Winter On The Farm

The snow, ice and freezing temperatures remind me of times on the farm growing up. The first thing that comes to mind is having to go out on a very cold morning and fix the strainer for straining the milk that my brothers were out at the barn milking from the cows. My hands would stick to the aluminium strainer and it felt as if I was pulling the skin off when I tried to get them unstuck. After the milk was strained into the milk can to be taken out to the road as we went to school I had to go back out in that cold and wash the strainer and milk buckets to prepare for the evening milking. Mama used the money from selling milk to Coble Dairy to help buy groceries and a few other necessary items. She bought my high school class ring with one of her checks and I think of that every time I see that ring in my jewel box.

Some mornings when we got up and went into the kitchen to start a fire in the wood stove to prepare breakfast the water would be frozen in the water bucket and the frost on the windows would be turned to ice. Once the fire was going it would soon be nice and cozy and eating hot milk gravy over rice with fat back or sausage warmed you up on the inside. Occasionally daddy would let us have "coffee soup". It was made from toasting some of mama's biscuits until there were crisp, adding sugar and pouring coffee over them. It was a special treat and made you feel almost grown up as children were not allowed to have coffee.

There was no heat in the upstairs bedrooms and on cold winter nights mama would let us bring a blanket down and hold it next to the heater to warm it and then we would fly up the steps as fast as we could and get into bed with that warm blanket wrapped around us. The worst part on a cold night was if you had to sleep with someone who had "an accident".

When it snowed we did not have sleds so we improvised. Some of my brother's friends used to pull me around in the snow in a scoop shovel and it was so much fun going down that big hill behind the barn. I remember in particular one time when Carol Ritchie pulled me around and gave me the best ride.

Another thing we loved to do when it snowed or when the ponds were frozen over was to get with the Cody children and others in the neighborhood and go exploring on Cindy Hill. We would stay out for hours at a time skating on the frozen ponds created when the river got out and sometimes the ice was thin and you would go through and that was no fun at all.

We had lots of chores to do when we would get home from school. Fresh cold water had to be drawn to put in the milk tubs to keep the milk from souring, kindling had to be cut to start the fires and lots of wood brought in for the woodstove in the kitchen and the heater in the den, the cows had to be milked and all the animals fed.

During the winter months Charlie used to have his friends come over and they would pick their musical instruments and sing at night. We would sit around the heater and listen while we ate parched peanuts and it was a great family time.