the 'Ol  Biddy

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. . . Pulling out of the barn on the tractor, I headed for the main road, down the lane, up the small knoll behind Sidney's house & onto the old logging road that led back into the hollow.

Stirgell Farm & Dairy

It was more a cut than a road, running down along a steep slope of a ridgeline. On either side of this narrow cartway was a tall, thick stand of rhododendron, all grown together in a knot & meeting in the middle above me. The left over snow actually help bring a little light into this shrouded bottom. The trailer sat at the end of this hollow, where the surrounding hillsides converged onto a small muddy flat. The snow hadn't melted much at all here, but there were no deep drifts & I guessed I could haul the load out. Backing the tractor down into the hollow, I crept down the sheltered grade, crunching through the old snow. Sleet started to rattle down through the leaves & bounce off the rhododendren leaves.

A cut more than a road

Muffled in the Hollow

The crusty old snow covered all but the knotty green laurel. Even with the bright snow on the ground, the thick green hell darkened my way. Reaching the trailer the falling sleet stopped. Except for my quiet work with the trailor hitch, it felt as if I had cotton in my ears, or as if I were in a closet.

Right on this crowded flat, the road made a left hairpin turn to go back 'round the other side of the hollow. At the switchback's center, just up on the steep bank sat an old maple tree with a spring seeping out from somewhere underneath. Through this snug green & white world came the sound of dripping & gurgling water, as it welled out from the tree, to fall beneath the snowy flat at my feet.

Dripping & Gurgling

the Ol' Biddy

Broad & twisted, the maple, with its thick roots and limbs all sprawled out like a tree from a haunted wood, sat squatting atop a small heep of boulders like an old witch.

The spring oozed out from amongst the black earth & stone beneath the tree. The leaching water had built up a thick rambling ice flow that trailed down the bank, into the frozen flat. Entangled with the large tree roots, it all fanned out as a vast sculpture of rock, root & ice. - Sparkling - even in the dim light.

Dripping & Gurgling

the Ol' Biddy

Trudging through the snow toward the tree to have a closer look at the wood & ice, I stoop over & peer up into the ol' suger tree to see where the ice begins.

Inside the shadowed stump was a small blackened pool of water. Fine black root hairs laced the ceiling above the water. Bright droplets, like flickering lights, bobbled & fell from the roots into the pool making some of the sounds I had heard from the trailer

A Closer Look

Ice Sculpture

I watch the ripples push the water toward the ice. Droplets ooze through, gurgling down into the frozen cascade until I can no longer make them out.

Pushing myself from the tree, the sleet had started to rattle down again. With trailer hitched & ready, I hopped into the seat, started the tractor, jiggled the throttle stick up & eased out the clutch. The big tires jerked the load a might as they turned. Their digging cracked into the frozen bottom & bit. With the trailer tougue banging up & down against the tractor's hitching bar, the whole show clanked up out of the hollow.

Gettin' Out

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