winter

SNOW, Yeah Right…….

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I love the snow. I especially like to be at the farm after a good snow. We have been promised a couple of good snows recently, only to be left to slosh around in a very wet, sloppy mess. No accumulation to speak of. I am disappointed as I had planned on spending some time at the farm with the camera. So far, the year has been a bust. Still some time left, we will see what happens.

I often wonder what it was like back in the early days of this farm. How did Aunt Millie and Uncle Jim handle the cold and the snow? With livestock on the farm, they had no choice but to tend the animals, and I am sure the outhouse was a very long walk with a foot of snow on the ground. (I do know they used a chamber pot at night) but it still had to be emptied. Other than that, I think life was pretty much business as usual. Get up early, get the stove fired up, get the heat back up in the house. I wonder about the well, I know deep down, it wouldn’t freeze, but I am sure the pump would freeze up, so an additional chore there. Then walk a path out to the chicken coop, and to the barn to feed the livestock and milk the cows. Go back inside warm up to get ready for round 2. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but fighting the probably blowing snow, the chores became that much more difficult to perform. I can tell you one thing, they probably didn’t fuss about all the snow, they just did what they do, and they got their work done. We could learn something from them….

Not a lot of snow on this trip from a couple of years ago. Still, the roads were difficult, and those ditches are deep. Not much of a chance without 4 wheel drive
Looks kinda stark and desolate, yet beautiful
If memory serves me, it was very cold and windy (it is always windy at the farm) on this trip to the farm. It sure looks cold.

Before the Christmas 2022 Blizzard

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This image courtesy of my brother in law, John Luparell

For the first time in I can;t count the years, we are poised to have a white Christmas. I am all for that, I really like snow. The problem is the timing. This year, the “blizzard” is poised to hit us right smack dab in the middle of the Christmas travel season. There will be a lot of people who will not be able to get to their holiday destinations. For them, I am sorry, but I am looking forward to a Christmas with snow. Maybe in that sense, a normalcy may be working it’s way back into the season.

In anticipation of a weekend of no power and frigid temps, my brother in law, John Luparell and I headed down to the farm to grab my generator, just in case. The day could not have been better. It was sunny, there was absolutely no wind (that is so rare), and the temps were comfortable.

We loaded up the generator, and a space heater to bring back home (yep, I am getting old, and I need help lifting generators and space heaters into the back of my truck. John isn’t much younger than me, but between the 2 of us, we could muster up enough strength to load both items into the back of the truck, and then into my garage. Now we wait and see.

While we were at the farm, we decided to take advantage of the nice day, and we did some walking around back in the pasture. We went up and down the creek, I saw signs of critters at the creek, paw prints from raccoons, and I thought maybe an otter or maybe a mink, sliding into the water, to swim away from the danger of 2 old farts, walking the creek bank.

John discovered a couple of old bottles back along the fence, I am thinking they were from the early 60’s, but they were cool, so John took them home to my sister Kim. Nobody has said anything about them getting broke over his head, so she must have liked them. A little cleanup, and they will probably make a nice vase. Pretty sure that at one time, those glass vessels sit in the pantry of Aunt Millie’s kitchen. Pretty cool.

Now, the big question is; Will the Christmas 2022 Blizzard happen? Or will it be another all hype weather event, with a lot of “cold air”? Time will tell, I just know that the snowblower is ready, We have plenty of ice melt, and are as prepared as we can be, so we just wait and see. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all. I hope that the coming year is a good one for all. Don;t forget to follow my blog so you can continue to see my updates, and thanks for visiting.

Going Hunting with Dad and Pop

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Hunting is, and probably always will be a right of passage for many young men. I haven’t been hunting for years, but one of my favorite memories from the farm, was to go hunting for the first time with Dad and Pop. It was that day, that I felt like I was grown up.

I was still pretty young, so I could not actually carry a gun, but I had the important job of being the “bird dog”. My job was to stir up the pheasants or quail in the grass along the edge of the field. (No, I was not put into harms way, I had to walk behind, I was too young to know that I was just tagging along).

None the less, it was a great day, trudging thru the snow, quietly, I might add, waiting to see that pheasant or quail, or maybe even a rabbit, come out of the grass, and then find it’s way to our dinner table.

The best part of the hunting experience was coming back to the house. After an hour or so, the cold soaked into your bones. We all were looking forward to getting back to the house, getting out of our hunting garb, and backing our fannies up to the stove in the living room, by now, Jim had that thing glowing red, and I have to tell you, it felt mighty nice to soak up that heat. Of course once we got warmed up, the heat in the living room was pretty intense. Jim liked a warm room……

Early Winter on the Farm

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Well, the last few days, while not terribly cold, sure make it feel like it is winter. Cold, cloudy and damp, wish the sun would at least shine a little bit, or if it is going to be dreary, at least it could snow.

Even in this dreary part of winter, there is beauty to be found at the farm. The shot below is one I took a year or two ago, before the real fun part of winter came in. Look around, even on the most dreary of days, and you can still find beauty in the natural world around us, here is a sample from our slice of heaven.