Notes from Maine - 2025/12/21
Tomorrow will be three seconds longer than today. We’ve hit the turnaround. The other day it bothered me that apex and zenith don’t mean opposite things. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to say, “We went from the apex to the zenith.” It just doesn’t make sense. Abyss? We went from the abyss to the zenith? It still doesn’t sound good. Nadir is a good (if seldom used) word for the bottom, but it’s right in the middle of the alphabet.
Anyway, my point is that the length of day is at its nadir. The days only get longer from here.
Outside, life became much easier this week. We had warm temperatures and a ton of rain on Friday. That washed away all the snow and then the ground refroze, meaning I could drive the truck around to the barn once more. For several weeks I’ve been carrying the hay and shavings around the house, which is a lot of work. We might get a few inches on Tuesday and Wednesday, so maybe my reprieve will be short-lived. It would be nice to cover up all the frozen mud, but I’d rather look at frozen mud than carry hay.
There’s another reason I’m glad to have the snow gone. All my writing areas in the house are next to south-facing windows. When the days are short and the pasture is covered with snow, the reflected sunlight burns my eyes while I try to work. Even with the shades down it’s too bright out. I’m aware that these are luxury problems.
Yesterday, the horses didn’t care about hay at all. They were thrilled to see bare pasture and spent the day wandering around nibbling frozen grass. Lilly (the little filly) ran nonstop. She bucked, jumped, and kicked all around while her parents grazed. She’s nine months old, and her mom seems pretty weary of her now. Maybelle will hide around the other side of the barn when she gets a chance. Earl and Lilly eventually notice that Maybelle has disappeared and they call and snort. Maybelle stays perfectly silent until they find her.
We had high winds with the rain on Friday. When I went to get the mail I stopped in my tracks when I heard the unmistakable cracks and pops of a tree about to fall. I don’t know why I froze—I should have run for cover. The culprit was a giant fir tree across the road. It fell perfectly. The trunk sheared and it collapsed unimpeded to the ground. The neighbors buried their power lines years ago, or it would have taken them out easily.
My trees lost some dead limbs. So far, that’s the extent of the damage. I was nervous for the new fence and new-ish roof. The first time either of those gets clobbered it will break my heart. I shouldn’t say that. Everything that can be broken can be fixed eventually. That includes fences, roofs, and hearts, at least in my experience.
Today is the first day of winter. I’m just writing that so it might actually sink in: the first day of winter. It seems like we’ve been in winter for about a month. I have no expectations for this time of year. There are no looming deadlines and no fixed agendas. Albert needs his teeth cleaned, according to the vet. I suppose that’s one thing that will go on the calendar. Before long, the horses will face a housing crisis. Lilly is nearly as tall as her mom now. They can’t share a stall forever. So I guess I can come up with issues if I try. These made-up tasks still feel nebulous though. Eventually they might coalesce into problems, but not today.
I mentioned the bridge to Brunswick a while back. It has been under construction for several years. On November 21, I was allowed to use the new bridge going southbound for the first time. After that quick demonstration they closed it again to finish things up. Now, it’s officially open in both directions. My trips to the feed store are no longer restricted to mornings. Mileage-wise, it wasn’t a big deal to take the bridge that’s part of the connector, but traffic-wise it was enormous. In the early afternoon all the workers from Bath take the connector to get to their homes east of here. I don’t know why so many Bath workers commute through Topsham, but they do. When the bridge’s northbound traffic was closed, if I messed around and tried to go to the feed store at 3pm I wouldn’t get home until 5. That’s how bad the traffic became. Now I can cut across that with no issues once more. It was never a huge inconvenience, but now it no longer has to even enter my decision-making process. We have holiday traffic in Brunswick, but we have that every year and it goes away in another couple of weeks regardless.
I guess I’m just listing things I’m thankful for. We’re supposed to do that in November. I’m thankful that the falling tree didn’t kill/injure me. I’m thankful the fence and roof are okay. I’m thankful that I’m able to drive through the pasture to the barn, and the snow isn’t blinding me. Albert and the horses are doing well and traffic has cleared up. It’s a good day to be thankful. Yesterday I had one of those days where nothing went particularly wrong but I felt like everything was bad. I was on my heels all day for no particular reason. It’s nice to have a brighter day today. I hope you’re well. Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to you and yours. Take care and I’ll write to you again just before New Year’s.
