Pages 262-263
Jim did
have to dig the snow away to replenish our wood box in the house and again at
evening when he fed the stock. There too
he shoveled some that had banked against the rack in the winds mad fury to move
it from where it had fallen. With all of
it Jim had see little and big rabbit tracks around the hay where they had
eaten. He saw the tracks of a coyote too
getting his breakfast by devouring one or two of the bunnies, perhaps while
they were stuck helpless in a snowdrift or chasing them into one for easy
capture or neither for the old coyote is pretty keen in his maneuvers. The next day though saw the end of the thinly
covered places, but the drifts remained and as a reminder for some days to come
until a chinook wind poured its warm breath into them, dissolving them into
mere wet spots, too would soon be as dry as the rest of the good earth.
They called
the chinook winds warm, but I would come nearer being chilled from one of them
than I would in a snow storm. It was
even hard to keep warm in the house for it seemed to find the smallest of
openings like under or around the doors and windows, merrily whistling its way
through. We were more open to the winds
than my folks farther up the canyon, they being more sheltered there. Thus the days slipped until the atmosphere
and all around looked and felt a bit like spring.
Upon
going to the chicken house I found to my surprise a broody hen on the
nest. I said, “you silly thing, don’t
you know its much too early – even three weeks from now.” I looked her straight in the face, pulling
her off the nest saying. “They’d have to
wear stockings and I am in no mood to make stockings for chickens,” and
shutting her in a crate to cool off for three days. “You are going to lay more eggs before
hatching a brood.” To this she squawked
as I shoved her in, picking up the eggs for most of them were in her nest.
Going
in the house I opened the oven door quickly to see if my rice and raisin
pudding had burned while I was out. To
my delight though it was a golden brown, ready to be removed from the oven so
were the scalloped potatoes. Now to fry
some meat and supper would be ready. I
had just put the last dish on when Jim came in, hanging his hat and coat behind
the living room door, turned and washed his hands and face from the stand with
the wash pan behind the kitchen door. I
then sliced the bread and poured the tea.
And we
sat down, Jim’s comment was, “I am hungry.
This looks mighty good, for my dinner didn’t stay with me very
long. In fact I can’t remember what we
had.” I laughed saying, “I guess not for
it was chocolate pie, bread and milk.” “Well,”
he said, “I guess that wasn’t much of a feed for a working fellow.” And loaded his plate with all it would
hold. We both settled down to putting it
away for I was getting to the place where I could eat a lot, too, work or no
work.
As we
finished we could hear Jackie bray and upon looking out, Jim could see some
range horses at the top of the hill, looking over the gate as though they’d
like in. They could not get in so we
bothered little about them. Jim did say
though, “We’ve got to get us a dog.” Had
we had Toby, they wouldn’t have stayed in the section lane road very long. Little Fannie dog was a dandy with stock, but
she had gotten lost on Jim’s last trip to Rupert. We had tried several places, but no one just
seemed to have the kind of dog to give away that we wanted.
A day
or so later we went for the mail again.
It was such a lovely day, almost too good to be the last of
February. The birds seemed just a little
too jubilant in their roadside singing as we drove along on the trot. Beauty seemed fresh and rested as though she
too had a bit of spring in her bones. It
was not long until the two miles were covered.
When
Jim came back with the mail he said, “I’ve picked up the folks mail too, being
a good day thought we’d enjoy the ride up the sunny canyon. Beauty had to be pulled on twice to turn into
the road leading to the folks. She
seemed intent on returning to out home, but once turned she made fast work of
getting there.
Toby
spotted us at the first gate and with his leaps and bounds was soon there with
his growling like noise and the white tip of his tail wagging in the breeze. We talked and welcomed him, then speeding out
ahead, beat us to the house, his barking brought the occupants out to see who
was coming.
There
they were, waiting, all smiles to greet us.
Jim helped me out and father tied Beauty. All went in together. They were glad to see us as if we had been
gone for months. It did seem that
way. Mother had dinner about ready.
After
dinner my brother and family came down and once again we had a good old fashioned
song fest. My sister had gotten more
songs, so we spent some time trying to learn a few of them.
A lot
of visiting was done until the closing of another day was inevitable for
shadows were already gathering on the hillside along Shirley Creek.
Father
brought Beauty to the door. He said, “I
think I know where I can get you a part grown brown and white shepherd puppy
over where I have been working if they aren’t gone the next time I go over. I’ll bring you one.” “Oh goodie,” I thought. Jim said, “we’d like that for we really need
one.” clicking to Beauty.
We waved
and pulled away. We could see the quaken
aspen smoke curling from the chimney filling the air. And soon again we were home, Jackie was
sending out his welcoming bray, not once but several times as we drove up to
the rack and got out. Jackie came over
to rub his head on Jim while he unhitched.
I took care of the chickens, then returned to the buggy to remove the
box of things I knew was there even though I had not see mother put it
there. I knew I’d find one. There it was shoved in under the back of the
seat with a canvas over it. I took it in
setting it on the kitchen table. I then
removed the things from the surprise box.
There was some dried corn and beans, potatoes, two glasses of jelly, and
canned wild currants and gooseberries, things she seemed to know we were out
of, how? I don’t know for we never told her.
No comments:
Post a Comment