Special time with Tim and Barbara

One load of wood for the heater

Christine's car which I am using for 6 months.

 It is cold, very cold and to keep the house heated, we need to keep the furnace going. Luckily Tim has more than enough wood for the winter. I carter 6 of these loads into the basement and the furnace needs about 4 or so logs every two hours. In the photograph is the woodshed behind Christine's car which I am using till mid-June thanks to Doug and Christine buying a TESLA and letting me use the surplus car. Amazing friends. In the shed is wood on the left hand side for the remainder of this winter. Lots more in the middle one and timber for woodwork projects in the left hand section. Tim is lucky to have his own forest with Ash, Apple, Cherry, Maple, Birch and a couple of other individual trees many of which
flattened by Hurricane Sandy and are now either
firewood or timber for more projects to build.

After I got the Camry, I put new front tyres on it, had it raod tested by the State of NY Authorities and now I have wheels till I get back from my around the USA and Canada trip with a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean and a trip to Cancun in Mexico. So I am doing a clockwise trip from New England down south, accross to San Diego and then up to Vancouver. From there via Calgary to Toronto then back into the USA at Buffalo and work my way back to Tim and Barbara in Bethany Connecticut.

The Christmas tree before being cut for firewood.

Vegetable garden hibernating in -4C!

This is Tim and Barbara's ex-Christmas tree, a beautiful Spruce and it was 'wiiiiiide'! Filled the family room side to side. Their tradition is to give each member of the family a new Christmas trinket for the tree, so it is covered with the mast amazing array of angels, animals, father Christmas's/St. Nicholas, sleds, and any other trinket one can or cannot think of. Christmas is a far bigger tradition and more traditional than at home in South Africa. The food is too much though. We had Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas breakfast and Christmas night dinner. A long walk happened in cold weather on Boxing day after going shopping to get rid of some calories at least.

Timber cut from Tim's trees for furniture construction

Luckily I will be back with Tim and Barbara in June and will be able to see the new vegetable garden in full bloom. It is surrounded by netting to keep mainly the deer out, but also Raccoons and Possums. This is the kind of vegetable garden I want at home. That is when I get there of course! There is a massive movement to grow heritage vegetables in the USA now as well as to grow your own, almost a move against GM food. Tomatoes and pumpkins in particular are a big deal and the Atlantic Giant pumpkin has the record of over 1000 pounds in weight as the biggest ever and there are many close to that every Fall at the Agricultural shows across the USA.

This is the pile of timber from the trees on Tim's property knocked down by Sandy. A local guy with a portable timber mill pitched up and split the trees into timber and Tim stacked it after sealing the ends in order to have a sh*tload for furniture construction of which he does a lot. He has about 1200 board feet of lumber here. So lucky to have a little forest of his own some of which is in the background of the picture, but the majority is behind me.

  

The remains of trees destroyed by the Hurricane, Now firewood

 This is the remaining timber for the furnace and firewood from Tim's trees as well as two enormous oaks from Nancy, his sister's home which were damaged by Sandy. They will need to be split in the summer. I guess I will help Tim with this and do some of them. Good exercise splitting and then stacking in the shed. Actually, I am not getting enough exercise. Only been to gym three times, been on two long walks and a hike in the woods with Doug. Trying to eat sparingly, but the food in Doug and Christine, Lee and Mary and Tim and Barbara's homes is amazing. All whole food and beautifully prepared and really very healthy, but, too much. I will cut down a lot when on the road and gym every day on the Caribbean cruise and in Cancun at the hotel of course.

Another Polar Vortex on the way tonight and temperature down to around -12 or so and not above 0 for a few days either. Too many clothes, just too many clothes have to be worn to stay warm. I cannot wait for the Caribbean and Mexico and summer.

Take care everyone. I miss my family, my friends and I miss my boys a lot. Keep up the Face Book messages and all the photographs please. See ya later.

Mr. O's tour.