SEASONAL PREPARATIONS:

No, I'm not going to talk about Thanksgiving or Christmas, but hunting season and future cross country skiing.

It seems almost instinctive that when I walk my trails year long that if improvements can be made, I'll just automatically make them. Then when the leaves start falling, and that nutty smell, like the smell of a cracked open English walnut, doesn't actually fill the air, but when I take a deep breath through my nose, I can smell it and it must click into some throwback instinct to prepare for winter. Then instead of walking with my trekking poles, I'm apt to have one pole in one hand, and either the small pickax or the large clipper in the other. The pickax is just the height of a cane, so I can actually use it for knee therapy lightening the wear and tear on my problem knees. There are rocks to remove from the path, and roots that cross the path above the soil, and are best removed just so it's a smoother walk. The wood doesn't scar the skis. The rocks, however, scar the bottom, and my skis are Bushwhackers from Trak: a wider ski for maneuvering through obstacles or going down hills with sharp bends on the path, and they already aren't very speedy, so I want their bottoms slick as possible. But I think I just like the job of clearing and smoothing the paths. I don't really need the exercise or extra work, but it doesn't feel like work to me. It feels good. It's getting into the NOW. It's good meditation. My cares and woes just dissipate when I work on my trails.

Meanwhile, Tom takes trips to and from where he hunts during deer season in Tunkhannock, for checking and repairing his tree stands. When he isn't doing that, he's getting his hunting equipment ready... his camouflaged outfit, and safety orange hat and vest or coat washed in special odorless detergent, and hung out to dry. He checks to make sure his guns are clean, oiled, and sighted in. His ATV has become an important vehicle for helping him get to his tree stands, and to haul the venison out of the woods. There are knives to be sharpened, and string, twine, and ropes to consider for getting the quarry from the hunting area to his truck. This year he got better ramps for driving the ATV up into his truck.

All of this sounds like work... (?) ... did I say work? Like me and my trails, his preparations are a prelude to the experience of hunting where my man goes out alone and becomes One with Nature. All the problems of the world: the economy, politics, worries and woes are lost in the silence of the woods, up in his tree stand where looking out at the land everything seems smaller, and the wild world seems bigger. Peace and harmony come over him and he becomes a new man... refreshed and rejuvenated.

I love the autumn... not just for the colors, but for what it does to us internally when you go out to even just rake the leaves. We feel it even if we are trying to get our gardens cleaned up: the dead stocks from flowers bloomed and gone to seed; or the cornstalks in the vegetable garden bundled and "...why, they're kind of pretty. Why not decorate with them." Pretty or not, just the action of end of season activities, which are really beginning of the fall season, bring us a peace we'll never get from a couch in front of a TV.


Enjoy life. All is not lost. Climb a hill, look out at the land. Like Emily said in Thornton Wilder's "Our Town", "Oh earth, you are too wonderful for anyone to realize you."