Month: January 2022

Whilst only my second January in the ranch, it is a strange January simply for my twenty plus years now living in Colorado. The weather has been oddly lovely this week, but abnormal in some ways. Temperatures peaking in the high thirties to low forties, spectacular crystalline Colorado blue skies, and for two days in a row, winds speeds of literally zero miles an hour. Yesterday morning I went outside to light a match, just to see that it really did continue to burn, unimpeded by any lick of a breeze upon this mountain top.

Snow is in the forecast for tonight, but even this year, the neighbor’s weather station, the most accurate I’ve ever had, seems to change its mind on a near hourly basis. Three inches in an hour, then two, then four, then two inches over four hours. We shall see. That is my only accurate forecast this year. We simply shall see what happens.

The roads are melting off. The electric company has utilized Schierl three times this week, each time a pair of identical envy inducing Snow Cats float by and pack, open, and flatten the roads. I recently pushed all the trees back for mine and my neighbors little track machines, but these beasts surely keeping things flat and packed.

The weather has eased things in a simpler way; start the new consulting gig on Monday. The new laptop arrives today, and it’s not a matter of safety merely to get to the FedEx depot, whereas Moon Bug only needs to get me two miles down, and two miles back instead of all the way to the railroad gate compared to last season at this time.

The season of Winter arrived last month. The temperatures of Winter arrived last month. The winds of winter arrived in November, but finally since New Year’s weekend, the snow is starting to accumulate.

An eight inch storm blew in over new year’s, and less than half melted off in the subsequent warming of last week. The heavy relentless winds have stripped patches bare and filled in every gap, creating drifts over a foot deep in areas.

A few inches landed again this weekend, adding to the total, and ensuring that, seemingly until late Spring, Moon Bug is now required to navigate the pass down the hill to get out of the ranch. Large trees, untouched from the Spring Fire, line both sides of the road there and it simply will not melt off this time of year.

The freezers are bursting with literally no room for a single extra stick of butter. The fridge is stuffed from a trip out just last Wednesday, so I am stocked for the winter as I was last October, so I should be quite fine, supply wise. Even had an opportunity over the Christmas break to do more pressure canning, so I am ready for the isolation, including a bit more snow expected for the coming weekend.

The snow changed the landscape this week, but it also finally quieted the ranch in a way it has not been still since late last Spring. Barely no one is about, no one is moving. It is the stillness I was seeking and was ready to return after the busy and full summer months amidst this community.

There is a lot of darkness in the changes we face as we now live in a world of masks, needles, propaganda and outright confusion for many folks. One aspect it has changed, and for the better, is the work from home paradigm. I have worked as such full time since 2009, but it is now the norm, not the exception as it once was when fighting for such a privilege back in the day.

Having decided to return to the consulting world, one no longer needs to job hunt. I ticked a box on my work profile, and voila. Recruiters started calling and the the opportunities began to flow. Amidst all the solitude and isolation, I managed to have five first round interviews this week, all full time remote, all with no needle requirements.

A firm offer landed last night, and three round two interviews are in queue for today. In this one aspect of life, such a disaster has made remote work easier and more in tune to the needs of a man such as myself. Living off grid with a near mystical fiber optic internet connection? It sure feels like the right place at the right time.

The new year blew in the first real snow storm of the winter. It dallied, it teased, it was nearly a half day late of when the flurries were predicted and for much of the day the ranch walked the line between sunshine and impending change.

About seven inches landed up here in the back of the ranch, but the drifts are over a foot deep. It was a calm, quiet, still snowfall, but the winds of winter here soon returned to normalcy. The ranch is nearly white, save for tall grasses and sage patches not yet buried, but the shift to a white landscape is notable, and quite welcome for January.

I have had several requests to report on road conditions, how Moon Bug is doing in the cold and fresh powder, which roads and routes might be open, etc… At the moment, I haven’t a clue, nor do I want one. Not really snowed in, but two miles from a vehicle besides Moon Bug means the winter isolation is starting to return. I have no interest in leaving such a moment and am reveling in the solitude and stillness.

May you enjoy your own beverage, or a former Soviet Republic of Eastern European descent, to use the parlance of our times.