Hibernal High

I almost preempted this evening’s post with an update on the rising, rising, rising lake levels. Given the alarming uptick — Lake Champlain has risen approximately 2’ in the last couple of days with waters currently approaching spring flood stage — our attention is focused on meteorological forecasts. But angsty fretting serves no one, so let’s instead honor the hibernal solstice with an exciting and timely benchmark that I’ll dub “hibernal high”.

If an Adirondack Coast sequel to John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” comes to mind, the awe and elation are real, but the lyrics remain unwritten. For now. Care to accept the challenge?

Instead, the hibernal high I’m experiencing this evening is a response to Glen completing the high tunnel covering.

Hibernal Solstice + High Tunnel = Hibernal High

Glen, Tony, Aaron, and Pam tackled the preliminary part a few days ago, stretching the immense sheet of almost-clear film across the ribs and securing it for the winter and spring. Now the scissor doors are complete and we’re ready for winter. Ready for spring!

So, for another day, at least until Lake Champlain water levels crest, I will pivot to positive news. On today’s hibernal solstice we doff our ear-and-pate-preserving toques to Glen, Tony, Aaron, and Pam for investing in next spring’s vegetable garden. Thank you!

Hibernal Solstice

Hibernal solstice is just another way of saying winter solstice, and since I’ve waxed unnecessarily wordy about it before, I will simply offer you an excerpt.

Welcome to day one of the Adirondack Coast’s coldest season. Today is the winter solstice, the first official day of winter, and — more importantly for the likes of my mother and others who favor longer days and shorter nights — the threshold between the briefest day and the most prolonged night and imperceptibly-but-steadily lengthening daylight. If you live in the North Country it seems peculiar that winter should only have just begun given several weeks of wintery weather. Seasonality, in these parts, might suggest a slightly earlier autumn-to-winter transition, closer to Thanksgiving than to Christmas.

(Source: Winter Solstice: Longer Days Ahead – Rosslyn Redux)

I might amend those thoughts a year after I first posted them acknowledging that near-to-flooding lake conditions are much more spring-like than autumn-like or winter-like. The peculiarity of the position within which we find ourselves after months and months of rain — we’ve experienced remarkably high levels of precipitation ever since late last winter or early last spring — is that we’re entering winter with water levels that we normally only experience in springtime when all of the winter snow and ice melts into the lake. For obvious reasons this is concerning.

But we worry tomorrow. Today we celebrate. Cheers to this hibernal high!