The Swamp in Winter

While the swamp was spooky in the summertime,

In the winter it creaked and groaned as the frozen

trees blew gently in the cold breeze.

We would try to quietly tramp through the crusty snow

breaking through sometimes, good boots were a plus.
We would find tracks of aquatic mammals like muskrat.

An occasional deer track passed through, maybe it was
that big buck the hunters had reported. 

There was the elusive ermine, In the prized winter coat of a weasel.

If you stood quietly the squirrels would start to chatter
and run up and down the trees, occassionally leaping from one to another. 

Birds...there were kingfishers and crows. 

Hawks, woodpeckers, and starlings. 

Life was bountiful if you knew where to look,
even in the depth of winter.

Warm radiators and furnace

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Its winter on the farm.

  The Old Farmer stokes up the coal furnace in the basement.

The is a twice a day job. You shovel out the ashes in the bottom,

Then shake a  grate handle on front of furnace. The cinders and smaller coals

fall through and the hot bigger coals remain on top of the grate.

By the next shift any hot coals that fell through are burned out and safe to shovel out again.

Then in goes a couple big shovels full of new coal.

 In the fall the Old Farmer had let any air pockets out of the radiators

with the radiator key. This was called bleeding the system. Sometimes

during the winter this process was repeated if there was an air block

and the hot water wasn't circulating.

Hot water would circulate through the radiators and they were toasty warm.

There was nothing like coming in the house from the cold and sitting
by a radiator and warming up with a cup of cocoa.
They were also a great place to dry our snowsuits and boots!

 

I remember being home from school sick in the winter.

The Old Farmer's Wife would bundle me up in a blanket

on a chair by the radiator in the kitchen. Then was she could

do her work and keep an eye on me. 

And the Old Farmer's would go outside the big windows and build

a huge snowman using bushel baskets full of snow.