"Winter Preparation"
The weather is getting colder and colder little by little these days. Although, today was a pretty warm day. The temperature was stable all day long. Yesterday, summertime finished. Our time went back an hour. Our time should be automatically or manually adjusted. Morning and Night are pretty cold. Actually, we already have frost every morning. Winter is peeking through autumn.
Today was the best day to prepare for winter. Winter preparation reminds me of my grandfather. He was the best man to prepare our house for winter very quickly. Everytime when I came home from school in late autumn, his winter preparation was done. It was like magic. In Japan, people put special straw wrapping around the trees in cold areas that have snow. People called it "Fuyu Gakoi" in Japanese. "Fuyu" means winter, "Gakoi (Kakoi)" means enclosure. People protect trees from heavy winter snow in winter. My grandfather was very good at preparing "Fuyu Gakoi" for us. Also, we have a similar word called "Yuki Gakoi" which means snow shield or snow fence which is usually for a house.
On the other hand, people don't protect trees or houses like this in Canada. We don't need to do Fuyu Gakoi but we had to prepare wood for our stove. We ordered 2 cords last year so, we ordered only 1 cord for this winter. The wood delivery person just dumped woods in front of our house. We had to carry the wood and put them into the wood shed so it can dry for next year. This work is not easy but thank God we finished it before the first snow!
"冬支度”
日に日に寒くなってきましたが、今日の日中は暖かかったです。昨日で夏時間は終わりました。時間がまた１時間戻りました。自動または手動で時計を戻しました。朝晩はかなり冷え、朝は霜がおります。冬が秋の陰から覗いているような感じがします。
今日は冬の準備にもってこいの気温でした。冬の準備といえば、祖父を思い出します。祖父の冬の準備はとても素早く完璧でした。学校から帰ってくるともう手品のように冬準備
が終わっていました。日本では雪の降る地域では特に、藁を使って木を雪から守るために「冬囲い」をします。祖父はこの冬囲いの準備がとても上手でした。一方、「雪囲い」は主に家などの建物を雪から守るために雪垣を作り家を囲うことを言うそうです。
カナダでは木を守るための冬囲いをしません。その代わりストーブのある家は薪の用意をします。去年は２コード注文しました。今年は１コードだけ注文しました。配達してくれる方は家の前におろしてくれるだけなので、自分たちで薪を置いている小屋まで運ばなければなりません。その小屋の中で薪を乾かします。この薪を運ぶ作業は簡単ではありませんが、なんとか初雪が降る前に運び終えました！
The wood delivery person delivered the wood and dumped it in front of our house. We had to move it to our wood shed before the first snow.
薪の配達の人が家の前に下ろした薪を、雪が降る前に薪置き場まで運ばなければなりませんでした。
Stacking wood is fun. It is like a pazzle. I was having a no mind moment when I was stacking wood. I had to find good balance to keep it straight. All of the pieces of wood have different shapes and sizes so, it is not simple to stack.
薪を積み上げるのは楽しい作業です。まるでパズルのようです。積み上げている間は、無になります。真っ直ぐ積み上げなければいけないので、バランスを考えながら積み上げます。いろんな形やサイズの薪なので簡単ではありません。
The left side is last years' wood that we are going to use this winter. The right side is the new wood that we stacked this autum. They are going to be dry in a few years.
左側は去年から乾かしている薪です。右側が今年積み上げたもので、二年くらい乾かす予定です。
My dog was happy when we were working in our yard because he can see everything with us. He is in charge of our yardwork as a supervisor.
犬は外に出て庭仕事を見るのが好きです。彼の役職はスーパーバイザーです。