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“There’s No Place Like Home, There’s No Place Like Home”

Home again! Thirty six hours on the road, all uneventful thanks to Mountain Man’s careful planning.  He picked the small window between snowstorms and we were on our way.

The dogs are veteran travelers.

 

They pass the hours snoozing and gazing out the window at passing cars.

Khrysta munched bales of hay the entire way home.

The real excitement started when we reached the road to our farm at 8:00 p.m. Miles of dirt roads to travel with the RV towing the horse trailer. A snow squall had come through that morning and the old roads were slick. Mountain Man was concerned we’d get stuck. But we didn’t. Oh, the tires churned when we got to the base of our mountain but I kept chanting “I think we can” over and over and it did the trick. Our neighbor had plowed our driveway and even shoveled our walkway so the RV sailed right on up to our house. First, we settled the dogs and then went to get Khrysta. I thought she might balk but she didn’t. We opened the trailer door and she sailed right out. She took one sniff of the frigid air, whinneyed loudly and set off running to her barn, Mountain Man in tow. She was home.

The inside of the house was frozen, so cold the temperature didn’t even register on the heat gauge and the outside air was minus 10 or so. No, we couldn’t just switch on the heat. We use an outdoor boiler and Mountain Man had drained it before we left but we started the wood stove and decided to head to bed. We were all exhausted.

I put on layers of long underwear and every nightgown I could find. Mountain Man stayed fully dressed and we climbed into bed longing for the warmth of our covers. Ahh, we slid our tired bodies under the covers ready to luxuriate in warmth.  But wait a minute.  What in the heck is that?  Our bed was solid ice. Brrrr!!!! Frozen solid all the way through the sheets. How could our bed be frozen?   Now I know foam beds freeze when left unheated and ours was 15 inches of solid frost.
“What are we going to do?” I asked Mountain Man my words leaving trails of steam in the icy air.
“We could sit out by the wood stove.”
“No, Roo and Emma are on the couch and I can’t move them.”  I was worried about our elderly retrievers and I had tucked them under blankets by the wood stove.
“No, I’m going to stay right here. I’m exhausted.” I found several heating pads and placed them along the length of the bed. We put on more clothes and climbed back in. It was exquisitely painful and I thought my heart just might stop from the shock.
“Hey Mountain Man, do you think this qualifies us for the polar plunge club?”  We’d been watching the Weather Channel.
“Yes, it’s colder than that.”
 And while I was lying there freezing, I thought about the settlers and the difficulties of living in a harsh climate and I also had new appreciation for the difficulties the homeless and those in poverty face. How do they manage?
The next day Mountain Man hauled out his giant shop heater, set it up under the bed and blasted the frozen foam until it melted. Then he went to get the outdoor boiler started. But when you try to fill a boiler with water from a hose in below zero weather, the water freezes. No heat for us once again. With typical Mountain Man ingenuity, he solved the problem.  But it took a day.

 

  

  

 

I could have been unhappy, could have said let’s head back to the Ozarks but I was filled with joy. Joy to be home on this farm I love so much. Joy to be back in the frozen landscape that fills my heart with its beauty.
Khrysta understands.  She is reveling in her pasture and barn.  I watched as she circled the field puffing at all the imaginary monsters lurking in the woods, letting them know she was home again and reclaiming her territory.
Then, she stopped, looked at the ridge line and let out a huge sigh.

Be it ever so frozen, there’s no place like home.