Playing in the Woods

December 30, 2012, 5:24 pm
Filed under: December 2012

Helping Jake get a load of wood

December 30, 2012

Last night we had a steady snow. It is about 18 inches deep on the flat. The snow fell slow, so keeping ahead of it while plowing was an easy job. It is starting to pile up though 😮

We hitched the horses today for a fun ride in the snow. We decided to get a load of wood too. Jake still needs some… I am not sure why we are once again, digging “must have” wood out of the snow! Oh well, the horses make getting wood a fun job.

It was a beautiful day. The snow fell lightly. The air was calm and cold but not biting. The horses were great and I didn’t even fall down. My gloves did get wet, but I learned to quit sucking on them, so my fingers stayed warm 😮

I remember going with my grandpa and a team of horses to get wood when I was a boy. It seemed he always needed wood in winter too. I guess the house furnace ate it pretty fast. It was a warm wonderful house though, a safe place that stays in my fondest memories.

He would travel to the woods with the team and sled. He’d pull up beside a big hulking tree that he had felled or nature had knocked over. The horses stood quiet as he would run the chainsaw. Then the loading would begin.

By the time we were loading the sled, I was usually frozen or at least my fingers were. Cloth gloves or mittens back in those days had magical power. The snow eaten off of them was as good to eat as cotton candy! I would lick and eat and even suck the moisture out of those gloves until my fingers were wet and freezing cold.

It seemed that I knew better, but could not resist sucking on those dang gloves! They were the same gloves that petted dogs and cats, wiped my runny nose, and held the manure fork! Perhaps that cornucopia of flavors is where the cotton candy taste came from?

Anyway, back to the sled loading. Grandpa would pile the sled with wood while I whined and cried about being cold. Then all of a sudden, my toes would become cold too. I usually cried most of the way home. I am not sure why that patient man would let me go every time. I am thinking that grandma made him take me!

Grandpa would pull up to the woodpile and unload the sled. I would head off to the house to get warm and whine to grandma, who would baby me and fuss over me to no end. It was a great time. I got a horse-drawn sled ride, cotton candy snow gloves to suck, cookies and hot cocoa at the end…and lots of grandma’s hugs. Talk about getting the most bag for your buck! I had in down to a science!

Today, we had fun, no whining, no one got cold and not one of us sucked the work gloves on our hands. We did have a great time though … playing in the woods.