How To Prepare For A Blizzard

   By June T.  Bassemir

   When the television news paints all of Long Island in a bright pink color you know they expect us to be covered with snow and if the wind accompanies the storm, then we have a blizzard. That's all there is to it.

   After you fill the house with milk, eggs, bread and cake you're all set to hunker down and just watch the flakes fall.  The wind makes the flakes come down in a sidewise fashion which causes deep drifts in different places.  It also makes looking out the window a futile exercise because the screens are covered with snow.  One needs to find a window or door window that is clear to really see what's going on outside.  The bird feeder is emptying fast as the birds enjoy their breakfast and the squirrels are not aware that the red line on the thermometer has stopped at 20 degrees.

    Since  you can't use the car to do any window shopping, you might as well find a good book or follow your hobby path to fill in the hours while the powers that be either plow you out or make the temperature rise to melt the white stuff away.  Fortunately, there are many books here to read or reread and there is a hooked rug waiting to be worked on.  There's enough wood cut for at least 8 hours of comfy company from the wood burning stove while the parts of the linen get filled in with colorful loops.  And when you get tired of listening to your own thoughts there are Masterpiece discs to watch.

The snow blower stands ready with the electric cord attached and the jammed on/off switch recently sprayed with CR40.  It just needs someone behind it to push it in the direction of the driveway but that someone was unable to buy waterproof boots in time for this storm.  L.L. Bean has the style that would be just the ticket but they are back ordered until May 23^rd.  Surely the need will be over by then. 

    Besides, that date in my daybook is for a scheduled wedding in NYC where I am expected to be.  This storm that is dominating the news will be long gone by then... but not forgotten.

    No acorns fell from my oak trees and all thought it was going to be a “No Snow Winter”.  So much for folklore. 

See you in the Spring!

    June Tuthill Bassemir is the widowed mother of four and grandmother of 10.  An artist and writer, she  volunteers as a docent in a 1765 farm house.   June loves old cars and antiques, and has also enjoyed furniture stripping and rug hooking.  "I used to say I was a stripper and hooker.but with so many trips around the sun, no one raises an eyebrow anymore. They only laugh."  June has given up furniture stripping, but is still an avid rug hooker.

Picking Stones and Building Barns

By  Delores Zillmer Miller

One hundred and thirty five years ago our ancestors came from overseas to seek their fortune.  Settled in Central Wisconsin, which was  a wild land of forests, trees and rocks.  In their German/Prussian/Poland  homeland, they were peasants working for rich absentee landlords. Houses and barns were built together, the cow herds provided the heat for the house.  Emigrant tickets were provided by relatives already in America.  Here they decided to become dairy farmers.

 Four feet of frost every winter  forced boulders to the ground surface, which had to be picked before the land could be cultivated.  A contraption known as a stone boat, 4 feet wide, twelve feet long, looped upwards in front and pulled by a good team of horses.  These peasant children walked over the  acres hoisting pebbles, rocks, stones, cobblestones and boulders.    Sometimes the horses spooked and ran away, scattering stones over freshly picked soil.

In the early years of the twentieth century, farmers decided to build barns. The barn was essential for storage and livestock shelter.   The good Lord had provided these rocks:  granite, basalt, quartzite, sandstone.  Masons worked for a dollar a day, building a stone wall, ten foot high, two feet deep, three feet in the ground.   Rocks weighed about thirty pounds, and for a 36x50 foot barn, 4000 rocks were needed for the 272 feet total of rocks.  Filled with a sand concrete mortar, huge boulders made the corner stones, chiseled the year.  This took about six weeks, crews slept in tents, housewives cooked and baked each day to feed the crew.  No one builds barns like this anymore, only in our memories the lore and legends remain.

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 Delores Miller lives with husband Russell in Hortonville, Wisconsin.    In the summer of 2007 they  celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a party hosted by their five children and ten grandchildren.  It’s been a long road.  Dairy farming until retirement in 1993, they continued to 'work' the land, making a subdivision of 39 new homes on their former hay fields.

Picking Stones and Building Barns

By  Delores Zillmer Miller

One hundred and thirty five years ago our ancestors came from overseas to seek their fortune.  Settled in Central Wisconsin, which was  a wild land of forests, trees and rocks.  In their German/Prussian/Poland  homeland, they were peasants working for rich absentee landlords. Houses and barns were built together, the cow herds provided the heat for the house.  Emigrant tickets were provided by relatives already in America.  Here they decided to become dairy farmers.

 Four feet of frost every winter  forced boulders to the ground surface, which had to be picked before the land could be cultivated.  A contraption known as a stone boat, 4 feet wide, twelve feet long, looped upwards in front and pulled by a good team of horses.  These peasant children walked over the  acres hoisting pebbles, rocks, stones, cobblestones and boulders.    Sometimes the horses spooked and ran away, scattering stones over freshly picked soil.

In the early years of the twentieth century, farmers decided to build barns. The barn was essential for storage and livestock shelter.   The good Lord had provided these rocks:  granite, basalt, quartzite, sandstone.  Masons worked for a dollar a day, building a stone wall, ten foot high, two feet deep, three feet in the ground.   Rocks weighed about thirty pounds, and for a 36x50 foot barn, 4000 rocks were needed for the 272 feet total of rocks.  Filled with a sand concrete mortar, huge boulders made the corner stones, chiseled the year.  This took about six weeks, crews slept in tents, housewives cooked and baked each day to feed the crew.  No one builds barns like this anymore, only in our memories the lore and legends remain.

CONTINUE CLICK HERE