Cyndi's Two Cents

Beauty & Beast of winter

Commentary.

Like many of you, I live in a centuries-old farmhouse with poorly insulated floors.  We are vigilant in checking water flow from all the faucets and the bathroom stool throughout the day and night as the temperature hovers in the 5 to 10 below zero region on the thermometer.  If the wind blows and the wind chill drops below negative 20 degrees, you’re going to wish you’d taken a bath or shower the night before!  The lines that carry water in our big old farm house weren’t made for a steady diet of bone-chilling arctic air we’ve experienced time and again this winter.  

Even though my face hurts when I am walking to the barns many days, I can recall a day last week when the temperature climbed to 60 degrees and I was tempted to open the windows!  On another positive note, although I did travel to Minneapolis for a business trip during the polar vortex when the wind chill in that city hit 58 degrees below zero, we didn’t have anything that ridiculous where I live!

I do love the changing seasons, but the weather so far in 2019 is beginning to wear on me.  I spent many January and February days traveling for work, much of which was plagued with arctic air temperatures, gale-force winds, sleet, freezing rain, heavy and wet snow and black ice.  Here at home, the bitter cold seeps in through door and window frames and up through an under-insulated floor, entering my home forcefully, as an enemy with hostile intent.  (Perhaps that’s a bit melodramatic, but simply saying “it is danged cold” didn’t seem to suffice.)

Despite the recent treacherous travel, frozen cattle waterers and cold toes, I will remember this winter for the “kid’s snow” we received a few weeks ago which was perfect for building snowmen and snow forts and going sled riding.  I will remember it for the 3 bald eagles I have seen nearly every morning I’ve been home this year.  These raptors soar over the pastures and creek on our farm and perch in the tree along our north fence line where I can see them clearly through the kitchen window.

I will remember the winter of 2019 for the vigorous and thrifty calves arriving in January and February to devoted and protective mama cows.  Watching them run and play in the snow has brought me such joy!

I will remember the icicles on the eaves of the barns and garden shed.  I’ll remember the mornings when the grayish-white crystalline water vapor froze to the barbed wire fence, the trees and other vegetation like frost on steroids. 

I’ll try to remember the beauty and not the beast of this first of – hopefully – 4 seasons of 2019.