Walking in a Winter Wonderland

On New Year’s Day, Bruce and I decided to go for a walk.  That was a BIG decision, let me tell you, because the temperature outside was 17 degrees (Farenheit; about -8 Celcius).   Where do you go walking when all the streets are iced over?  To Wheeler Farm, of course!  All we had to do was cross the main street (4-5 houses away) and we were there.  We bundled up in our warm clothes, sweaters, coats, scarves, hats and mittens. Honestly, we were never cold!  (well, except cheeks maybe)...

Come join us from the comfort of your warm chair and cozy room, won’t you??

These are the two duck ponds as the Farm.  The foreground one is mostly frozen.  The one in the back is about half frozen.  You can make out the ducks and geese congregated there.

Little Cottonwood Creek, which becomes a flooding torrent in the spring, is just a lazy little half-frozen suggestion of a creek in January.  

Some old wagon wheels strung with Christmas Lights. Every December we have our Festival of Lights, where we give wagon rides around the farm backwoods, lit with lights (only certain areas; there is no electricity to most of it!)

Look at the beautiful, clear blue sky!!  It was truly breathtaking (and that wasn’t just the temperature!).  This is the “Lightning Tree”, so named because it has been struck by lightening twice.  It’s a very old Box Elder tree, and we don’t know how much longer it will survive disease-free.  The little playhouse there used to belong to the Wheeler kids, and now serves the farm visitors.

Here is another shot of Little Cottonwood Creek from one of the bridges, looking north.

This is the exact same view of the creek, taken last June 8 when we were experiencing some unprecedented flooding from quick snow-melting runoff.

This is looking east toward the Wasatch Mountains from one of the wagon roads.  By the way, we do NOT give wagon rides when snow and ice are present on the roads like this.

And here is the same view, just a few yards up the same road.  I couldn’t believe, as I was looking at these pictures, how the mountains just seem to LEAP forward!!

The animals were snug in their pens, yet enjoying the sunshine.

 I love how this old cottonwood tree looks with a winter coat!

This old tractor stands proud and silent.

And this old outhouse stands.... well, it just stands!  It’s a fun spot for a photo op!

So I snapped a picture of Nanook of the North  Bruce.

And he snapped a picture of The Abominable Snowwoman me.

And here is the Ice House (replica built decades ago after the original burned down), which was used in the old days for storing the ice they cut from the ponds.  The Wheelers had a dairy, and besides milk and eggs (etc.), they sold ice for 10 cents a block.  Some years (this was in the early 1920’s to mid-1930’s) they made as much as $2,000 selling ice!   

I thought it was interesting that we had strung it with modern light “icicles”.  You can see the REAL icicles hanging there as well!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little tour.  I have been getting a lot of stitching done.  Tomorrow I will show you the completed Tea Party wallhanging.  I should clarify that... the TOP is done with the embellishment.  Now I just need to back and bind it.  Regardless of how much of that I get accomplished today, I’ll show you tomorrow what it looks like.

Until then, stay warm!