Around the Homestead as The Year Turns

Reader Contribution by Lloyd Kahn

Cold-Weather Layering

Brrr! Cold. For California, that is. Sunny morning. California defaults to blue skies in winter, whereas I’ve found Europe in winter defaults to grey. These mornings, it’s 40 to 50 degrees inside the production studio. Right now I have on 5 layers — silk undershirt, two different weight Smartwool Merino shirts, homemade vest, Patagonia down vest, homemade (fingerless) gloves, silk scarf and large wool scarf, homemade Alpaca wool knit hat. Oh, and Smartwool Merino wool longjohns, knee-length wool socks and Army fatigues (which I love for the pockets), Keen (the brand, that is) lightweight hiking boots. Actually, I never toted up all my winter clothes before. Layers. We have a couple of little 660-watt ceramic electric heaters which we use to heat the person, not the room. I leave mine on for maybe half an hour on cold mornings, then turn off. Take a walk to get blood moving.

Skinning Roadkill Fox

The other morning a large ice chest appeared in our yard with a note saying, “For Lloyd from Nate.” Inside was a very large male grey fox that had been hit by a car. It had a beautiful glossy winter coat. There used to be lots of them around, then maybe 10 to 12 years ago, they all disappeared. Now coming back; beautiful, elegant little animals. They are to domestic dogs like buffalo are to beef cattle.

I skinned it, stretched it on a piece of plywood and salted it down. In a week I’ll send it off to be tanned.

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