It's finally here

[Fishing Rhino]

In the northern hemisphere today is the shortest day of the year.  For the next six months, the days will be getting longer, and, in a couple of months, they will be getting warmer.

 

There is an old Yankee proverb, "As the days begin to lengthen, then the cold begins to strengthen".  January and February are the two coldest months of the year.  

 

I have noticed that, for me, as the days get shorter, my ambition wanes, kind of like a bear who hibernates in the winter.  The lengthening of the days stimulates my ambition.  Maybe it hearkens back to my days as a commercial lobsterman.  As the end of the season neared, with the days considerably shorter, and cooler, my enthusiasm to get out there and tend the gear waned.  

 

Production would seriously decline in late September, early October.  The gear was also further from the beach. thirty to fifty miles offshore. Combine the raw chilly days, with smaller catches, and the result was a loss of enthusiasm.  It became more of a job, and less enjoyable.  The highlight of the late fall was the final trip of the season, when the last trap was on deck, the boat was loaded, gear tied down securely and I pointed the boat in a northerly direction, headed for port.

[Oregon Native]

Ahhhhhhhh.......your thinking back to the ol days.  I never had a job that tough or demanding on the West coast.  But I too find as I have reached the older years I do a lot of thinking.  Especially during the Holidays.  Our big thoughts now are of our daughter who left us to go with the Lord and hoping to stay out of the doctors office so much this year.  Another big thought is I haven't been to an ER in a year now this month.....whoooohoooo.  Used to have to go every three weeks or so.  Yup.......memories....we've got em so there's a chance we will get to be blessed by another day and it's hopes.

Merry Christmas

[Fishing Rhino]

2 hours ago, Oregon Native said:

Ahhhhhhhh.......your thinking back to the ol days.  I never had a job that tough or demanding on the West coast.  But I too find as I have reached the older years I do a lot of thinking.  Especially during the Holidays.  Our big thoughts now are of our daughter who left us to go with the Lord and hoping to stay out of the doctors office so much this year.  Another big thought is I haven't been to an ER in a year now this month.....whoooohoooo.  Used to have to go every three weeks or so.  Yup.......memories....we've got em so there's a chance we will get to be blessed by another day and it's hopes.

Merry Christmas

 

 

Thanks for reminding me.  Merry Christmas to all.  I intended to include it in my original post, but nostalgia caused a brain ****.  Yes, I did use the asterisks intentionally.  

[Gundog]

I find no great happiness in the winter solstice. My warmth only comes when those grey days of winter are on their last breathes and spring slowly wakes. When ice melts and hope rises with the forecasted temperatures. When the clean smell of fresh air replaces the icy knife in my lungs. Or until I move to Florida...whichever comes first.

[Fishing Rhino]

1 hour ago, Gundog said:

I find no great happiness in the winter solstice. My warmth only comes when those grey days of winter are on their last breathes and spring slowly wakes. When ice melts and hope rises with the forecasted temperatures. When the clean smell of fresh air replaces the icy knife in my lungs. Or until I move to Florida...whichever comes first.

 

 

I hear you.  But for me, it's different.  In February, my wife and I head south.  We drop our pooch off at our daughter's place in GA, then we mosey on down to Daytona for the NASCAR races.  We spend about two weeks in FL, and when the racing is over, we head north to spend a couple of weeks with our daughter.

 

We usually get home in the first few days of March.  That puts spring less than three weeks away and the worst of winter is usually behind us.  We can still get accumulations of snow when we return, but it doesn't last long.  Come March, the ground is usually pretty well thawed out, and unless it's been an unusually cold winter, the ice is off the ponds sometime in March, at the latest.

[Redlinerobert]

On ‎12‎/‎21‎/‎2016 at 1:30 AM, Fishing Rhino said:

 

 

I have noticed that, for me, as the days get shorter, my ambition wanes, kind of like a bear who hibernates in the winter.  The lengthening of the days stimulates my ambition.  Maybe it hearkens back to my days as a commercial lobsterman.  As the end of the season neared, with the days considerably shorter, and cooler, my enthusiasm to get out there and tend the gear waned.  

