Winter weather ponderings

Dear Hunter and Tyler,
Grandma is writing to you today about winter. This past one, (It IS over, I declare it), has been what the oldtimers used to call an Old Fashioned winter. Cold, Snow, more snow and cold, January thaw, more winter. It is now March and we have hopes that whatever storms come are short ones. We have had challenges with health too. We have all gotten sick and stayed in most of the time. Your Grandpa and I have gone to the Doctor more this winter than we ever have. The snow was fun to play in, but not to drive in. I used to love winter. I think all kids love it. We would go out and play a lot in those days. I lived in Missouri then and we did not get snow all that much. But, when it did snow, it snowed a LOT. My friends and I would make snow forts and have snow ball fights. We would play house in the forts. We used our imagination a lot because we did not have very many toys. Your Grandpa Larry had lots of brothers to play with. They went on many ventures during the winter. Sometimes they even hunter and whatever they could shoot their Mom would fix for a meal. It is difficult to believe that they could not afford groceries some of the time. Feeding 7 kids is much harder than feeding 3, which we had in our family. Sometimes my Mom and Dad had a very hard time feeding us. We did not have the chance to go to McDonald's to eat...they had not been built yet. We even ate frog legs one time. They tasted like chicken with a little wild flavor added in. I remember when we were little we had a metal airplane with pedals that my Grandpa had found in the junk pile and taken home and fixed up for us. We had a trike to share, but only one for 3 kids. Dad worked away a lot, so we had to find ways to entertain ourselves. We had an old storm shelter made of rocks that I always wanted to go in, but we could not because of snakes and the possibility of it falling down at any time. They had built the Garage out of rocks too, with a tin roof. Very sturdy in it's time I bet. We were not allowed in there either for the same reason. I used to walk a left over rock wall out behind the Barn. Yes, it was rock too! I pretended I was in the movies. I would see how far I could walk on the wall before I fell off. It was very difficult to balance, so I did step down often. (it was not really falling) There was a huge tree that grew next to the storm shelter. It was one of my favorite places to go. I was safe up there. I went all over the world in that tree. It was one of my most fun times. I would even climb up there with a book and sit and read it for a long time. Then my Mom would call me in to help her with something. We all learned at a young age to help out with tasks around the farm. My brother Jim had to learn to milk cows when he was about ten. He was very good at it too. There was an old chicken house that dad made over into his shop. There were many interesting tools and boxes in there. It was fun to go in there and look around. Yes, we were not supposed to go in there either. My parents worried about something happening to us if we got into stuff. We used to play a lot in the barn too. We would climb up in the Hay Mow where they stored the hay for the cows. I will tell you more in the next letter. I have many stories that I can elaborate on then. That word means to go into more detail about things. Hugs from Grandma Kate