6:20 AM. Good morning 🔥 10 degrees out there. It's only supposed to get colder as the week goes on. They're talking 20 below by the end of the week. Winter in Northwest Wisconsin. :-) I hope you have a great day! Off to the mail trail. Morning fire 52 12.2.25

Six days later snow still sticks to trees. 12.1.25

Good morning 🔥 Morning fire 51 12.1.25

That's my coffee cup. There's still coffee in it. I almost have a full pot drank as I procrastinate. There's six inches of light fluffy snow to plow, blow, and shovel. Plus firewood to split, hay to feed, and tires to take off my mail jeep. I waited too long on that one too. The snow tires need to go on before the snow flies. LOL. Thankfully I have two other mail vehicles with snows on them. A lot of carriers don't have that option. Times are getting tougher. I know once I go out I won't be back in until after dark. Words keep coming up. I've got things to say and it feels like play. I gotta go with it. I helped my nephew, who is now 16, buy one dollar of Bitcoin after Thanksgiving Dinner. I had my coffee cup with me. So he asked me about Bitcoin. :-) Hayden, my middle son who is also 16, warned him. He's experienced my long windedness on the subject. The power was out during our Thanksgiving at my mom's. So we all had more time to chat. He started with a question, "What is Bitcoin?" Then he went on to tell me about the investment class he is taking as a junior. He told me they are are learning about stocks, bonds, and treasuries but nothing about Bitcoin. That irritated me. Because I think Bitcoin is the future of money. This fiat money system we currently live under causes a lot of systemic pain. I didn't tell him that. I tried to help him along in learning about Bitcoin. I have made many attempts in helping people close to me learn about Bitcoin. This was probably the easiest. I simply helped him get off zero by making a one dollar purchase with his Cash app account on his phone. They charged him a quarter for the purchase. All said and done he had 75 cents worth of Bitcoin. I told him to hold on to it as long as he can and watch it. And he will learn a lot about the ups and downs of Bitcoin. But in the end it will was always go up. That's what it's engineered to do. I hope he hangs on to it and learns more about it. It seems to be the more you learn about it the more you buy. Atleast that's been my experience. I have to move snow now. Until next time. :-)

Good morning. There's close to six inches of light, fluffy snow out there. I'm home in front of the fire. No mail trail today. This is a relief. Most days have been go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. Delivering mail and packages in the dark is stressful. Sitting still in front of this fire with everyone still asleep is a joy. Peaceful. Let the world do what it's going to do. I am going to sit here and watch the fire. An 18 year ritual rooted into my existence. I saw my grandpa's brother yesterday. I was delivering an Amazon package to a renter of his. He was wearing hunter's orange. He asked me if I was hunting this year. I shook my head no, pointed at my vehicle full of packages and mail, and said that's what I've been doing. Next year I am going to take off for the season, if I am still delivering mail and have vacation days left. I miss it. I miss being in the woods in general. One time, when I was in my early 20's still living with my grandparents, my Dad and Grandpa came up to hunt. The 3 of us stayed in a cabin on Gull Lake. We hunted on the 100 acres I bought when I was 18 or 19, I can't remember anymore. It was the end of the season. We were cutting up a deer in my grandpa's garage. My Dad, who never said these types of things, said, "You really like this, don't you?" I did. I was learning how to cut up a deer with my Grandpa and Dad. In fact, as I'm writing this, I wouldn't doubt if it was on this exact day 30 or so years ago. They would usually go back home on a Saturday Sunday depending on if we had deer to cut up yet. I'm off to add more wood to the fire. I hope you have a great day! Morning Fire 50 11.30.25

Five minutes before I head out the door. I was out until 8 PM delivering packages and mail last night. Hoping to get done before dark today. Once it gets dark everything gets harder. Can't see the mail, boxes, driveways, etc. Things slow down for safety's sake. That's 5 minutes already! I'm just getting warmed up. My Postmaster mentioned last evening we might see some sun today. I sure hope so. I appreciate sun and shoveled out mailboxes this time of year . . . amongst other things of course. I hope you have a great weekend. Off to the mail trail. Morning fire 49 11.29.25

"The future already exists; your life has already been lived; you have only to in habit this life as it 'unreels'--inhabit it from moment to moment with faith in the Creator of all lives. This moment-to-moment to faith in the Creator of destiny is the experiential equivalent of the moment-to-moment search for contact with one's self." Jacob Needleman, Time and The Soul (2003)

Good morning. 🔥 Morning Fire 48 11.28.25

The Bean Brook on the way to Thanksgiving Dinner.

