Slim Randles is here as today’s Wednesday’s Guest with a reflection on preparing for winter. I like what he suggests at the end.
Since there is a hint of the chill of Autumn in the air why don’t we start off with a cup of hot spiced tea to warm our tummies. Enjoy….
“All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin …” so goes the famous hymn we once learned in Sunday school and didn’t figure out what it meant for another 20 years or so.
But now is the time of harvest. Now is the gathering in. The crops are gathered in. Firewood for winter storms is gathered in. Fruit from the orchards is gathered in.
This year’s crop of spring calves is gathered in.
We look around us on the farm or the ranch, or even in an apartment in the city, and we ask ourselves … are we ready for the winter storms? Even in places that don’t have winter storms, we still ask the same questions.
Because we’re human.
We know, inside, through eons of gathering in for winter, that we must be prepared for the bad things. And winter is usually the season we associate with the bad things.
Human beings are not as naturally suited to fend off cold and wind and snow and hunger as well as our forest neighbors. Our “coats” don’t get a furry undercoat that is waterproof and weatherproof. If we gain extra weight before winter, it’s usually not because we fear a famine, but because we just like eating pizza while watching football.
So we have to be smarter than the deer and the coyote and even the pack-rat. They don’t know why they do these things to survive until spring. We do. We know and we plan and work hard. It isn’t natural for us, the way it is for our coyote brothers. They just do it. We plan.
We plan, and that means when the darkness descends and the hushing of snow covers our homes, we can sit in the recliner by the fire and have another bite of pizza.
We won … once again.
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Sample the new syndicated radio program, “Home Country with Slim Randles.”
The Home Country radio show with Slim Randles will be coming soon to a radio station near you! New, from Syndication Networks.
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Slim Randles writes a nationally syndicated column, “Home Country” that is featured in 370 newspapers across the country. He is also the author of a number of books including Saddle Up: A Cowboy Guide to Writing. That title, and others, are published by LPD Press. If you enjoy his columns here, you might want to check out the book Home Country. It has some of the best of his offerings through the years. |