The sky started to clear just before noon today, so I ran out and got some photos. I love seeing my forest completely crystalline, and an iced-over Buck Mountain in the front yard is pretty gorgeous. Then the sun came out, and all the ice came crashing down with a giant melty sluicing sound.

Tonight a great fog descended after dark, and driving home was even more of an act of faith than usual. It’s a good thing that I have the feeling of driving my road burned so deeply in my kinetic memory that I don’t need to see much to navigate it. As long as the deer, foxes, dogs, horses, cows, possums, raccoons, and errant absentminded drivers stay out of my path, I’m okay!

Another storm is supposedly on the way. Maybe tomorrow we’ll have proper snow pictures!

The brilliant fall colors and blue skies of a week ago are gone, replaced by dark and fog. It’s so socked in that the chickens put themselves to bed before four in the afternoon, and I haven’t seen the mountain in my front yard for two days.

After lots of computer work this weekend I had to tear myself away from the woodstove and get outside. I loaded up Tuck and we drove a short way from my house for a muddy, mizzly walk that brought to mind similar tramps across the English countryside.

I am really struck by how much it looks like winter now. There are a few hints that we’re just tiptoeing over the starting line of the season, such as the still-green grass and the last of the dangling, russet leaves, but it’s really clear now that this will be the view for many more months. Here’s to making the most of it, and trying to find its subtle beauty.

The last month has been so ridiculously gorgeous that I’ve been taking photos around the farm almost every day. I don’t know exactly what it is about this year, but everything is more lush and vibrant than usual for October and November. Perhaps it’s attributable to my own personal shift in perspective, but the pragmatist in me suspects that it has to do with the ample rain we received last spring and summer, and that for the first time since I moved back to this area we did not have a summer drought nor did we suffer the hellacious storms and heat waves of recent summers.

Whatever the cause, it’s been an inspiring season. Here are some random shots that I hope convey this fall’s experience at Bonafide Farm.

Last week’s post detailed the 10 inches of snow we got last Saturday. In the intervening week, we got a little storm that brought a measly four or so inches on Tuesday night. And then Friday it started snowing and, just like in December, it just. didn’t. stop. For two days. Only this time around we had the pleasure of losing power for the past two days. Umm…nothing like inside winter camping to send visions of seed packets and swimming pools through my head. I have no way of measuring the total accumulation this time around, what with the remnants of two storms still on the ground. But here’s a good way to tell—arriving at my house this afternoon I went to walk into the field to take a photo and foundered into snow that came over my knees. And I am not short. The photo above pretty much sums up the story of the ten-mile drive up to the house on Sunday to plow out the driveway for the drywall crew.

Last week was also a bit of a bust in the house department as well. We’re already well off of the projected completion schedule handed out just weeks ago. Plus I found a major problem with the framing in the master bedroom. Well, I should say we knew it was there all along as the framers did such a crappy job on that gable, but we were assured that it would all be solved with drywall. Right. Well, not surprisingly, drywall went on and not only did the corners of the gable not line up, the horizontal edge was four inches off level. A hasty diatribe went out to my builder via e-mail, and now it’s in his court to fix. Stay tuned.

In so many ways this winter—and building this house—feels like one step forward, two steps back. Make a bit of progress, only to have to fight yet another quality control battle. Get something seemingly squared away, only to have the quicksand shift again under foot and back to the drawing board. It’s like shoveling snow for two days straight only to have another storm wipe out all the effect of the effort. And do I even need to mention it’s snowing again tonight? For those keeping score at home, that’s four storms—two with 10+ inches of accumulation—in the past ten days. I think we’re all a bit worn out.

And what a doozy it was!

A  snowstorm last Friday and Saturday dropped a “historic” two feet of snow on the farm. The roads weren’t clear enough to get up to the house until late Tuesday night, when the Intrepid Tractorplower arrived to clear the driveway for the siding delivery later this week. Thanks go to I.T. for both the photos and his mad snowclearing skillz.

I can’t wait until next year when I’ll be able to awake to these wintry views and make my own footprints through the fields.

The board and batten siding was installed on the second floor last week. That will all be painted one color, same as the siding below, so my house will lose its charming zebra stripes. As soon as the horizontal siding–which was delayed in the storm–arrives and is installed, the exterior of the house will be truly buttoned up and work will head inside, where the HVAC ductwork has been completed and the plumbers are now roughing in for fixtures.