Christmas Day festivities at our house began early in the morning. I don’t remember a time that it wasn’t dark when we gathered downstairs to check out our Santa gifts ... Then we opened Christmas cards ... Last, we hung up our stockings ... .
Years ago, we students at the Morapos School, a country school just down the road from our ranch, practiced diligently from Thanksgiving until just before Christmas so that the community could come see us perform in the Christmas program.
I have lots of memories of Thanksgiving when I was growing up on the ranch. Perhaps even more memorable, however, was the Monday after our little holiday when we went back to school ...Senior citizens especially enjoyed the program ... .
Thanksgiving is over and so is Black Friday when (reportedly) people are known to rudely push one another around to get to the bargains ... So now I find myself with extra time to think about the Christmas giving process. We’re all different.
I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of Thanksgivings over the years. Two time periods stand out — one during my growing-up years and the other when Lyle, the boys and I lived at Severance, Colorado... Adults ate at the dining room table ... No matter ... .
I hadn’t realized that Daylight Saving Time was ending already until I turned the page of my day planner to November. There it was. At this writing it has been about ten days, and I’m still getting used to the time change ... Not so! ... I know ... .
It is absolutely mind-boggling for a person my age to think back over the years and realize how far we’ve come where technology is concerned. Take the cell phone, for example ... I was a teen before we had phone service ... .
After writing about “cuddling cows” recently, imagine my surprise to hear about senior-aged people gaining benefits from holding and petting chickens. It has made me stop and think about the years that we raised chickens on the ranch ... .
As I sit writing this column, a cold front is moving in and the wind is blowing some of the leaves off the crab apple tree just outside the window. It’s amazing how quickly things change ... My appetite changes with the seasons ... BeefBarleySoup ... .
One of my “cuddling cows” was Pipi. She was named for Pipi Longstocking, a storybook character. Pipi had a Hereford mother and a Simmental/Angus father ... Pipi grew up to be a big heifer so I kept her ... retty soon I heard Pipi bawling.
I can’t help myself ... • Pickup trucks and semi trucks pass by Pipi’s Pasture, pulling trailers filled with hay bales of all sizes ... Also, a couple of days ago I noticed an insect that isn’t a usual habitant around Pipi’s Pasture ... .
This fall’s hunting season is just beginning in Moffat County, and it is triggering memories of seasons when I was growing up on the ranch ... So that was the target age of last week’s column ... Hunters came from several states ... .
As this year’s hunting season gets underway, I’m thinking about all of the hunting seasons that I’ve seen over the years ... It was a once-a-year adventure. In those days we never saw an elk at the ranch ... In short, it was a mess ... .