“Winter is icumen in, Lhude sing Goddamm, Raineth drop and staineth slop, And how the wind doth ramm! Sing: Goddamm.”
Ezra Pound
Rejoice, sun-lovers! (And forgive me if my quote offends; I have a lot of Appalachian roots; this really spoke to me.)
Today is the shortest day of the year. From this point on we will have more and more sun until the height of summer when, blast it all, we’ll have so much sun it will leave our poor vegetable plants flopped lethargically across the bleached soil. Nearly all of my students, family and friends have been pining for a white Christmas (or Hanukkah) and here in Michigan there is just no way it’s going to happen. The fields are a deep brown, the sky is a broken grey and the thermometer is just gracing freezing over night where it ought to be dipping into at most the twenties.
Unfortunately for us snow lovers, this winter is supposed to be one of the warmest we have had in many years. I’d like to say I’m prepared, but living a life of Michiganian farmdom means I am more comfortable trudging through feet of snow than I am through slops of mud. The horses are already knee deep in mud when they pass through their pasture gates. The sheep all have brown knees from bedding out in the orchard (though some days they decide they prefer the dry of the barn to the convenience of the orchard). The chickens are scratching away what little grass is left in the barnyard and the ducks?
Oh, the ducks. Who knew they could destroy so much sound earth in such little time? All it takes is an adorable dabble here… and adorable dabble there… and behind them they leave a slick, muddy path of destruction, and never where I’d prefer. They pick the delicate garden beds and the important elements in the yard to dabble on, leaving the more hardy earth to it’s own devices. (You might say they avoid dabbling in normal… bwahaha. Sorry.)
Still, when snugged by the fire this morning, half of me is dreaming of longer days and sunnier afternoons, and the other half is left to imagine the winter as I would like it. In this morning’s case, I imagine it full of fluffy white snowflakes and afternoons exploring. I like to think about the way our dogs spring through the new snow out into the orchard and then freeze perfectly still, having detected something beneath the white crusts. Moments later they might launch into the air, pounce into a snowbank and produce (or not) a very surprised wriggling mouse. (Connor, our German Shepherd, has never quite mastered winter mousing. Basil, however, is a professional.)
Of course there are sobering events this morning, such as the muddy dog prints trailing through the house that indicates somehow I forgot (again) to tell the dogs to stay on the porch when we came in from doing chores. There is also the distant splat splitter splat of ducks destroying my shade garden just outside the kitchen window, and don’t think I could ever forget the thick, brown crusts of clay mud that stealthily crept up and over my short boots and onto my socks while I wasn’t looking (not to mention the now-crusted dots of mud that fleck my pants from where the new ram splashed me while scrambling to his hay pile this morning).
Ah well. I guess I’m not sure what to look forward to more, with this being the first day of winter: the freezing of the earth or the thawing of the earth, however I’m definitely looking forward to more sun in my days!
How does your winter look to be shaping up for you? Muddy? Snowy? and what do you prefer?
Want to read more from Tanglewood Farm? Check out Emily’s blog over at A Pinch of Something Nice where she writes about her experiences with her gardens and her livestock, her quest to become a cottage foods bakery and her adventures in leasing a small 19th century cottage and orchard in SE Michigan.
Every time we’d come up north from Tennessee to visit we’d almost always bring warm weather. The exception was last Christmas when we brought the blizzard! As a side note, my parents always brought cold weather to Tennessee for their Easter visits.
I think it’s hilarious (in a cynical and smarmy not-enough-caffeine sort of way) that we’ve been warned of the feet and feet of snow we should expect now that we live in Michigan. Hubby has come to the conclusion that these nutty northerners have blown it all out of proportion – first he was told to put up his motorcycle in October, and now this?! My daughter is coming to believe that the 3 inches of snow we have received, thanks to lake-effect snow, is the best it’s going to get.
We, of course, know better. But I am finding it hard to feel “Christmas-y” when the ground is all muddy instead of white. I suppose you can blame it on us moving up here.
I just hope Michigan shows us a whiter New Year, ’cause we’re all looking forward to heading up north to ski a bit!
Right there with you – I’m ready for a good ol’ snowstorm! Give me a foot, maybe sometime next week – I’ll put the soup on the wood stove and kick back for the duration!
I love your writing! Yesterday the earth was hard and covered in a thick inch o ice, and today it has all melted away to soft muddy earth. If it stays warm, my shoes will begin to look like yours. Time to mend the hole in my boot!
I fully understand that you should not be dealing with mud. My Grandma, who lives in Minnesota tells me there is not a speck of snow on the ground and it does not feel like Christmas. Here is Seattle, mud is ever present. Even in the summer, our hiking boots are chosen with mud in mind. This morning I had to scrape ice of the windows of my Jeep before I could take Youngest Son to Game Stop. Tomorrow I expect to have to pull on Wellies just to take out the recycling. This time of year, white lights really help detract from the mud.
Emily for the win–avoiding dabbling in normal, indeed. ;P I have concluded that somehow the Lake Michigan shore was transported to Kentucky. My asparagus is sprouting, and they’re predicting 40s into at least the first week of the new year. I’ve been taking walks with no jacket. As my Pacific Northwest friend said, it’s only “California cold.”
We have been getting some much needed rain here in S. TX. I hope it remembers to come back in the spring, summer and fall too. It has been snowing in NW TX and we may even get a bit here in S.TX. So now you know where the snow is – way down here!