Off again at the crack of dawn. Out the door a 7:15 a.m. for the drive to Ukiah. You who know realize that this means an 8:30 a.m. court appearance is out of the question. But I was doing something on the civil calendar (forfeiture) and it started at 9:30. Its been cold but the Alderpoint road was not icy and as the road rose up the mountain I drove through clouds and then on the backside descended through them again to reach 101 at Garberville. The sun came out a bit later and the day turned warm and pleasant. Global warming is not all bad, hmm?'

But on the home front I notice a myriad of blackberry starts coming up on the land I paid so much to have cleared of them last summer. I have to get in there with my shovel and dig them up, but when...... And the lawn is growing now that the fall rains have come. I have to get out there and mow it. The big mower is in the shop (the clutch keeps going out) but its ready. I guess I'd better get in the truck and get the mower and hope for a reasonably dry weekend that will allow me to mow my greatly expanded yard. For fire safety I pushed the fence out about 50 feet along what seems like 1000' of the east boundary of the yard. Now I have a vast new area to mow. Partly marshy, partly hillside a bit steep to mow, partly very thick grass which seems to kill the clutch. Don't get me wrong, mowing the lawn is actually at least as much fun as spitting firewood with the hydraulic wood splitter. That reminds me, the cold snap has used up most of what I split a couple of weeks ago, so this weekend its back to the splitter. I did manage to split everything in the shed-shed and found way in the back long burried under logs a big stack of kindling. As soon as its used up I'm going to sweep the shed-shed, nail the back boards back on, and then fill it up with more wood. Perhaps I'll move the spliter in there. I can't use it in the rain now due to fears of electricution (its hydraulic, but its electric). Homestead life.