A Brown County
Winter’ s Tale
~ by Mark Blackwell
Somewhere on a ridge, in the woods, on a January day, 100 years ago:
Brang-dang-dang-dang! There goes the old Big Ben. Must be 5:00 already. I never will understand how morning comes around a good two hours before the sun gets up. I wish there was a way to save some daylight for mornings like this. Well, I best crawl out from under these comforters and fire up the stove.
Dang, it is cold this morning. Jack Frost has painted frost-ferns on the windows and I can see my breath. On the good side, that means I ain’ t froze to death yet. I am glad to see that the stove held some coals from last night. I just have to shovel some ashes out, throw in some kindling and a couple of splits of firewood.
Speaking of firewood, I hope there’ s still some stove wood left from yesterday for the cook stove. Nope, there ain’ t. So, now it’ s back to the bedroom for my boots and overalls. And while I’ m heading out to split wood for the cook stove, I may as well take the thunder mug out to empty it in the privy. I slip my jacket on and head out into the snow.
It’ s about 30 yards to the privy but it always seems farther the deeper the snow and the colder the day. Personal business taken care of, it’ s time to make little sticks out of big ones.
Alrighty, I’ m back in the cabin with an arm-load of hickory. Time to fire up the old Kitchen Queen so Ma can bake some biscuits to go with my ham and eggs. Come to think of it, I better check the pantry to see if we have any eggs. The hens ain’ t layin’ the way they was just a few weeks ago. But I don’ t blame’ em. With weather like this I wouldn’ t want to lay an egg either.
While the stove’ s warming up, I’ ll go check for eggs. The chicken coop is built on the side of the cow shed
54 Our Brown County Jan./ Feb. 2022