We have a Christmas Code at our house – maybe it’s not a code, more like a guideline – that we don’t start the Christmas season until after Thanksgiving. That means no Christmas cookies, no Christmas movies, no Christmas decorations (except the outdoor lights that are up but not lit yet), and no Christmas music. We’re usually pretty good about following our rule. But when the snow starts to fall and it looks so wintry, it gets harder and harder to resist. Last week I found myself humming Winter Wonderland and Jingle Bells. Every time I did, I was reprimanded by Hannah and Josiah, who seem to have appointed themselves as the It’s-Not-Christmas-Yet Police. I’m not alone in this. Stacey has started watching Hallmark Christmas movies, although she watches them by herself – Hannah won’t violate the rule and Josiah and I refuse to watch them even when it is the proper season. I’ve seen enough of them in the past to know that when you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. I will confess that on Friday morning, when I was home by myself (due to a two hour delay at school - see below), I started listening to the Celtic Christmas albums. It seemed like that kind of morning. Since then, the Code Police have relaxed a bit and we listened to Celtic Christmas music all day yesterday. This Thursday is Thanksgiving and on Friday the Code no longer applies. After that I’ll be singing Christmas songs out loud to my heart’s content.
We had snow last week. A lot of snow. It started on Monday night. Tuesday morning we woke up to find three inches of wet snow plastered on the world. It never got warm enough after that to melt it. Then on Thursday and Friday our first big winter storm arrived. Fearing the forecast, they dismissed us from school at 12:45 on Thursday and announced a two hour delay for Friday morning. The snow started falling, as predicted, at 1:00. By Friday morning we were buried under a foot of new snow. It was beautiful and disgusting at the same time. It took us a while to dig the cars out, especially since the township plows came by in the wee hours of the morning and plowed our road and pushed up a snow bank three feet high against the end of our driveway. I appreciate the road being clear, but digging out the driveway always makes me grumble.
We had snow last week. A lot of snow. It started on Monday night. Tuesday morning we woke up to find three inches of wet snow plastered on the world. It never got warm enough after that to melt it. Then on Thursday and Friday our first big winter storm arrived. Fearing the forecast, they dismissed us from school at 12:45 on Thursday and announced a two hour delay for Friday morning. The snow started falling, as predicted, at 1:00. By Friday morning we were buried under a foot of new snow. It was beautiful and disgusting at the same time. It took us a while to dig the cars out, especially since the township plows came by in the wee hours of the morning and plowed our road and pushed up a snow bank three feet high against the end of our driveway. I appreciate the road being clear, but digging out the driveway always makes me grumble.
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| Tuesday morning - three inches of snow. |
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| Friday morning - another foot of snow. |
When I got home from school on Friday I went down to do the chores and discovered a problem. When we had the barn re-roofed four years ago, we designed it so that the roof sloped one way. That way the rain would run down to a gutter and then flow into the rain barrel, which is our water supply during the non-frozen seasons. (Incidentally, I’ve already put the rain barrel away and have to carry water down from the house now.) It works fine for rain, but not for snow. Every winter when it snows, the snow slides off the roof and piles up in a bank under the eaves of the barn. Up until now that was never a big problem. We never got snow deep enough to slide down and block the doors. This time, for the first time, it did. The bank was almost shoulder high and I couldn’t get into the lower part of the barn. When Hannah and Josiah got home from work, they went down with me and we dug out the main door. The small door that the chickens use to go in and out is hopelessly blocked for now, but that’s okay – the chickens don’t like to go out in deep snow anyway. I know there are snow guards that can be put on metal roofs to keep the snow from sliding like that. I don’t know why we didn’t have them installed when the roof went on. They can be installed after the fact and we’ll have to do that before winter really kicks in. Digging through to the door like that every time we have a big snow is unacceptable. And I have a feeling that this winter we’re in for some big snow. I hope I’m wrong.
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| Down at the barn. |
The snow and cold make for some interesting occurrences. I noticed one morning that the maple tree nearest the house has sap-cicles hanging on it. In the fall, just like in the spring, the sap moves up and down in the trees, only it’s mostly down as they go dormant. When there is a wound on the tree, the sap seeps out and when it’s cold enough it drips to form icicles. I see them all the time in the spring, but these are the first I’ve seen in the fall. Also, one morning when I went out to fill the bird feeders, a little pine siskin flew right to me and landed in the container of seeds I was holding and began to eat seeds. I could tell the poor thing was cold and exhausted. It had probably just arrived from someplace north of here. I held very still while it ate. After a few minutes it seemed to recover and flew up into the tree. It was a magical moment for me. I wish the birds would not fear me. I look forward to a Millennial time when the animosity between men and animals ceases, when the lamb and lion lie down together and the birds won’t fear me. The snow also reveals evidence of all the visitors that come through our property. I like to follow their various tracks and identify what species they are. Last week I was amazed to see deer tracks crisscrossing our entire yard. It looked like a whole herd of them had wandered over the whole yard – across the lawns, through the flowerbeds, and all over the orchard. One morning we saw the deer themselves, but it was just two – a big doe and young one. They were eating fallen apples under the big Northern Spy tree. I don’t mind them eating fallen apples.
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| Sap-cicles. |
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| The pine siskin (you have to look closely). |
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| Deer in the orchard. |
Amid all the snow and ice, indoors we’re having a bit of floral happiness. My Christmas cacti are full of buds and will flower soon. Also, my night-blooming cereus has two buds! This is strange because it has only ever bloomed in the summer before. I’m not complaining. It can bloom whenever it wants to. It’s almost as if it sensed my need to see some spectacular flowers in all this wintry weather.
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| Buds on one of my Christmas cacti. |
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| Buds on my night-blooming cereus. |
This will be a fun week for us. First, I only have two days of school. Then, on Wednesday we are driving downstate to have Thanksgiving with the Thayns and the Fosters. It seems like a very long time since I last saw Sarah and Tosh. It was just last summer, but it seems much longer. We’re going to have a great Thanksgiving. Plans and menus are underway. It all sounds so good.
Today in church we sang the two great Thanksgiving hymns – Prayer of Thanksgiving (We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing . . . ) and Come, Ye Thankful People. I love those hymns. The words to Come, Ye Thankful People seemed especially appropriate:
Come, ye thankful people, come;
Raise the song of harvest home.
All is safely gathered in
Ere the winter storms begin.
God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied.
Come to God's own temple, come;
Raise the song of harvest home.
The winter storms have begun and I feel blessedly safe and gathered in. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving.
Today in church we sang the two great Thanksgiving hymns – Prayer of Thanksgiving (We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing . . . ) and Come, Ye Thankful People. I love those hymns. The words to Come, Ye Thankful People seemed especially appropriate:
Come, ye thankful people, come;
Raise the song of harvest home.
All is safely gathered in
Ere the winter storms begin.
God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied.
Come to God's own temple, come;
Raise the song of harvest home.
The winter storms have begun and I feel blessedly safe and gathered in. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving.
