Wintergreen

Written by LeAnn R. Ralph


Fromrepparttar book: Christmas In Dairyland (True Stories From a Wisconsin Farm) (August 2003; trade paperback) http://ruralroute2.com

As we drove alongrepparttar 111352 dirt road north of our farm one Sunday afternoon,repparttar 111353 color ofrepparttar 111354 sky reminded me of Mom's silver cream and sugar servers when they were tarnished and needed to be polished again.

Since morning,repparttar 111355 sky had been cloudy, but now at mid-afternoon,repparttar 111356 clouds had grown much thicker and darker. Earlier in December we had gotten a little snow. Several forty-degree days had melted most of it, andrepparttar 111357 landscape was a combination of dun-colored grass, black tree branches andrepparttar 111358 russet color of certain oak leaves.

Every year in December, Dad and I went on a Christmas tree expedition, and we were on our way now over to what we called our 'other place' to cut a tree. Duringrepparttar 111359 summer, I made frequent trips torepparttar 111360 other place, a second farm my parents owned that was about a mile away, to help Dad withrepparttar 111361 haying or just to tag along when he checked onrepparttar 111362 corn orrepparttar 111363 oats orrepparttar 111364 soybeans.

But after school started, I rarely went torepparttar 111365 other place, and it always took me by surprise how different it looked inrepparttar 111366 winter. Instead of green alfalfa and timothy and clover waving in a warm south breeze, what had grown back after third crop was now brown stubble that trembled inrepparttar 111367 face of a north wind. The fields were strangely silent now, too, withoutrepparttar 111368 songs of meadowlarks and bobolinks, andrepparttar 111369 bobwhite quail which lived inrepparttar 111370 narrow section of woods liningrepparttar 111371 road.

We were only about five minutes into our journey when Dad shiftedrepparttar 111372 pickup truck down into first gear and then eased intorepparttar 111373 field driveway. The rutted track that ran alongrepparttar 111374 edge ofrepparttar 111375 hayfield was so bumpy that a merry jingling came fromrepparttar 111376 glove compartment -- probably a few bolts and washers, along with a couple of wrenches and maybe a screwdriver or two. When you're a farmer, you never know when you might need a wrench or a screwdriver or a bolt.

"Is it going to snow, Daddy?" I asked. Now that we had gotten pastrepparttar 111377 trees liningrepparttar 111378 road,repparttar 111379 sky had opened in front of us again.

Dad leaned forward to look up throughrepparttar 111380 windshield.

"I'd say there's a pretty good chance," he replied.

"How much?"

My father shrugged. "Don't know. Maybe quite a bit. Wind's out ofrepparttar 111381 east. And that usually means we’ll get at least enough to shovel. Could be a lot more, though."

When we reachedrepparttar 111382 pine plantation atrepparttar 111383 other end ofrepparttar 111384 field, Dad turnedrepparttar 111385 truck around, driving forward a few feet then backing up, then driving forward and then back again, forward and back, until we were facing inrepparttar 111386 direction we had come. He letrepparttar 111387 engine idle for a few seconds before shutting it off.

"Daddy?" I said, as we started walking towardrepparttar 111388 rows of planted red pine. "When do you think it will start to snow?"

Dad stopped and tipped his head back. "Soon," he said, "that wind feels raw and damp."

When my father said 'soon,' I was not expecting it to start snowing withinrepparttar 111389 next ten minutes. At first, while we were cuttingrepparttar 111390 tree we had selected, only a few random flakes drifted torepparttar 111391 ground. Byrepparttar 111392 time we reachedrepparttar 111393 truck and had securely stowed our Christmas tree inrepparttar 111394 back, it was already snowing harder.

"If it keeps up like this all night, you won't have school tomorrow," Dad said as he startedrepparttar 111395 truck. He slowly let outrepparttar 111396 clutch, and soon we were retracing our route alongrepparttar 111397 field driveway. He turned onrepparttar 111398 windshield wipers, and with each pass -- clickety-snick, clickety-snick --repparttar 111399 wipers cleared an arc throughrepparttar 111400 wet flakes plastered torepparttar 111401 glass.

After we had pulled ontorepparttar 111402 dirt road, Dad shifted into second gear, although when we reachedrepparttar 111403 'Y' -- where you could either turn left to go toward our farm, or right to go towardrepparttar 111404 house that had at one time been part of our other place -- he shifted into first gear again.