Home on Thanksgiving morning. Whoever sees this I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving. 🦃

With family in front of fire 47. Thankful to be together. Especially after yesterday. I almost got crushed on Highway 63' in Springbrook making a left hand turn into the Post Office. Looked in my rear view mirror to see a semi coming at a speed too fast to stop. Without hesitation I eased my jeep over to the right. He must've seen me in time to move his rig over and get around me. As he passed that's when the adrenaline, anger, and swearing kicked in. Calmness prevailed when needed. I got out at the Post Office to see if he or she could see my brake lights. They were snow free. I do drive a white jeep, so I tried to give the driver the benefit of the doubt. All my lights were clear. Lucky. To live another day. We got 8 inches at the house. Wet, sticky snow. Hard to shovel. Underneath the ground not frozen. It was tough going on the mail route. I delivered in 4-wheel drive except when I got on bare pavement. Road salt does wonders once the sun hits it. Everything got delivered. Well, that's it for now. Going to turn my attention to people in the room. I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving. 🦃

From the mail trail: The Namekagon River just outside of Earl, WI at sunset. 11.26.25

Snow out there. I don't know how much. I asked Annie at midnight. She thought 4 to 5 inches then. I looked out the window a bit ago. It looked like it was snowing. I didn't make much of an effort to see.I will be working in it in about 15 minutes. Clearing off the jeep, feeding animals, then delivering mail in it all day. I ran when it was beginning to fall last night. It didn't take long for my feet to get wet and my shirt to get soaked. I always take interest in the way I feel sitting in a car delivering mail in the cold falling snow with the heaters blowing on me compared to being out in it working out with light clothes on. The latter more of a pleasure. There's something about letting go, letting the cold in for a bit. Like relaxing a clinched fist. Off to the mail trail. I hope you have a great day.

Good morning. Back to the mail trail today. I head out the door in 5 minutes, this fire should be burned down by then. It's supposed to snow sometime today. It's 40 out there now. It's going to have to cool down for it to turn into anything. Two mail vehicles sit in the yard with snow tires. There's 4 more on the way for the other jeep. That eases my mind a little. I'm off. Hope you have a great day! Morning fire 45 11.25.25

Good morning from the front of morning fire 44 🔥 11.24.25

Good morning!🔥 Fire 43 11.23.25

I had a lot of Amazon packages yesterday. I don't think I could've fit another box in my jeep. I've been saying this more and more lately. There was a period this summer where it felt whatever distributes the packages knew the size of my vehicles. It was smooth. Things fit nicely. Not lately though. It'll get to the middle of the week and I will get giant boxes. That's when the stress level goes up. They're hard to handle and fit. Sometimes there will be 50 pound dog food bags in them. The woman that works next to me had a couple plastic plastic sleds packed in big boxes last week. Someone told me yesterday the Black Friday deals are starting. I imagine the volume and size of packages are going to increase from here on out. Seen some nice bucks on the mail trail the past couple days. That's it for now. Off to the mail trail. Morning fire 41 11.21.25

6 AM. Good morning 🔥 Morning fire 40 11.20.25

I have 15 minutes to go before this fire is burned down. Then I head out the door to throw hay and start the mail jeep. It's back to work. I finished mowing brush on the back side of our land last evening. After I shut the tractor off I made it a point to watch the sunset in the quiet. It wasn't long and I had my phone out. Unconsciously of course. The algorithm showed me a post about Robert Frost. I read it unhurried. It seemed like it was the perfect read for the moment. I shared it after reading. It was about the hardship he faced in life. There was a time in my life when I payed no attention to contemporary media. I read philosophy and books that called me. Did the algorithm know that? That's when it felt like the gods were looking out for me. I was connected to something deeper. I wasn't too far from the spot where we camp as a family when I read the Frost piece. It's been 2 years since we've been there. Anyway, I got back to the other side of the land where our house is and Hayden started forging. It was dark by then. And as I filled wheelbarrows with hay from a distance I could see the red glow of the steel he was pounding. The glow reminded of flow, our family flow. Morning fire 39 11.19.25