Winter
is coming, with it's cold winds, snowy days, and icy paths but also with it's
beauty, stillness and memories. Spring, summer and warm weather always seem to
have been so short as winter approaches but the thoughts of winter bring some
pleasant and warm memories. I remember going into the woods with my Dad to
cut wood in the winter time, when we lived near the banks of #4 ditch, five
miles east of Bernie, Stoddard County, Missouri. We didn't have a sleigh like the one in the
picture, but I remember my brother and my Dad hooking a chain or rope to some
logs and pulling them out to a clearing, with a team of horses. I was too little to be much
help but I enjoyed being there and watching. Sometimes we would fill a wagon
with either cut wood or logs and haul it to the house. I enjoyed riding on the
wagon. When we got home we would pile the wood near the woodshed. We would place a log into the vee of some saw horses and Dad and
my brother would cut the wood into stove lengths with a long, two handled,
crosscut saw. Sometimes I would sit on the log to keep it from turning.
Sometimes it turned anyway and "Ouch!" that could cause some discomfort. I remember
swinging the axe to split wood into smaller pieces for use in the kitchen cook
stove. My mother could cook up some very tasty food on that old cook stove.
I remember that on some winter nights I heated one of my mother's irons,
wrapped it in some heavy cloth and stuck it under the bed covers to be a foot
warmer. That felt good! I remember standing as close to the heating stove
as I could get on some winter mornings, when a skim of ice had frozen in the drinking water
bucket in the kitchen. The heat from the stove felt good too, unless you "Ouch!" got too close. I remember
taking baths, outside, in a wash tub, then heading to the house pretty quickly
when the weather was cold. Sometimes a couple of buckets of cold water from the
hand pump made for a pretty lively rinse, on the way into the house. Whew, makes
me shiver just to think of it.
The painting at the top of this page is hanging in our living room. I
like the midi music playing in the background. The words of the song do not
necessarily fit the picture but things are not always required to fit, in order to be
enjoyable.
Winter
is coming, with it's cold winds, snowy days, and icy paths but also with it's
beauty, stillness and memories. Spring, summer and warm weather always seem to
have been so short as winter approaches but the thoughts of winter bring some
pleasant and warm memories. I remember going into the woods with my Dad to
cut wood in the winter time, when we lived near the banks of #4 ditch, five
miles east of Bernie, Stoddard County, Missouri. We didn't have a sleigh like the one in the
picture, but I remember my brother and my Dad hooking a chain or rope to some
logs and pulling them out to a clearing, with a team of horses. I was too little to be much
help but I enjoyed being there and watching. Sometimes we would fill a wagon
with either cut wood or logs and haul it to the house. I enjoyed riding on the
wagon. When we got home we would pile the wood near the woodshed. We would place a log into the vee of some saw horses and Dad and
my brother would cut the wood into stove lengths with a long, two handled,
crosscut saw. Sometimes I would sit on the log to keep it from turning.
Sometimes it turned anyway and "Ouch!" that could cause some discomfort. I remember
swinging the axe to split wood into smaller pieces for use in the kitchen cook
stove. My mother could cook up some very tasty food on that old cook stove.