Hat Tips

Hello,

February was not nice. After a mild start to winter, this past month the proverbial “stuff” hit the fan. Coldest on record. Wind blows every day. This past weekend we had wind chills to minus 60! Minus 60! Hay piles that looked like you could never feed it all are dwindling down. You can pick those old cows out that you decided to keep “one more year.” And to me, March is the cruelest month.

One bright spot is Shirley. She is home this winter and is always happy to help with chores. When you are sitting in the cab of a tractor with the heater on high, your jacket off, your gloves off, and listening to classical music, there is nothing more pleasing to the eye than a woman with coveralls and a face mask on, opening gates so you don’t need to get out of the tractor. Gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling. And you should see that woman chop ice!

Now don’t go getting upset. She says she likes being outside and I would never deny her something that she truly likes.

Grandpa Jack worshiped Dorothy. But he often referred to her as “the old battleaxe.” And as a storyteller, Jack was second to no one.

A couple of his favorite stories related to marriage.

He often told of the family that was getting ready for dinner and mother went out to pick some peas for the family meal. As she was out in the garden gathering up an apron full of peas, she had a massive heart attack. Died right there in the garden. Tragic.

When one of the neighbors heard of her demise, he came over to visit with the husband and family. The husband explained that his wife had died when picking peas for their dinner, the neighbor questioned, “Oh my God! That is horrible! What did you do?”

“Well,” the husband replied, “What could we do? We opened a can of peas.”

Another of Grandpa’s stories was of the mountain man who was sitting on a log overlooking his cabin in the mountains. Another trapper happened to come along and stopped to visit.

There was terrible ruckus going on down in the cabin.

The trapper asked what was happening.

The old mountain man said when he was coming home he saw a grizzly bear go into the cabin. His wife was in there and there was a terrible fight going on.

The trapper was aghast that he was just sitting there.

The old mountain man said, “To tell the truth, I’ve never seen a fight where I was less concerned about the outcome.”

I’ve got to go. Shirley has been outside for a half hour while I’m doing this column.

Later, Dean