 

Production would seriously decline in late September, early October.  The gear was also further from the beach. thirty to fifty miles offshore. Combine the raw chilly days, with smaller catches, and the result was a loss of enthusiasm.  It became more of a job, and less enjoyable.  The highlight of the late fall was the final trip of the season, when the last trap was on deck, the boat was loaded, gear tied down securely and I pointed the boat in a northerly direction, headed for port.

 

Did you write this?  If you did, it sounds like the great start to a book.  Perhaps (in all seriousness) you should consider writing.  I'd be first in line to buy one. 

[Fishing Rhino]

Yes RR, I did write it.  Thanks for the compliment.  

 

But, I doubt I have the patience to write a book.  If I do, you'll be the first to know.

 

I'm more of a hands on guy.  I like seeing the progression of a project, when at the end of the day I can see what I/we have accomplished.

 

Take the picture of the Christmas tree I posted.  That is in the living room of our home.  My wife grew up on a dairy farm, and that room is dedicated to her history.  I got the stones for the fireplace from her parent's farm.  There were a couple of stone walls in disrepair.  They provided all the flat(ish) stones for the fireplace.  The wall on each side of the fireplace are faux barnboards.  The came from a local saanother sitell.  

 

The owner had a stack of weathered white pine.  When he found out what I wanted them for he gave them to me as a house warming present.  They were naturally aged to the silver gray.  I half lapped the boards and stained the surfaces where they overlapped so that bare wood could not be seen between the joints.  The boards are fastened to the studs with cut nails from the Tremont Nail Company in Wareham, MA.

 

The room is a dark red, similar to the common barn red with white trim.  The only thing that I did not do was to install the carpet.

 

My wife has wanted to take the barnboard down and replace it with sheetrock.  It's one of the few times that I have vetoed something that she really wanted.

 

I have too much labor and emotional investment in that room because of what it stands for.

 

It's my tribute to her.  Should she survive me, then she can do what she wants.  

 

Fifty two years together and still going strong.

 

 

[deaknh03]

32 minutes ago, Fishing Rhino said:

Yes RR, I did write it.  Thanks for the compliment.  

 

But, I doubt I have the patience to write a book.  If I do, you'll be the first to know.

 

I'm more of a hands on guy.  I like seeing the progression of a project, when at the end of the day I can see what I/we have accomplished.

 

Take the picture of the Christmas tree I posted.  That is in the living room of our home.  My wife grew up on a dairy farm, and that room is dedicated to her history.  I got the stones for the fireplace from her parent's farm.  There were a couple of stone walls in disrepair.  They provided all the flat(ish) stones for the fireplace.  The wall on each side of the fireplace are faux barnboards.  The came from a local saanother sitell.  

 

The owner had a stack of weathered white pine.  When he found out what I wanted them for he gave them to me as a house warming present.  They were naturally aged to the silver gray.  I half lapped the boards and stained the surfaces where they overlapped so that bare wood could not be seen between the joints.  The boards are fastened to the studs with cut nails from the Tremont Nail Company in Wareham, MA.

 

The room is a dark red, similar to the common barn red with white trim.  The only thing that I did not do was to install the carpet.

 

My wife has wanted to take the barnboard down and replace it with sheetrock.  It's one of the few times that I have vetoed something that she really wanted.

 

I have too much labor and emotional investment in that room because of what it stands for.

 

It's my tribute to her.  Should she survive me, then she can do what she wants.  

 

Fifty two years together and still going strong.

 

 

I noticed that barn board right away..I like the look of it.

[Fishing Rhino]

I don't know what I did, but local s a w m i l l came out as " local saanother sitell"  I tried editing it several times but when I spelled the word without the spaces, it kept coming up saanother sitell.