We certainly had a great time over the holidays at the Yacavone household. It may have been the best Christmas ever. Jake and Mike were able to be here for a long time, and that’s about all it takes to make it a wonderful Christmas for Meredith and me.
I wish the two boys could be here longer but I’m thankful the holidays are over. I’ve reached the point where I’m looking forward to returning to a normal weekly routine. I’ve imbibed too much holiday cheer, eaten too much rich food, nibbled on too many sweets and spent too much time on the couch watching too many football games. I feel like giant three-toed sloth. A return to normal eating and sleeping and a regular routine will be good for me.
This is my third Christmas in the country. There is something different about spending Christmas in the country. The most obvious difference is that you cannot hop into your car and conveniently do last minute shopping at a nearby mall. The nearest mall to us is over an hour away on the outskirts of Atlanta. This means that you have to plan ahead to do your holiday shopping. You also spend a lot of time waiting for the UPS or FedEx truck to come down the gravel lane.
The great thing about living in the country is that you can give gifts that might not be useful or appropriate in the city or the suburbs—things like rifles and handguns, ammunition, survival gear, work gloves, more ammo, large knives, hand warmers, thick socks, camouflage clothing and more ammo. Imagine Ted Kaczynski sitting in front of a fireplace playing an album of Christmas songs sung by the Branch Davidian Boys’ Choir entitled “A Ruby Ridge Christmas”, and you’ll have the general idea.
But for me the real difference between spending the holidays in the country versus the city or the suburbs is the weather. I am more aware of the weather here than I ever was when I lived in a suburban Pinellas County. One obvious reason that’s true is because I spend a lot more time outdoors now, and thus the weather has a greater effect on my daily activities.
But another reason I am more aware of the weather now is because I can actually see more of it. When I look out my front window I’m not looking at the front of my neighbor’s house across the street. I’m looking across a wide field at mountains that are miles way. That means that I have an unobstructed view of weather conditions. When it snows I see acres of white stuff. When it’s windy I’m watching an entire hillside of tall trees bending and weaving in the wind. When it rains I can hear it beating in the woods and see the sheets of rain blow across the fields. If the saying “out of sight, out of mind” is true, so is the converse.
Whatever the reason, Christmas in the country feels less commercial and superficial and more genuine.
Speaking of the weather, it was not that good this holiday season. Like most everywhere else in the southeastern United States we’ve received an excessive amount of rain in the last month. The ground around here is soaked. It squishes under your feet. There have been a number of mudslides off steep road banks. The creeks, streams and rivers have been running full and dirty, and some of them have overtopped their banks. I spoke to one old boy who has lived here all his life, and he told me this this is the most rain over the longest period of time he has ever seen. I’m just thankful we have not had a big wind storm. When the ground is this soaked it doesn’t take a lot of wind to topple large trees.
It has been an unusually warm winter so far. No one is complaining about that but we’re all worried that the temperature will plummet in January and turn the county into one giant ice ball from until spring. The rain is miserable but ice storms are horrible. Maybe I’ll get to ride out a blizzard this winter. I haven’t done that since my college days in Pennsylvania.
Thanks to one of my Christmas presents I don’t think I will be having a deer problem in the garden anymore. I received an electric fence charger that’s rated for 50 miles of wire. There’s a little over one mile of wire around my garden so it should have enough juice to make a deer think twice about entering the forbidden garden zone. I was apprehensive when Jake and I hooked the new charger up and turned on the power. I was half expecting a giant bolt of electricity to spark out from the wire and fry me on the spot. If this doesn’t keep the deer away then it’s time to throw in the towel.
I also received a trail camera. I can mount it wherever I want, and it will take photos of creatures that come within its range. I think I’m going to mount it in the garden first to see if the new electric fence charger is effective. If I don’t get any photos of deer or find charred deer carcasses on the fence perimeter then I’ll know the deer problem is solved. After that I’m going to mount it somewhere near the house to discover once and for all what sort of critter comes creeping around in the night.
That’s all there is to report this first week of 2016 so I’ll sign off for this week.
But another reason I am more aware of the weather now is because I can actually see more of it. When I look out my front window I’m not looking at the front of my neighbor’s house across the street. I’m looking across a wide field at mountains that are miles way. That means that I have an unobstructed view of weather conditions. When it snows I see acres of white stuff. When it’s windy I’m watching an entire hillside of tall trees bending and weaving in the wind. When it rains I can hear it beating in the woods and see the sheets of rain blow across the fields. If the saying “out of sight, out of mind” is true, so is the converse.
Whatever the reason, Christmas in the country feels less commercial and superficial and more genuine.
Speaking of the weather, it was not that good this holiday season. Like most everywhere else in the southeastern United States we’ve received an excessive amount of rain in the last month. The ground around here is soaked. It squishes under your feet. There have been a number of mudslides off steep road banks. The creeks, streams and rivers have been running full and dirty, and some of them have overtopped their banks. I spoke to one old boy who has lived here all his life, and he told me this this is the most rain over the longest period of time he has ever seen. I’m just thankful we have not had a big wind storm. When the ground is this soaked it doesn’t take a lot of wind to topple large trees.
It has been an unusually warm winter so far. No one is complaining about that but we’re all worried that the temperature will plummet in January and turn the county into one giant ice ball from until spring. The rain is miserable but ice storms are horrible. Maybe I’ll get to ride out a blizzard this winter. I haven’t done that since my college days in Pennsylvania.
Thanks to one of my Christmas presents I don’t think I will be having a deer problem in the garden anymore. I received an electric fence charger that’s rated for 50 miles of wire. There’s a little over one mile of wire around my garden so it should have enough juice to make a deer think twice about entering the forbidden garden zone. I was apprehensive when Jake and I hooked the new charger up and turned on the power. I was half expecting a giant bolt of electricity to spark out from the wire and fry me on the spot. If this doesn’t keep the deer away then it’s time to throw in the towel.
I also received a trail camera. I can mount it wherever I want, and it will take photos of creatures that come within its range. I think I’m going to mount it in the garden first to see if the new electric fence charger is effective. If I don’t get any photos of deer or find charred deer carcasses on the fence perimeter then I’ll know the deer problem is solved. After that I’m going to mount it somewhere near the house to discover once and for all what sort of critter comes creeping around in the night.
That’s all there is to report this first week of 2016 so I’ll sign off for this week.
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