2020, Family, home, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

Hunkering Down

74 Comments

It is supposed to get bitterly cold here this weekend. Husband and I bought all the groceries we imagined needing for Saturday and Sunday on Friday night,  and plan to hunker down, going out only on Sunday morning when we have to sing in the church choir.  If there were more of us we would stay home, but a six voice choir can’t function with two missing members.

We have all been isolated for the last ten months, but there is something strangely satisfying being at home because of the weather. Snow days are wonderful,  in my memory.  It is when my mother made waffles from scratch.

What are some of your favorite snow  day or bad weather day memories? How do you like to “Hunker down”?

 

74 thoughts on “Hunkering Down”

  1. I’ve been absent…reading but not commenting as we moved from northern Minnesota to Tucson AZ …a few years ago. However, my friend Cynthia has encouraged me to write despite the fact that I no longer live amongst you.
    This post is especially ‘fond memories’ for me. The key word being memories.
    We moved here for me and chronic pain which is SO much less here. ‘Tho I still have fond memories of stocking up prior to a forecasted storm and hunkering down during. I loved it…it was just part of beautiful MN winter…but then I did not have to be driving anywhere.
    I don’t miss the cold, the ice, the snow…I do miss the dear friends left behind…so my coping during your storm is much different…phone calls help but don’t make up for human contacts…however with Covid that is all we have for now.
    Greetings to all from a friendlier climate for arthritis!

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  2. I cannot remember the exact dates but during a blizzard in 1962, my parents and their best friends taught us kids pinochle. Card playing is required for hunkering down.

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    1. I think I learned cribbage during a cold snap as a kid. I remember feeling proud that I was finally old enough to play because I could do the necessary math in my head. 🙂

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  3. My mom’s waffle recipe called for the egg whites to be beaten stiff and the folded into the batter. Since she was a teacher and also went to my dad’s coffee shop on weekends to help, the only mornings she had time to make the waffles were on snow days. I understand that the on-line learning technology has made snow days a thing of the past in my home town. If students and teachers can’t get to school due to weather, they will do school remotely. That makes me sad!

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    3. My siblings and I were just talking about the lack of snow days anymore. We compared them to how we used to take ‘Mental Health’ days or ‘Emotional Garage Sale’ days and how everyone needs them.

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  4. What I remember about a snow day was, since you weren’t expecting it, there was nothing on the agenda, and you did something completely out of the ordinary – maybe get down some game, or be able to watch some non-usual TV show. Build a fort out of card table and blankets. Maybe Mom would make cookies or bars…

    Like Renee, I can ALMOST hunker down – there’s one thing I need to do away from home today, but we did groceries yesterday in anticipation of this cold snap. There are a few zoom events or meetings the next few days, but besides that it’s Mexican Train, a new jigsaw puzzle, reading, and maybe trying out a new recipe.

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  5. I am afraid I need to go to the post office today, but I can warm the car up first so I don’t get too cold. It was 58° here on Tuesday. Today the windchill is -39. That is kind of extreme.

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  6. Rise and hunker down, Baboons,

    Despite the- negative temperatures in the Midwest today, I am homesick this morning. At about 6 weeks each winter this happens. The sun is shining here, but my foot still hurts so I cannot walk outside.

    I think I will pretend I am in MN and get out a puzzle and watch some Comfort TV. Maybe a movie with a blizzard. Then I can hunker down with you.

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  7. My apartment doesn’t have hot water today, and once again the radiators are cool to the touch. There is enough heat in the building to keep things acceptable (it’s 68 degrees F right now). If I had a flagpole in this apartment I could put my tongue on it without fear of being frozen in place. I’ve got wine and food and the internet, so for the time being I’m good.

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        1. Sunday AM update to the update. They didn’t fix the water after all; still cold. My bedroom is 64 degrees, and the maintenance guy hinted I should buy a (totally against regulations) space heater.

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        2. That is just ridiculous. I mean you know that and what are you supposed to do about it, but gee whiz!

          Apparently the local new station on the 6PM report said people could use their oven to warm their apartments. I didn’t see it that, I saw the 10:00 news where they said No, you shouldn’t do that and we shouldn’t have suggested you should. What were they thinking!!??

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  8. I did my grocery shopping on Thursday in anticipation of this arctic blast. With the exception of bringing Philip his dinner tomorrow, I’m settled in for the duration, pretty much like I am every day.

    Tomorrow, they’re having the annual Ice Ball at Will’s homestead. There will be a group (I have no idea how large this year) of people gathering to cut large chunks of ice from Pickets Lake, and haul it up the hill to the earth sheltered storage room, where it will keep perishable foods chilled throughout the summer. They work hard all day, then share a feast of communally cooked food, and then dance in their mukluks into the wee hours. I’m not confident that there’ll be much social distance maintained, and husband is scheduled to return home on Monday, though I’ll try to get him to postpone that. He, of course, claims that he’ll be careful, but I’m determined that he’ll be quarantining, at least from me, when he returns.

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      1. Essentially relieving his cabin fever, I guess. He loves being at the homestead, and I suspect that only guilt prevents him from spending more time there. He has floated the idea that we move to Ely, (we could get a real nice house for hardly any money! he says) but I have told him in no uncertain terms that I’m NOT moving Ely.

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  9. Perfect topic for the weekend Renee. I did go out and run a couple of errands this morning but I’m back in for the duration. Having survived my first week back at part-time work I am looking forward to the weekend enormously. And the fact that it’s Puppy Bowl tomorrow afternoon doesn’t hurt. I moved my gigantic work monitor off of my studio desk and have started bread in the bread machine and later will be making some garlic cheese bread and pizza. For tomorrow we have chips and I have cheese I can shred up for nachos so I think we’re good.