"Hope we make it uprepparttar 111405 hill," he said, glancing at me. "Wet snow makesrepparttar 111406 road kind of slick."

It was touch and go for a few seconds whenrepparttar 111407 back wheels started spinning, but finally we reachedrepparttar 111408 point whererepparttar 111409 hill leveled off. Trees grew on both sides ofrepparttar 111410 road here, and torepparttar 111411 right, a steep bank gave rise to a small wooded hillside. "Look," Dad said, pointing towardrepparttar 111412 bank. He inched over torepparttar 111413 side ofrepparttar 111414 road and stopped.

I peered throughrepparttar 111415 curtain of falling snow. The bank looked pretty muchrepparttar 111416 same as it always had -- exposed tree roots, patches of moss and bare spots where flat sandstone rocks had slid towardrepparttar 111417 road.

"What do you see?" I asked.

"Wintergreen," Dad answered. He shut offrepparttar 111418 truck and openedrepparttar 111419 door.

Wintergreen?

The first time I had tasted wintergreen, I decided that it was my favorite flavor. Peppermint was a little too sharp, although candy canes at Christmas were all right. Spearmint didn't taste like much of anything. Wintergreen, it seemed to me, was just right. In my opinion, Teaberry gum wasrepparttar 111420 best, with wintergreen Lifesavers following as a close second.

Dad liked wintergreen too. Lifesaver books were popular gift exchanges at school for our Christmas party, and ifrepparttar 111421 person who had drawn my name gave me a Lifesaver book, I would trade with other kids who had also gotten books. Sometimes I managed to acquire several extra rolls of wintergreen. Then I would share them with Dad. I thought Teaberry gum was better than candy becauserepparttar 111422 taste lasted longer, but Dad preferred Lifesavers. Gum, he said, stuck to his dentures.

How to Make Candles Using Old Crayons

Written by LeAnn R. Ralph


As featured inrepparttar story "A Candle For Christmas" fromrepparttar 111351 book: Christmas In Dairyland (True Stories From a Wisconsin Farm) (August 2003; trade paperback) http://ruralroute2.com

Materials: • 1 wax carton (quart) (milk, fabric softener, or orange juice) • 1 pound of paraffin wax • 4 or 5 old crayons • two trays of ice cubes • a double boiler (or an empty coffee can and a saucepan) • 1 piece of ordinary white package string about six inches long.

Caution: Do not heat paraffin directly overrepparttar 111352 burner. Paraffin is easily combustible. Use a double boiler or a two-pound coffee can set in a pan of water. I putrepparttar 111353 coffee can on top of home canning jar rings (the rings, notrepparttar 111354 flat lids). Ifrepparttar 111355 can is not set on top of something,repparttar 111356 concave bottom creates a vacuum whenrepparttar 111357 water begins to heat up, plus if it’s onrepparttar 111358 bottom ofrepparttar 111359 pan, it's just that much closer torepparttar 111360 burner.

Trimrepparttar 111361 top part ofrepparttar 111362 carton off so that what remains is about six inches high.

Cutrepparttar 111363 string so that it is six inches long. (To make a wick that lasts longer, try braiding three pieces of string together.)

Meltrepparttar 111364 paraffin wax over medium heat in a double boiler or a coffee can in a pan of water. Use three-quarters of a pound for a somewhat smaller candle or use all four squares for a larger candle. Oncerepparttar 111365 water begins to boil, it will take 10 or 15 minutes forrepparttar 111366 paraffin to melt.

Breakrepparttar 111367 crayons into small pieces and add torepparttar 111368 paraffin. Ifrepparttar 111369 crayons are added first beforerepparttar 111370 wax is melted,repparttar 111371 color makes it difficult to see if all ofrepparttar 111372 paraffin is liquefied.

Use a pair of tongs (a scissors works, too), and diprepparttar 111373 string intorepparttar 111374 paraffin. Dippingrepparttar 111375 string will ensure that it is coated with paraffin sincerepparttar 111376 ice cubes may prevent some sections from coming in contact withrepparttar 111377 liquid wax. Holdrepparttar 111378 string so that it is inrepparttar 111379 middle ofrepparttar 111380 carton and fillrepparttar 111381 carton with ice cubes. Pourrepparttar 111382 hot paraffin overrepparttar 111383 ice cubes.

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