Once again, by the end of this past weekend in Vermont, I did not want to come home. Trust me, I wanted to see my wife and son, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time alone with the dogs. Some people might question why I would want to get away from my wife and son and spend time alone in the woods. Well, its not because I don't love them and want nothing to do with them; that couldn't be farther from the truth. Rather, my sole purpose in going to Vermont was to get away from responsibility, worries, and the stresses of everyday life. At home, I am constantly thinking about things I need to do, things I should have done, and everything else in between. In Vermont, none of that enters my mind. I don't care if all the paint I applied to a house came peeling off and I need to start all over again. I don't care if my ladders were stolen off a job site. I don't care about my counter top sitting in my driveway still waiting for me to finish it. I think you get the point. There is nothing I can do about anything back home while in Vermont, so as such, I don't worry or think about it. I have things I should do in Vermont, mostly just cut and split wood, but even that isn't that big of a priority as our wood pile is still pretty full. I essentially had a weekend to do what I wanted, which wasn't much, and relax. I left Saturday morning with the dogs and made amazing time getting up to Vermont as there was no traffic to speak of. It took me exactly 3 hours door to door which was quite nice. The only thing I forgot to bring with me, which I realized once I was 2.5 hours into the trip was the key to the shed. There was no turning back at that point, so I continued on, plotting how I was going to break in. Luckily I had my work van with a variety of tools, one of them being a hack saw, and was able to cut off the latch once I got up there. I arrived just as it started raining, was able to cut the latch off fairly easily, and was then able to park myself in the opening of the shed in a chair with a beer. That was the brunt of my afternoon on Saturday; sitting in a chair in my shed, throwing a tennis ball to Aspen (my younger dog), and sipping on beer. I did make one foray during a brief break in the rain to alter the course of the stream running through my property. Beyond that however, and the nap in my chair, I didn't do too much.
The rain cleared out by about 4 and allowed me to get a nice fire started to ward off the chill quickly invading the air. It was quite amazing to me how quickly the temperature dropped. As I mentioned, I took an hour nap in my chair after lunch and when I woke up, it felt like the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees. All that meant was that I needed to add another layer to keep warm. And of course get a nice hot fire started. If you couldn't guess by now, my evening was spent in the chair in front of the fire, drinking beer, and keeping warm. So on to Saturday, another exciting day filled with a whole lot of nothing. I woke up around 6:15 and it was still pretty cold and dark outside. My first order of business was getting the fire going again. I ended up sitting in front of the blazing fire for about an hour before I even made coffee or thought about starting breakfast. My whole morning routine of fire, coffee, and breakfast took about 3 hours and I enjoyed every minute of it. I then decided to go re-route another part of the stream and ended up moving some pretty massive boulders. Now, you may be wondering why I am constantly messing with nature, adjusting the course of a stream, and moving massive boulders. There is a method to my madness (maybe). The stream in a few places curves and runs into the base of the little hill that my shed sits on. In order to keep erosion at bay and my shed on solid ground, I have made it my mission to alter the stream wherever necessary. That's the whole method to my madness, nothing extravagant. So after messing with nature for a while, I decided that I was hungry and made myself some lunch. After that I ventured out into the world for more beer, ice, and to call home to see how everything was going. That lasted about 45 minutes before I retreated to my enclave in the woods to do more of nothing. I ended up getting the fire going again by 4 in the afternoon and essentially didn't move till about 830 when I went to bed. That afternoon, the dogs went to bed by 430, skipped dinner, and didn't wake up till the morning. Another good day.
Then came Monday and the necessity of going home. I had to dry out a few things, which took forever because it decided to sprinkle on and off in the morning, before I could finally leave. My original plan was to leave between 10 and 11 in the morning. Instead, I didn't leave till about 1230 in the afternoon. I could have stayed there and continued my nothingness for a week. That would mean two things, however. First, I wouldn't see my wife or son for that long and secondly, I would have to cut and split more wood because I would surely run out. All in all, the weekend was rejuvenating. It didn't inspire me to get back to work and work harder; it was simply a nice break from the routine of everyday life. I always struggle on the first day back to work after a weekend away. Perhaps it is because I would still rather be camping, or perhaps it is because my mind just isn't with it. Whatever the case may be, it happens every time. I am planning one more camping trip for this year in November. I have never been up camping in Vermont at that time of year and I think it should be interesting. This past weekend the temperature didn't get out of the 50's during the day and sank into the low 30's at night. I wonder what November will hold for me. On top of it being cold, it will also be getting dark a lot earlier which simply means more time in front of the fire. I only hope it doesn't snow before I head up so that I can actually get up to my campsite. Only time will tell what will happen. For now, I will continue working, enjoying the time with my wife and son, and looking forward to my next weekend away.
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