As I sit here in the gloomy light of the cloud-filled sky, I ponder all the recent times we have just experienced and I smile at the delightful holidays and birthdays we have enjoyed over the last few weeks.
Despite all the fun we had at Christmas with family and friends, now I somberly realize that these few times are not enough to sustain my good mood for another six to eight (or maybe longer) weeks until we see green!
I would love several inches of snow, even endure the icy slips and slides sometimes during the holidays, but now, not so much. Week before last, we had the threat of some of the white stuff and all the kids, even me, got excited about the possibility. Then they said maybe just icy conditions, and even though that means “hibernation,” I was somewhat pacified as I shopped for the likelihood of being fastened up in our little log house with the cozy fire, sitting under my warm red blanket, and reading a good book. Then – nothing! No snow, no sleet, no ice, nothing but cold temps. And, it is almost the end of January, the dreaded month.
Now I am ready to move on and let’s have new fascinations to look forward to. I’m finished with the “housebound” and confined behaviors. I feel like I might have green moss growing on my north side before January and its weather patterns.
This weather reminds me of when I was a child, an only child, and we lived on the outskirts of town in a rented duplex house that was not weather friendly. In the summer we sweated like wart hogs, and in the winter we nearly froze our noses off. The walls were not insulated, just a wood stood between our comfort and the outside temperatures. The floors had a few openings where one piece of wood met another, and the only warmth we enjoyed was a standing black coal burning stove and a gas oven in the kitchen. My husband always tells the story when we talk about childhood memories that how they could look beneath their house and see the chickens go to roost. And, of course, how they walked to school barefoot, and I doubt this account.
But to tell you the truth, I do remember it snowing one January during this time in the fifties and my mother and I both had the flu. Daddy would get up all during the night to keep the fire in the stove warm, but this was early morning and he could not get the coals to catch on and burn, so he poured just a little too much coal oil on the black rocks and it nearly blew up our house. The force of the fire embers connecting with the oil was too much and the swoosh knocked him backward into the bed and I fell off. See, as I said, January has always been a bad month for me. Perhaps this incident started the bad luck.
I’m thankful we all are prepared for the next week of blustery and freezing temps and I am going to enjoy living in my pajamas, sitting by the fire with my red blanket, reading and eating my “stocked-up” provisions. It would be nice to use some of the milk and sugar to make some snow ice cream.
Pinto beans and ham:
2 cans of Bush canned seasoned pinto beans (do not drain)
1 cup chopped onion, sauteed in 1 T. bacon grease
2 slices of crumbled cooked bacon
1 t. garlic powder
Mix all together in a large pot and add 1 pound of baked ham. (I usually use leftover ham or a slice of Cook’s ham already precooked.) Bring to a “just before boil" and add ham and let cook on low for about 30 minutes. Add a skillet of crunchy cornbread, a big slice of raw onion, and it’s delicious.
