Happy New Year! After a joyful family-filled Christmas break, our three youngest children went back to school this week. The weather forecaster’s predicted snowmageddon near the end of the week. They were out early on Thursday and the district had already called off school for the final day of the week by suppertime. We made it back into a routine for a whopping two and half days – that might be a January record.
The bitterly cold temperatures have added a little bit of extra work to our daily chore routine. Last spring, our youngest son decided to raise some baby Pekin ducks. These birds are a great source of fun. They have gotten a lot bigger than the fluffy yellow versions he started out with. We live near a lot of wooded areas and there are predators lurking everywhere. He quickly learned the ducks would have to be penned up nightly to avoid being attacked by wild animals.
The off-season football routine includes getting the boys to school by 6:30 am. It’s not light yet at that early hour, so I have taken over letting the ducks out of the pen later in the morning. The duck pen is out by a large pond. They typically waddle out to swim and enjoy the water.
The pond has been mostly frozen over this week. The first morning, they waddled out in dismay looking for a place to swim on the slippery ice rink that is normally their playground. They were a comedic spectacle sliding around on the ice. I broke water by the edge, and they seemed happy. The day the snow was arriving, they barely wanted to leave their nest. I understood their sentiment, cold weather is not my favorite either.
We are checking on our chickens who lay a couple of eggs a day, they appear to be on their winter strike. They need plenty of fresh water and snacks to keep them happy during these blustery days. Our oldest son put out a fresh bale of hay for the cows in preparation for the weather. All the equipment and vehicles were parked under cover. We had wood stacked by the house to keep the fire going.
Our youngest son’s basketball game was moved up a day early to get it in before bad weather arrived. The night we got home from the ball game in Greenland, we enjoyed Frito pies and early bedtimes. The following day passed quickly, and the kids were home by 1:30 that afternoon as light snow began to fall. We had barely had a dusting when our oldest son was antsy to get in the shop and rig up a sled for when the big snow finally arrived. They were excited about the snow, sledding and winter play.
I tend to hibernate when cold weather hits. I made potato soup and grilled cheese for lunch. I prepped and baked a fresh loaf of sourdough bread. I remembered some Johnson County peaches I had prepped and frozen last summer and thawed them out for a warm peach cobbler for dessert. We enjoyed a great meal and family time. Our oldest daughter heads back to the Hill to start her second semester on Monday at the University of Arkansas. I think I enjoyed this break more than any of them because of precious family time and having all our children home together. If a snowy day gets me one more long weekend with all the Harris’ under one roof, I’ll take it. Stay warm, neighbor.
Jody Harris is a freelance communications specialist, gardener, ranch wife and mother of four. She and her family raise Angus beef cattle and other critters on their northwest Arkansas ranch. She is a graduate of Missouri State University. To contact Jody, go to ozarksfn.com and click on ‘Contact Us.’
