Bachelor week-end, eh," smiled Meg. Chris and I carved out an extension of our "logging" road, or more accurately, our firewood hide-a-way road. Dropping, cutting, splitting tree trunks to dry for a year and then to be hauled for burning in the Energy-mate adjunct furnace at 123 12th St. in Bemidji. Some will be burned in the Woods' cabin during cool to cold weather as tonight, after Chris leaves. The stove warms this marginally interior space.

This writing set out to serve as a reminder to me, if I ever look at it again, that I should buy and carry a spare spark plug, chain and guide for my saw. A broken chain or badly worn guide bar can't be fixed in the field. And my saw now is unusable. Fortunately the small Swede (bow) saw was here to be sharpened and appropriated for its quiet effective cutting especially of small diameter stuff. Actually better, I think, than the heavy chain saw, for small diameter sections. Nearly as fast with less strain on back and arms. I took down the last three trees in the way of our turning circle, even the stumps. With shoveling tomorrow, I can fill the swales while removing the humps. And then, by golly, we'll have penetrated another section of mysterious forest for Mom, as well as-we, to see. Don't we do good?

Following my barbecued pork chop with carrots I went to the Store for a few staples and especially for water. Had to return for the forgotten jugs! Now, smoking one of my all-tobacco cigars, I have the F.M. radio tuned to a symphony concert - the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Eugene Ormandy playing a Schubert Symphony. Lovely in the isolation and solitude of The Woods as a crescent moon snores down a darkling sky.

Dreaming?!! The new turning circle is on a relatively level rise a couple of hundred yards north of the present glass house. We could remove interfering trees in the line of sight to the new site on which we could build a shelter and call it "The Far Pavilion". Lovely idea!

It's only 9:30 and I am sleepy enough but if I go to bed I'll be up before dawn - and god, that is bleakly forbidding here!

Monday 9/13/80--
Following Sunday - you know, yesterday. I completed the turning circle, ran the mower over it, and then went round and round, pulling the trailer. Yippee! It works!

To the Store for one of those super hamburgers with fried onions. Yum!!! Cloudy all day. Now in the dark of night a gentle rain is falling. Striking the dry leaves it sounds like sleet. And wouldn't that be neat. Turned down the symphony the better to enjoy the glorious sounds of god's creation. The stove works 100% better after fixing. And am I ever happy about the racks and stacks of wood curing quietly where we left it.

Chris, the Seater Heater really does the job. I took camera and gun on a late afternoon foray with compass and the Seater Heater clipped to my belt in back. Sat down to watch, listen, and rest several times and kept my buns cozy warm.

Scared up--and scared me each time--four grouse but couldn't get a shot which I didn't really want anyway.

It's really raining now. Sounds so great. And makes me sleepy ---------------------------- Z Z Z z z z

These quiet times in the Woods may make no sense in an economic or conventional hectic hustle society but they fill me with a profound gratification.

PS: I awoke to the sound of fluttering wings, whooshy, heavy, and sounds on the roof. Not grouse, but turkeys which I could identify when they, one after another, whooshed to the ground, all thirteen of them and began placidly scratching and pecking in our clearing. Iridescent black and blue, pink and cerulean heads. Except one white honky which might have been bussed in for school integration. Must be Anderson's flock, one of which I saw on the road the other morning.