I feel a bit wiped tonight. My neighbour Allan says I’ve been clobbered by wood stove coma. Jasper and I were up early this morning. I had a long soak in the tub and then we hiked to the top of the hill, looking for skunk dens (carefully). Then we hit the road for lunch at the Hunter River Bakery and met a woman who was on her way to a darts tournament. She proudly reported being the 4th best darts player in PEI. “The top ten get to go to Saskatchewan.”
Then Jasper went to the MacPhee’s across the road and I beat a trail back to the cabin for a nap by the wood stove. (I think I was saying “Yes Yes Yes” out loud, not just in my head). I put the turkey carcass on to boil once I got the fire going, and hit the couch. Three hours later I awoke to the whole MacPhee family on the porch, in Santa hats. Luckily I had stocked up on multicoloured marshmallow squares and ice box cookies. It took me a minute to figure out why Allan had brought a saw into my cabin for his visit. They’d come to fetch their Christmas tree. “Didn’t ya notice the hats, Stuart?”
So we went to the woods to cut deliberately. They chose a beautiful 12′ spruce and dragged it home, laughing all the way.