The snow arrives late in December and stays until the end of February. It does not stop the work. It is the work.
January and February are for pruning — the most important job of the year. Ten to fifteen days of climbing into the trees with shears and a saw, in the cold, cutting away what is dead or crossing, so that light can reach the inner branches when spring comes. It is done by the family. Nanu and Nani are seventy-five, and they are up there too.
The trunks are painted white — a lime and copper-sulphate wash — so the frost cannot crack the bark and nothing burrows in beneath it. Before the heavy snow, a ring is dug around the base of every single tree and packed with cow dung and compost. When the snow melts in spring, it carries all of that down into the roots.
And when the work stops, the village begins
Winter is not an empty season here. It is the season of weddings, of Dham — the village feast — and of Nati danced around a bonfire.
It is also when people look after themselves properly: eating well through the cold, so the body can carry the rest of the year.
18 Posh
The birthday of our devta, Devta Sahib Chattarkhand Panchveer. The festival is named after the date itself — 18 Posh — and it falls around the new year. Thousands of people come.
