In just 15 minutes, Ed Gulley had hacked a path through this very dense underbrush. We’re going back with pitchforks and clippers to finish the job.

I felt especially useless out there today, it was freezing cold and everyone was carrying something except me, who had the camera. I needed some help crossing some icy hills and no one else did, and everybody but me was carrying something from the farmhouse (rear) to the woods.

When people carry things for you, it is a definite sign you are getting old. As I tried to get up a steep and icy hill (everyone skittered up like rabbits) I was digging my heels into the ice and hanging onto branches. I hoped someone would come back to help me, and when Maria did, I was annoyed that she had come to help me.

“I can get up!,” I insisted, but she insisted on walking up with me, although if I had fallen, she would surely have come down with me. I am meticulous about not falling when I am carrying my camera but it was dicey for a minute or two. I got up, seeing once again in this mirror that I am getting older, something every man denies.

Ed Gulley could have tossed me over his shoulder without noticing i was there, but I am wary of showing vulnerability. Still, I have this wonderful meditation, a bridge to cross, and soon, a walkway over the marsh. A dream come true, how sad to have such a nice woods and not be able to get to it.