Things are changing. It is getting chilly here. We have had several nights in the twenties. We finally have our wood burning stove and have it hooked up. To have a fire, we needed wood. You can get a permit here for just a few dollars and head up the mountain and get up to three cords of wood you cut from fallen trees. We were fortunate for our first wood trip to know someone who has many trees down that he would love cleared out. Harland borrowed our pastor's chainsaw and filled up his truck bed with cut wood. The next several nights were filled with after-work wood splitting before dark. He said it is amazingly easier to do than he remembered. Funny how that works- he is no longer a scrawny sixth grader. He is a big tall grown man and the ax seems much lighter and smaller than it used to. He only needs a flannel plaid shirt.
The leaves continue to change into a myriad of bright colors, and the mountain tops are now covered with snow. The scenery changes day to day. There is a new found urgency to get winter gear in order--- serious winter gear. We have been told that it is very typical to have lots of snow on Halloween. I had better come up with some warm costumes.
We had a "Wild Kingdom" moment last week during an early breakfast before school. We looked out the kitchen window just after sunrise around 6:45am and saw something big and black running across the back field. We thought it was someone's loose cow (that happens sometimes), but we grabbed our binoculars that we keep handy and realized that it was not a cow. It was a really big black bear. He was running for the hills-- literally. He was a good mile or mile and a half from the hills which have some brush and tree cover. He ran the whole way across the fields. I am not sure what he had been after, but I bet he burned off whatever calories he had eaten. We do have some of the cacti with the red cactus flowers in the field. They are said to love them. Maybe he just got caught up in the lure of the cactus flowers and lost track of time. As he was running, we noticed that we were not the only ones watching him. There was a coyote following him in the high grass. As the bear headed over a little slope in the field, he came upon a herd of about twelve antelope. They were surprised and took off at cheetah-like speed away from the bear. It was one crazy breakfast. On the drive to school we followed up the morning animal fest with a few hawks, some deer, a fox, and some rabbits.
Things are changing constantly, and we are continually adapting. It is that way everywhere any of us live. It is just so evident in nature here that it causes me to think of the changes and the seasons of life more than when we lived in the hustle and bustle of the city. Reflection on where we have been in the summer and on the promise of a time of winter rest before the spring refreshing is a good thing. A time to reflect is good. Changes are good.
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11 "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven; He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God had done from beginning to end."
