February 22, 2021 We drove back to NH on the 21st, having been away for almost exactly 6 weeks. Our main agenda for this trip was to meet John Tuttle and carefully go over the plans for each and every room or space in the house. The day before, Than had checked the house, ran the trap line (2 mice), turned up the heat for us, and gone up the tower to close the hatch! From outside and across the road, he had noticed that it was flipped open, and headed up the 6 floors and the extension ladder to close and latch it for us. We didn’t know how long it had been open, and had no explanation for how this happened…. except possibly when the architects were inside measuring? – we would ask!
As usual, the trip was long, especially when we travel with Sydney, because the stops are longer and more frequent, but the weather was good – we were between storms. The title shot was taken at about 5pm, with the sun and the moon in the sky together!
On Monday morning, the 22nd, the snow was crusty from the overnight icing from the daily snow melt and freeze cycle… Bob was working and I went out to try the snowshoes I’d had for about 20 years (!) and now was able to use in my own “backyard”! Fun! I wandered about checking out the plowing that had been done, and took that shot of the rooflines and tower, showing our additions of the lightning rods, flag and weather station. Later in the day we got a little snowy sleet and I headed up to the tower for some winter photos from the “porch”.
It is usually very quiet in the tower and main house, and seemed especially so with the winter slumber and snow to deaden any stray sounds. As I was coming down from the tower, I heard a scratching noise, and paused, thinking it was a branch on the roof or random creaking of the unfinished house…. it seemed to be coming from above… I looked out at the rafters of the 3 story open main room, and there was something staring back at me…. a SQUIRREL!!!!! I moved, and it scrambled away and down, down. OMG
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