The Collapse XV High Summer

13 July 20XX

My Dear Lucilius:

We are in high summer here now: the days are very long (0530 or so comes the sunrise and we do not have true darkness until almost 2200). This makes for quite a compensation (although not a full one, I suppose) for the winters where we see less than 8 hours of sun.

A fair amount of time during this part of the year is spent preparing for the long cold winter: working over the garden, processing the produce for storage via drying or canning, checking on the bees to watch over their honey stores (and ensure they do not overcrowd their space and fly away), collecting the eggs from the quail and running them through the garden to pick off pests, and catching and preserving fish.

Of course there is maintenance to do, even on a house as small as mine. It is likely that I will not live to see major construction done again in my lifetime, so I do weekly sweeps of the outside to look for paint or wood issues, cracks in the caulking, this sort of thing. The yard always requires one or two good mowings to really knock it down (I have no-idea what I will do if fuel becomes too dear. I have worked on scything parts of the yard which seems effective but is very time consuming and a great workout!). A little cleaning on the inside as well, although I have organized and re-organized and shed and re-shed items to the point that it sometimes feels as if there is more space than items anymore.

That still leaves plenty of time for other things, of course – 15 or more hours of daylight is quite a lot. So I practice my sword and perform my workouts and walk here and there and everywhere sometimes as far as the Dam – and re-read the classics, which always brings me a certain amount of comfort.

Our traffic on the main road has quite dried up, especially for this time year – I has seen as few as 10 and not more than 30 in a single day. That is quite different from years past as this is the high time for vacation and travelers. This seems to be a new trend – I spoke very briefly with the owners down at the campground where I do my laundry and they noted the fact as well. It was definitely beginning to cut into their bottom line.

I would like to believe that everyone is at their homes preparing for Winter as well. But I suspect more people are beginning to try and figure out how they are going to survive the Winter, let alone prepare for it.

Your Obedient Servant, Seneca