On Being a Farm Wife (and other hazards) , Joyce Bupp It’s a perfect and pristine world out there. Beyond the windows of the farm house lies a lovely snows cape. The latest in the series of late fall (hey, it wasn’t even offi cially winter yet at this writing) storms had blanketed and softened the landscape. And gentled the brown barren ness of the season with a festive, twinkling holiday fix-up. Beneath the frozen cover in the back yard are assorted small twigs and limbs, fallout from earlier bouts of Mother Nature’s wave of weather tantrums. They mix with the scattering of limp, crumpled maple leaves littering the scruffy, green grass. Also under the grainy, icy snow is a flattened mass of longer-than should-be grass. The usual last .mow-the lawn/chop-the-golden leaves November go-round with the riding mower was an impossi bility this year. Snow and ice overtook the maples long before they had turned golden, and left us with an ugly, tagged residue of dead leaves still stubbornly cling ing to their summer homes. It’s as though they never had their final, fall dress-up and refuse to leave the premises out of sheer stubbornness. ICE CREAM FREEZER NAME: RE TOWN: STATE: Winner To Be Announced In Jan. 13 Issue Of Lancaster Farming But Mother Nature, with her flair for decorating and sometimes aggravating sense of weather humor, sends a new look to magi cally transform what had deterior ated to ugly and unsightly. She gently (sometimes not too gently) sprinkles several inches of snow over the ragged lawn, changing the litter to interesting little bumps that add texture to the flatness of the white expanse. Wind does the same to the blanket of snow covering the fields, as it creates patterns of higher and low er spots in contrasting shades of whiteness and shadowy blues. A sparkling glaze, like lovely crystal, wraps around every branch, twig and exposed blade of grass or tired, dead weed stalk. Branches of pine and spruce bend under the weight of the burden of 'ice, changing their normal sym metrical shape to something more suggestive of a Picasso painting. But the willows, their slender, supple limbs graceful in every season, hang heaviest under the collection of glimmering ice. Our calf population has overflowed into temporary pens between the dairy bam and the willows on the manure pit bank. After-dark feed ing there, lit with a floodlight, reveals gloriou; “fountains” of The Original Old Fashioned 6 Qt. Hand LANCASTER FARMING Lancaster Farming DEPOSIT THIS COUPON AT PA FARM SHOW BOOTH #274 ZIP: drooping willows, their ice-coated limbs sparkling with the glitter of thousands of diamonds. Neat rows of large, round hay bales line the Held nearby. Weath ered to a deep brown, these mun dane packages of heifer hay each now sports a cap of pristine snow. More than anything else, lined up there in rows, they remind this dessert lover of chocolate cake rolls topped with rich whipped cream. And, by gosh, even the manure pit has become a thing of pretti ness. Its bumpy, crusted top lodes for all the world like a series of miniature, snow-covered, moun tain ranges. Or maybe the bumpy moguls on a ski rlope. Anyone for a ski run over the manure pit mountain slopes? Each new year, it seems, is something like waking to a coat of new-fallen snow. The old, the ugly, the muddied, the messed-up, the half-finished, the ragged, are no longer there. Instead, hanging a new calendar flings open the doors of our lives to a new land scape, a fresh, unblemished opportunity, where each step can further blaze a brave new trail where none went before. Snow came early. But New Year, with its fresh promises and new opportunities, is right on time! May yours be filled with peace, happiness, good health and many, many blessings. Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 30, 1995-B5 4-H Club Organization The Ephrata-Cocalico Com munity Club will be re-organizing Monday, Jan. 8 (snow date Jan. IS) in the cafeteria of the Ephrata Middle School from 7 p.m.-8 p.m. For more information on join ing 4-H, contact either the 4-H leader Rebecca Irvine, (717) 733-0024 or Zoann Parker or Laurie Schmidt at the Lancaster County Cooperative Extension Office, 1383 Arcadia Road, Room 1, Lancaster, PA 17601, (717) 394-6851. 4-H Vet Science Bucks County 4-H will be offering a six-week 4-H Veterin ary Science Program for any youth between 12 and 19 years of age. The program is an excellent learning opportunity for youth who have an interest in animal sci ence or biology. The program is taught by a vet erinarian and covers normal ani mal behavior, nutrition, and health. Field trips and hands-on activities are also used to help pro vide an exciting learning oppor tunity for county youth. For more information and to register, contact the Penn State Cooperative Extension, Bucks County, at (215) 345-3283 and ask for Celeste Ball. Youth-Animal Programs Bucks County 4-H offers fun and exciting programming for youth between the ages of 8 and 19 (as of Jan. 1, 1996) in the fol lowing animal science areas: dairy cattle, sheep, market lamb, swine. p* s v u S' TT€RSH€V EQUIPMENT CO. •Wt Tatf Customer Satisfaction TersonttUy beef, fiber or dairy goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, backyard poultry (including chickens, turkeys, pigeons, and capons), horse and pony, dogs. Seeing Eye puppies, and cats. Youth enrolled in 4-H animal projects will develop life skills in areas including personal develop ment, leadership, citizenship and communications. Youth will also increase their skills and know ledge related to animal science, animal care, management and the use of animals and their products, also including nutrition, genetics, reproduction and physiology by completing leatr-by-doing activi ties in a club setting. For more information or to register in one of the above pro grams, call the Bucks County Cooperative Extension office, (215) 345-3283. 4 Paws To Freedom Seeing Eye Puppy 4-H Club The 4 Paws to Freedom Seeing Eye Puppy 4-H Club elected their new officers for 1996. President, Katie Hammell of Hampton; vice president, Kristin Castenschiold of Clinton Township; secretary, Laura Luchettio of Flemington, and treasurer, lan Callahan of Bloomsbury. On October 18th the Paws for Patient Therapy Dog Club gave a wonderful talk and demo about therapy dogs to our club. ■*S * SYCAMORE IND. PARK 255 PLANE TREE DRIVE LANCASTER, PA 17603 (717) 393-5807
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