helwen

We went to the farm as planned, and Gryff and Azure showed up, if a little later than they'd planned (police were strategically placed at every speed change on the roads, among other things). The weather was cool but sunny. We took a look at what was involved, got tools, and went out to the woods. There's quite a bit of underbrush, including young trees, thorny bushes, and the juniper bushes. These aren't the junipers you see in people's little city gardens -- I have some creeping juniper myself, in a few spots. These can grow up to 7' high and 20' across if left to their own devices. Fortunately the firs have kept them somewhat in check in the area we were in. Still, we had to spend some time clearing a path into the stand, removing lower branches on some of the trees as well. We did manage to cut down a dozen trees, Fitzw taking down 11 and Gryff cutting down the last one. They're all in the pasture still, waiting for us to tie them up. Everyone was too weary though, so Fitzw and I will go up next week and tie them up then, and possibly bring some of them down. A very good morning's work!

Then they went off to shop, mend armor, etc. and we went off to our family Thanksgiving dinner. We had a wonderful time chatting and the food was marvelous. We stayed until nearly 3:30, then headed down the hill to go to Ernie's. However, by the time we neared Holyoke, Fitzw needed to stop by the house and then discovered that he was really too tired to drive down to CT. So he called in our regrets and we mostly took things pretty easy this evening. He did run some work tests, taking advantage of everyone else being off the system. Then he read from our current travelling book while I did a bit more spinning, and he finished the story (Julian May, Conqueror Moon -- good book). So, we're going to go through some of the Darkover books next, and then maybe see about getting the next books in May's Boreal Moon series. There's also the medieval mystery books to read too...

My original thought on the 'forest' for Yule was to keep everything up at the farm (cooler up there) and then go up early on Yule day and get the trees and hay. But the weather's cooling down here as well and it would be easier to cart things from Holyoke to Springfield than from Ashfield. So, we'll be going up next week to tie up the trees and bring some of the stuff down at that time. If we can get another large vehicle or two to go with us, then we might be able to bring it all down at once. We'll see what happens.