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  10. Stay warm everyone. Warm your hearts on Sunday afternoon and watch some of Puppy Bowl. As a bonus, the Biden’s dogs are to make an appearance in a mask PSA.

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  11. Ooh— moving truck just pulled up across the street. It’s a rough day to be moving, with the doors open all the time. I don’t know them well; they moved in less than a year ago and clearly just fixed the house up to sell it.

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  12. Words you rarely hear me say…”I think I may have overdone the garlic” on the cheese bread. It’s in the oven right now but the garlic is so strong that my eyes are watering in the living room.

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  13. I had to go to the grocery store again today as a capon I had ordered was in. Of course, the Cashwise meat and seafood department had really nice mussels, clams, and scallops, so I had to get some. It is Margaret’s fault. Her mention of eel made me hungry for North German fischgulasch. Husband got some haddock to add to it.

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  14. With the strong West winds of late, one part of our mile long driveway drifts over. This morning it wasn’t as bad as yesterday. I may not have to do it tomorrow morning.
    My tractors have diesel engines so I use a fuel additive once temps start cooling in the fall. (Diesel fuel gels up if it gets cold. I’m not exactly sure what temperature that is; I’ve heard below 30 degrees but it depends on the mixture from the fuel company.) I start adding diesel additive in the fall anyway. Definitely at ‘zero’ or below diesel would have troubles without the additive.
    And yesterday I put 6 straw bales against the house as insurance that one drain pipe doesn’t freeze between two sinks in my mudroom. Only had that happen once and I don’t recall the details leading up to that so this is me being cautiously optimistic.

    Kelly did pick up some groceries yesterday.
    I let the ducks into the chickens pen and they can hang out in there the next few nights. I’ve been keeping the chicken coop doors shut, but they do like the sunshine and a few came out while I was in there today so I let them have an hour in the sun. The brave ones came out.

    Heat is on in the well house. Tractor is plugged in just in case.
    Got a new bird feeder and will keep all of them filled.

    I do plan on watching commercials and the half time show tomorrow.

    Guess we’re good to go.

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  15. Saturdays are now, “Go help Mom for a bit” days – I was able to be approved as an “essential caregiver” (along with my brother) and recently we were able to bump up from once a week to twice a week visits. My days are Mondays and Saturdays, brother fills in days in between. So even in the cold, out I went to make sure Mom had milk, clean sheets, and her second Fauci Ouchie (COVID vaccine dose). With my “essential caregiver” status, I was able to get my first dose today. I feel better now that Mom has two.

    And with that bit of excitement done, now I can hunker in for the duration. I have makings for wild rice soup, a goodly supply of red wine, kibble for the dogs – I should be good for awhile. What I don’t have from the cold snaps of my youth is my big brother in the house with me to play a long running game of Monopoly. Alas.

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        2. The old Dayton’s soup recipe has been around a long time. Will definitely still have wild rice left after I make soup so will take your recipe out for a spin. 😋

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      1. Mom lives in a senior living apartment and recently added some “assisted living” services. She is 86, so it’s not surprising that she needs a little help. I don’t do much – it’s not like she needs a lot of help, just stuff like bringing in groceries, help with changing sheets on the bed, talking about what she’s been reading. Mostly I am there so she can see a human who is not either delivering a meal or showing up for some PT. 🙂

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    3. Good for you, Anna! One of my sisters has ‘Essential Caregiver’ status for mom and she was allowed 1 back up person. (another sister). They’re allowed in 2X / week. Mom’s doing pretty good, but we are having Visiting Angels come in 2x / week just to help out.

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  17. I have a new work-from-home job, so now I have to get myself in the proper frame of mind to go to work even it I don’t actually leave the house.

    Cold weather makes me worry. I always go and feel the radiator pipes to make sure the heat is still on, when the temperatures are going way low like this. And run water in the laundry room, where the pipes are vulnerable to freezing.

    I did go out today for a quick trip to pick up groceries. It was cold, but not as bitter as I expected.

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  19. The only sports talk you’ll ever hear from me. My team won the Puppy Bowl today. At the beginning of Puppy Bowl each year I randomly choose a team. Today the team I chose was basically that I was more interested in the orange bandannas than the blue bandannas. They were behind most of the game but came back in the last five seconds to win it.

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      1. Oh that’s funny. Because I thought they were a complete waste of space. I think they are both great at what they do as their normal jobs but neither one of them can act their way out of a paper bag. I could’ve done with less Martha, less Dogg and more puppies.

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        1. Martha has had a lot of plastic surgery and fillers. I had not seen her for a long time. We were kind of horrified, but we could not stop looking.

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        2. The same is true for Jan Fonda. I couldn’t believe it was her when I recently saw some video footage of her. She doesn’t look bad, but she doesn’t look like herself. Why do people do this sort of thing to themselves? I’ll admit that I’m not thrilled by what I see when I look in the mirror, but I accept that’s what the wear and tear of my life has done to me. I’m not about to under the knife, or laser, or whatever it takes to erase that.

          My car wouldn’t start, couldn’t bring Philip his dinner tonight. Sad about that. Not so much for the dinner, but I know he looks forward to our visit all week long.

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        4. I wish it was different for them and they would wear their age proudly. But that is not how it is. 😢

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  22. Watching halftime show. I know Weeknd. Fine. I would like to see a show with minimal production. Of course my preferred artists are dead or old. But maybe Dolly Pardon next year.

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