The weather has turned warm in the last week. That has slowed the assault on the wood pile. For a while there it was looking like we might not have enough to last until May. I think we will. Warmer weather means more ice and we all prefer less ice these days. Fortunately we have a few barrels full of ashes which we’re sprinkling liberally on the paths to the chicken coop, the outhouse and the vehicles. The essential paths on any farm.
We’re into the New Year now and that means time to cut wood. We trim back the competing trees and shrubs in the orchard, we thin back the forest along the orchard edges, we prune 500 fruit trees (or so) and we collect the scionwood for this spring’s grafting. The tools are sharp. We have warm boots. Time to cut wood!
We learned last night that Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead has died. It’s fun to time-travel back to 1966 when the band was newly formed only about 5 miles from where I was a kid in Palo Alto. I remember most of my friends dismissing their music back then as not worth listening to. So I didn’t. But I was curious so on May 18, 1968 I went to an all-day, outdoor music festival of a dozen bands at the Santa Clara Co. fairgrounds. At that point the Grateful Dead had one album released and the second one—Anthem of the Sun—due out a few months later. They only played one song that afternoon but it lasted 45 minutes and changed my life forever. They swung, they improvised and they clearly had a sense of humor. They also appeared to be living in an alternate universe. I had wanted to do the same for a number of years and had been looking for the perfect portkey. I wasn’t exactly sure yet where I would find it but, I was keeping my eyes—and ears—peeled. That afternoon, listening to “Alligator” for an hour under the Sun, I found it.
The bus came by and I got on, that’s when it all began..." Doing another apple ID with the ever-inspiring "Anthem of the Sun" always nearby.
I attended several of their concerts over the next few years, during the early days of long improvisations and small crowds. Those were amazing evenings. Eventually I mostly stopped listening. I didn’t really need to. Once you find the portkey and go, you’re all set for life. Thanks Bobby.