt to taste. The heater cranked out 70 degrees. And when 9:00 pm arrived I began to nod a bit. It was time for bed.

I took off my pants. And, with sweater, t-shirt and underwear, I climbed into bed. The bed was warm immediately, being one sleeping bag inside another. It was due to be very cold that night. So I put on my sleep hat, which works really well.

It was a quiet night and the temps outside sank below zero, while the winds hummed. Inside the shelter it eventually fell just below 20 degrees F. I had a fantastic dream, one of many lately... About a new book.