Good Weather for Butchering

A cold spell is ideal

Dennis mentioned to one Mennonite neighbor that we hadn't seen the other Mennonite neighbors working around their barns and sheds for several days. We thought that perhaps they had gone on a trip to visit relative, but it turns out that they have been busy with butchering a beef. Our informant told us that this spell of very cold weather is perfect for butchering.

Most "English" farmers around here would take an animal they wanted butchered to a meat processing plant like Hampton's Meats in Hopkinsville. However, some of the Mennonites and Amish prefer to do their own butchering. It's a way of being frugal. Why pay others to do what you can do yourself?

After we learned what the activity of the day was, I remembered that several times, these neighbors have given us a little package of their freshly ground hamburger shortly after Christmas. The meat was neatly wrapped in white freezer paper and frozen.

Most of the Mennonites in our community have electricity to power their freezers and many other things around the farm. Those who choose to live without electricity usually have propane-powered freezers. The Amish also use propane for their freezers and refrigerators. So the butchering may be done in an old-fashioned way, but the preservation of the meat is quite modern.

Glen Burnie of the Barkers Mill area

Renovation in progress

The Kentucky New Era had an interesting article on January 2, 2010, about the renovation of Glen Burnie, a large, old home in the Barker's Mill area of southeastern Christian County. Glenburnie, built in 1820, was the home of Chiles T. Barker in the mid-1800s. I wrote several posts about the Barker's Mill area last spring and summer.

Currently, I think you can read the article without a password, but that may change.

Closing out 2009

Clean start for a new year

 Burning branches from the 2009 ice storm

Dennis has spent a couple of days burning piles of branches around the yard. Conditions had to be right -- the ground wet, the air still, and Dennis off work for the day. Those conditions were met a few days ago, and again today.

These branch piles were remainders of the major ice storm we had last winter. Most people who live along a highway got rid of their storm debris last spring. They piled it at the edge of the road, and workers, hired by the county, loaded the piles onto trucks and hauled them away.

We don't live along the highway, so we would have had to load and haul our branches in order to pile them for pickup -- an impossible task for us. We thought it was a major achievement when our Mennonite neighbors helped us get the broken limbs gathered and piled, just in our yard!

The pile of limbs in the photo was the biggest of half a dozen piles. Some willow branches and chunks of willow trunk that were in contact with the ground sent down roots and grew new branches up through the pile last summer. Dennis had to chop off the roots to throw the branches on the fire. It was quite a mess.

The only reason that I'm sorry to have the piles of branches gone is that a lot of little wild creatures were probably finding shelter in them. We do still have a big brush pile on the corner of our small property, over the hill where we've pitched branches for years. I imagine that it's pretty crowded this cold night. Dennis is not going to burn it.

While Dennis was burning branches, I took down most of the Christmas decorations. One small Christmas tree will stay in place until sometime in late January, but I packed up the big tree, the Christmas village, and a lot of other doo-dads and knickknacks. I feel a little sad that Christmas is nearly over, but I'm glad to have the bulk of the un-decorating done.

Now the Christmas boxes need to be taken to the shed. I also need to decide what to do with the decorations that I'm not keeping. Should I store them away for the spring garage sale, or should I make a clean sweep and donate them to Goodwill now?

This box is ready to go to the shed.

Nebraska Christmas Blizzard

Lots of snow

My friend Sammie who lives near Amelia, Nebraska, sent this photo of snowdrifts near their house. It was taken during the long blizzard that struck over Christmas. Yes, those are the tops of fenceposts. The depth of the snowdrifts in the trees is hard to estimate!

Sammie wrote:

Started with mist, sleet etc Wednesday. Turned to snow and didn't quit snowing or blowing through Saturday... Most of the roads were closed and most people just stayed home. We didn't have electricity from about 10:30 pm Wednesday night until about 3 the next afternoon. And it was off again Thursday night but was on when we got up Christmas [Friday] morning. That was due to the ice and snow on the lines and trees and the wind. Couldn't see past the fence posts across the road to the east. Saturday, the snow had quit blowing quite so bad, but it still wasn't a good day to be out. The drifts had got pretty hard by then. (Source: E-mail, December 27, 2009)

Sammie's remark about the snowdrifts being hard made me remember childhood adventures of walking on top of snow. If the snow was not very hard, every step was a test. At any moment, one leg might suddenly plunge through the crust and sink into the snow. It was great fun when the snow was so hard that we could walk on big drifts.

Deep snow and big snowdrifts are fun for the kids, but they make life miserable for the livestock and for people who work outside. I remember how my parents struggled to feed the cattle during winter storms, and I know that aspect of cattle ranching hasn't changed much. The hard fight to feed the livestock is always the first thing I think of when I hear about blizzards on the Great Plains. And the public servants who work the storms have my respect and concern as well.

Christmas Eve Weather

High winds in Hopkinsville

We didn't get any snow or ice in Hopkinsville, KY, from the big Christmas blizzard, but we did have strong winds as the front passed west of here. I took this photo about 3:30 in the afternoon on Christmas Eve.

The three flags are, left to right, Woodmen of the World, Commonwealth of Kentucky, and United States of America. (I think the Kentucky flag appears higher only because of my viewpoint.)

I was freezing as I took this photo. The wind cut right through my coat!