Bitter Cold for Man and Beast 1989

Bovine

Survival has been the name of the game for the past several days with the bitterly cold weather.  Our wood supply has dwindled, the quantity of gas in our tanks has decreased and our electric meter has run at a high rate of speed.   However, thankfully, we are warm, safe and well fed.

On one of those sub-zero nights, a cow named, Muss, delivered a fine heifer calf, and John found it frozen the next morning.

On another day, he had a big black cow, Easter, that kept him busy.  He and the cow paced back and forth prior to her birthing a large, black bull calf.

Then the action speeded up.  With a blustery and biting wind blowing and the temperature hovering near the single-digit reading, John had Kay (our granddaughter) driving the tractor while he an the quilt-wrapped baby calf rode to the barn on the trailer.  Even the calf was almost frozen – at this writing it still survives.

It has been difficult time for farmers, as we have heard of others who have lost calves, too.  We even heard of one farmer who brought his new calf to the warm kitchen to save its life.

Keeping the ice on the pond broken so the cattle could get drinking water and keeping enough hay out has been a real challenge.

With extra people in the house there has been much cooking and dishwashing going on, too.  But what a winter wonderland we found on Christmas morning with a  sprinkling of snow.  This is the first white Christmas I remember, but according to some local folks, there have been others.  Lots of reminiscing has taken place this cold Christmas Holiday Season, much talk of bad weather in previous years, and/or of Christmases past.

A tradition at our house is that of jigsaw puzzles.  During WWII, when we were stationed at Harvard Army Air Base, in Nebraska (1945), the puzzles were one of the means of entertainment and we continue to enjoy them even today.  Survival, chores, reminiscing, it’s all a part of winter time country living.