New Year's on Pine Mountain

Pine Mountain

Well it is that time of year again. The year 2007 is almost history and the year 2008 is about to begin. 2007 was a year when housing stopped rising in value and started dropping in value. It was a year when people who bought too much house for their income wish they hadn't. It was a year when major banks that thought they held bags of gold with all the mortgages they held found that they were holding bags of sand instead. The mess quickly left the borders of the United States and is now spreading around the globe.
Here on Pine Mountain it is a simpler place. It is a place where people can relax and forget about the worlds troubles. The last day of 2007 begins.

Barn Chores

It is just getting daylight as I go to the barn. The air is crisp and the snow crunches under your feet. The temperature is 15 degrees Farenheit or - 9 Celcius for those of you on that temperature scale. I milk our cow and feed the chickens and the horse. I bring the milk and eggs back to the house.

Breakfast

Breakfast is started. First is the coffee. For Christmas I received a sampler pack of coffees from around the world. It was from a company called Coffee Fool. They have 114 different kinds of coffee. The company believes that the best coffee is fresh coffee so they get their coffee to their customers by mail usually in 2 days of the time it was roasted. They have five distribution points in the United States. They are in Texas, Minnesota, Nevada, Washington, and Florida. You can find them on the Internet at http://www.coffeefool.com/. I am going to see if I can try them all. If I try one a week it should take about 2 years to get through them all. This morning I am trying Hawaiian Kona. The minute it begins to brew the aromatic smell fills the kitchen and soon the whole house. It reminds me of the time I went to the islands. I think of sun and sand and warm ocean water. Time to come back to Pine Mountain. I finish making breakfast. We have scrambled eggs and toast, oatmeal and orange juice, and to wash it all down that warm Hawaiian Kona coffee. I enjoy this coffee it is definitely much better than what I am used to drinking around here. Well I have 113 other flavors of coffee to try. I never knew there was that many types of coffee. I am sure there are some I will like a lot and others not so much.

Firewood

Breakfast is over and I have work to do. I go out to the barn and hook the hay wagon, that I have converted into a firewood wagon by putting plywood around it, behind my four wheel drive ford truck. I load the wagon full of firewood from the large pile that I cut last year and head down the mountain to the ski lodge that has ordered it. My wagon holds a whole cord of wood. I unload the wood at the lodge and they pay me $100 for it.

Barn work

I go back up the mountain to my place and spend the rest of the day cleaning out the horse and cow stalls and putting fresh straw down. A neighbor stops by with a broken tongue on his trailer that he pulls behind his snowmobile. I weld it back together for him and he pays me $20.
The short winter day is soon over. I head back to the house. I am hungry. All that I had for lunch was a hamburger at the lodge when I finished unloading the firewood. Soon dinner is ready.

Dinner

There is mashed potatoes and gravy, turkey and stuffing, green beans and apple sauce. We have that great Hawaiian Kona coffee to wash it all down.
Evening is here. I sit in my easy chair by the fireplace and listen to the wood crackle as it burns. The relatives start calling and wishing us Happy New Year. Each is in a different time zone so we can follow the progression of the new year as the world slowly spins. Finally it is my turn. I have have small bottle of champagne and I offer a toast to the new year as the clock strikes midnight. I stay up a little longer reading a magazine then I head for bed. It is New Year's day already. Tomorrow when the sun comes up I will do the chores and start the new year. Happy New Year everyone.