Urban Outcast Music #50 - Upward Over the Mountain by Iron & Wine. We were out of town on the wrong weekend and I missed Iron & Wine performing at our zoo... may the gods of music forgive me.
December 1st, 2021: I convinced a friend to join me for Xmas tree shopping the old fashioned way up at the property and combined it with a tour of the next door neighbor's place. The neighbor has the bluffs and quarry you might have spotted in previous posts and from up top its a spectacular view of both the Stuart Range and of the property (top and bottom).
The tree hunt got off to a really promising start with a ruffed grouse lounging right next to the truck, after we jumped out. On the other hand, it was 70°F in December which didn't feel very seasonal or festive. Of course, because we were looking for grand firs they had made themselves scarce but we did find some sort of symmetrical douglas firs with a reasonable drag line back down the hill. And that is really all I have to say about that trip but for two weeks, every time I looked at that tree in the living room it got me thinking about where that grouse might be lurking.
December 17th, 2021: Two weeks later and winter had finally arrived. Fresh powder was an extra motivation for grouse hunting because I might get to pick up a trail. Or at least that was the way I thought it would work. On a beautiful morning that was just cold enough to keep my tender toes warm and dry, we walked 3.5 miles but didn't see a single shred of evidence to prove that all of the grouse hadn't migrated to Palm Springs for the winter.
No birds for the freezer but any day I get to watch Oak do his thing is a joy and he got to ice his joints in the afternoon while I continued the endless task of thinning out the woods.
