It’s now July and I feel like Summer has finally arrived. There was still snow on top of Mount Washington as of a week ago with many hikers still encountering snow in the upper elevations. The strawberries at the local farm are 2-3 weeks late and I noticed that people are finally getting out there to pick as of July 2nd or 3rd. I can now take a run in the morning without being cold or requiring an extra layer. The sun is a welcome friend these days and I can’t believe that the longest day of the year is already behind us.

I am posting some photos of just how amazing this past winter was! At one point, the snowbanks were well over my head and we had about five feet of the white stuff in the yard. I had to take out the snowshoes just to get around my property!

We have been extraordinarily busy here In the Pines due to our crazy long and harsh winter this year. There are now a few unexpected expenses such as a new roof that we thought we could put off. Mother Nature had other plans and before the end of the summer, I should have pictures of our new roof going up.

The yard clean up from April into May was long. I was picking up sticks and branches daily. I was raking piles of leaves that got buried under an early snowstorm for which we were woefully unprepared. As our property was overgrown when we moved in four years ago, we have continued cutting back small trees to expand our yard and tame our woodlands just a bit, whilst trying to maintain a natural look and features. All those piles of trees then need to be cut up, loaded onto a pickup truck and hauled to the recycling center. I have made many such trips.

We got a new soapstone wood stove in November of 2018 to help stave off the heating bills. It was a great spur of the moment idea and worked out very nicely until we ran out of wood mid January of 2019. After much thought, we have decided that ordering four cords of wood is the answer for the upcoming winter. The wood was delivered last week. Our family has been busy gathering pallets to lie down and stack the wood onto. As of this writing, I still have about another cord and a half to stack. Summer is being used to better prepare for next winter…….which if it goes anything like last year, will arrive mid autumn.

I love winter, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that I didn’t fathom the summer being quite so short this year. To be fair, I had a lot of fun last winter. I learned to hike up some big hills in my snowshoes and climbed both Mts Pierce and Waumbeck (my #10 of the NH 48).

I bid you adieu long winter. Welcome July. Welcome Summer. We celebrated the Fourth of July with a Yankee Steamed Lobstah and Steamahs!