Buffer Zone

It's that other-worldly time between work and evening chores, when we've come down from the hilltop and the sheep have been let out to graze and the dogs have all done their pees and poos held all day long while waiting for me to come home.  It snowed on the way to work and snowed all the way home, with temps holding around 28-30.  It's always colder in Brookfield with our higher elevation and wind coming through the little valley.  I haul in my groceries and go out the north side to let the sheep out of the barnyard before I go inside to greet the doggies.  Sometimes I sit in the car and toss out pieces of chicken breast purchased at the corner market for the kitties.  The chickens are wise to this practice and zoom in to pick up the tasty morsels and run off with them.   Everybody is happy to see the human with the food.  I change into my fleece ski pants, a gift from Mia, which have become my winter skin.  I wear my long man's Harris Tweed coat for our walks now.  It's not very heavy but keeps out the wind all the way down to the tops of my boots.  The woven Cheviot and Scottish Blackface wool even keeps out the rain.  I have to be sure to remember my hat, of which I have many thanks to Henya Katzatchkof, Kim Parkinson and Susanne Farrington, my knitting and felting friends.  This day the angora fingerless mitts were not quite enough and I was happy for the extra long man sleeves on my coat.  The little bit of lightness left illuminated the cloud of snow when we looked back down at the barn with the tiny yellow windows in the distance.  We could just make out the waxing crescent moon in the sky.  It was slippery coming back down but I was happy for the now frozen mud on the descent by the barn door.  A barn plus winter equals mud and we need it to freeze.  The dogs don't understand that this is the time I need to sit down for a while, after a day on my feet working with kids.  Spouse is on his way home and I need to get dinner together.  I sometimes wish it was a shared chore, but, my fault, I willingly took on all food procurement and preparation duties early on and have not been able to shirk them.  I like to remind him that since I take care of the food couldn't he manage an exclusive on the garbage but that is still a shared chore.  Once dinner is done it's time for chores.  Dishes often wait until the next morning.  I did enjoy wearing my lined wool trousers, turtlenecks and fleece vest under my classic grey flannel jacket today.  Wool weather is here and I have wool...and mohair.  I have so much dyed wet mohair waiting to be set out to dry as soon as the previous batch is done.  I need to spin some bunny yarn for scarves, as my three angora scarves were lost in a freak incident which is so freaky and upsetting I can't write about it yet.  Someday I'm going to write about all the worst, gnarly, grizzliest, and nastiest things I can think of without giving a dam.  I'm not there yet.  I still care what people think.  Coming close, though.