thanksgiving on the farm

Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving

    Well was going to try and impress you with some elaborate story , but again I fell short so instead decided to tell you about my day and share with you how I am going to spend my Thanksgiving Day.

    The last few weeks kinda seemed to fly by, hurried along with an early winter. Hate to seem like the pessimist but it seems as if these were January storms and that we are getting our hard cold biting storms earlier. Could this be a sign of global warming? Just asking, hate to get anybody’s dander up.

     Yesterday I sat through another story of the bad winters they had years ago. How the lane was so full of snow it was easier to walk down through the field than to wade through the snowdrifts. Mom and my Aunt would stay at the Shaner residence that used to exist at the end of our lane. This is all gone now.

    I look back at the winters I have experienced here on the farm and try to see if any measure up to the really bad ones. I guess when I lived in Wooster the blizzard of 1976 was the worse for me. I was unable to get to my house about 3 miles out of town. The National Guard had to use bull dozers to clean the roads. And I almost was stuck in it in the middle of the worst blizzard I ever saw that scared me so bad I felt that I may have problems getting to safety. Whiteouts and vicious biting wind of  the worse I ever saw. By that standard this was nothing.

      Love to see it dump a bunch of snow like that. The next day everything is white. Including the fence in front my cows as I took a picture of them. The stark contrast of anything against that white wet snow clinging to the fence looks great.  We ended up with around a foot to my best guess. Enough at one time for me. I still have to plow out the lane and parking areas.  

      Been having a trying time with my heater in the greenhouse and trying to keep plants from freezing. It takes a lot of wood and a lot of tending to the greenhouse. Then last night I tripped in the snow heading up to fire the wood burner and took a pretty good fall. Nothing hurt but my pride, so far as I can tell.

      Seems like that is the way things have gone lately as all I do is fight fires. Trying to get the next thing done, before something else happens. I have been trying to get wood cut and hauled in to help keep the fires going. But I am just barely able to keep up and question why I worry. I have heated spaces at my house and at Mom’s to place the most wanted plants and let the greenhouse go cold. It is hard to watch things die off but then again it is a natural process and plants do need to be hardy. I really don’t need to heat the greenhouse till late February to have plants for Mother’s Day. This is my goal and last year I managed to do well so expect better results this year.

    Anyhow like everyone else I am still struggling to keep up but letting the greenhouse go cold will also have some positive benefits as I retrofit the present heater to get better efficiency out of my heat. I plan on adding heat to the floor with recirculating hot water to warm the greenhouse from the ground up. This will make a major difference.

     Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I would like to say especially to Anonymous, a big thank you for wishing me a happy thanksgiving, and  I would like to say the same to whoever wished me that. Kinda took me by surprise.

    It was nice to hear that from an unexpected source and I’m sure it was heartfelt. This helps me as I am alone and spending Thanksgiving cooking turkey dinner for Mom and James, the guy who helps me around here, or at least tolerates me . All I know is it costs me.  So the three of us will share a dinner for Thanksgiving., butI would always like to see more around the table and understand that others in the family have other obligations, so anyhow we plan to celebrate regardless of it all.

    Well if anyone out there is alone for Thanksgiving, I feel your pain as I have had that same feeling for years. I always wanted a family and all the trimmings but in the end I just have to be thankful for what I have. Fate seemed to have other intentions or maybe it I karma, or maybe this life is a precursor for better times as I hope to see some day. But then again being home eating dinner with the two best friends one can have, what could be better. Oh I forgot I just walk outside at home and there is Babe as I slip some turkey parts and pieces to my third best friend. I am thankful for all I have, and hope you are having a good Thanksgiving also.  

     Also would like to wish Sandy and Dad a happy birthday. they both shared the same birthday and i always think of both at thanksgiving, and  neither of them are with me now, but still in my thoughts.