Stranded Book Log Part 14
A Little Bad Luckby Dan Hartman
Oct. 28, 2013
I was working on getting pika shots in the falling snow. It was difficult as pika just don't like getting wet. I finally decided to climb up a snow covered skree to an exposed grass pile and set up my camera trap. I had done that and started back down when the whole skree began to slide. I was staying on me feet but coming up fast were a cluster of boulders. They were going to hurt, so I bounced off a downed log and leaped over the boulders and came to a stop before I crashed into anything.Looking back, I figure it was when I bounced off the log where I tore my ankle.
Now, over two weeks later, I'm standing on our deck, supported by two metal cruches that have become my constant companions. The doctor has estimated a six week recovery.
I look at our woodpiles. The lodgepole pine for our woodstove is done. The three stacks reaching over seven feet high and more than twenty feet long. The pile of spruce reserved for our fireplace is only half done however.
I glance up at the smoke drifting up from our chimneys. They'll need to be cleaned. I looked at the eaves. The vents will have to be covered. Everywhere I looked projects needed attention before winter. I had wanted to put a new roof on our back bathroom. For that matter, I guess I'm done with the pika book! I was pretty much done anyway, but never expected it to end like this.
Ten years ago, I broke my other ankle in September. At that point we hadn't even started on wood yet. I remember I would duct tape a sock onto my ankle and force on a shoe. I would then hobble up into the woods where Cindy would meet me with the chainsaw. I would then cut all morning while Cindy hauled the wood down in a wheel barrow. We cut ten cords that way. You do what you have to do. Of course, we were younger then.
Time passes, you look back years later and wander how you got by.
But here you are!
Photos
Pica in early snow