It was Saturday night and had been a busy day. My uncle Wiley got up as usual at five o'clock and milked his cows, he had about ten cows at this time. I didn't get up until about six o'clock because Wiley wouldn’t let me or anyone else milk his cows, he said they would make them go dry. I knew how to strip all the milk out from the cow properly but I didn't argue with him because I didn't like to milk.
Winter was about upon us, so the truck that picked the milk only ran once a day because the weather was cold enough to keep the milk cold overnight.
We spent the day doing menial tasks needed to be done and we went down to the country store to get some kerosene for out lamps. This store was a general store for it had every thing a farmer needed from harness to clothes to beans. In the center of the store there was a large potbelly stove that could really put out the heat. If you came in cold a few minutes standing in front of it, would warm you up like toast.
They also had an old time gas pump where you used a pump handle to fill the glass bowl with as many gallons as you wanted and then it would be a gravity flow in to your tank. Since our mule didn't use gas we didn't have any need for it.
If your can for kerosene didn't have a cap on the pouring spout they would jam a potato on it so it wouldn't leak out. After we got home the cows were mooing and wanted to be milked, they also got some sweet feed while being milked so they probably had that in mind also.
Saturday night was special for the Grand Ole Opry was on the WSM radio station. It was about the only time we used the battery radio. The battery had forty D cell batteries joined together and worked as one. The cost was very high for a farmer to pay so we didn’t use it very much. There were several segments where different groups were on and we had our favorites and would only listen to them. Minnie pearl, Rodney Brassfield, String Bean and a host of others.
Now what I really wanted to tell you was, after we had enjoyed our weekly treat, we went to bed and the next morning the cows were mooing very loudly. So even I got up to see what was going on. When we looked outside there was two feet of snow on the ground and it was very cold.
While that wasn't such a big deal, the thing was we had been talking all summer about cutting our winter wood supply but never got around to it. We didn’t have a stick of wood for a fire in the fire place. Talk about an empty feeling, we had trouble getting the barn doors open and getting the milk to the milk stool for pickup.
After a bite of breakfast we decided that we had better get some wood cut for it was almost freezing. Over the next few days, with great difficultly we finally got enough wood cut to last until the snow melted and made it easier to get the wood in.
Many things happen on the farm but this one thing still remains strong in my memory for seeing that snow was too, too, much.
images courtesy photobucket.com
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