Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2016 i Country Extra

My son, who was a few months shy of his third birthday, had just ripped a hole in my sheer curtains so he could get a better view of the front yard. I could tell that he wanted to go outside—badly. Before he could take out another panel, I decided we’d brave the cold. Dressed in layers for warmth, we made snowballs that disintegrated in midair (I grew up in the desert, so I’m still working on my snowball-making technique). Then I gave him a plastic toy shovel and watched him dig out a hole in a snow bank (he refused to give me a turn). I’m not sure what he was trying to build, but he loved every minute of it. It’s tempting to keep kids inside when the…

THE PIONEER WAY OF LIFE lives on in various regions of Quebec. From old log cabins and barns to horse-drawn sleighs and carriages, these visual relics of the past pay homage to the men and women who settled this land in the 1800s and how they lived through the harsh realities of winter. I see these relics on my journeys throughout Quebec, and I often stop to preserve them for the ages in a photograph. I let my imagination take me back to a time when life was a struggle, and I see these cabins, barns and sleighs through the eyes of a pioneer—a symbol of survival. Back then building a log cabin or a house out of fieldstones was sometimes the only viable option for shelter. These often crude…

Better Yet, Get to the Vet Both of my grandsons—Gavin, age 6, and Declan, age 3—had sore throats and weren’t feeling well, so I went along with my daughter to take them to the doctor. When the nurse came in, Gavin took charge, “My brother is a little hoarse today.” Declan retorted, “Well, Gavin is a little cow!” Linda Fields GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA Seriously Cute Our 3-year-old granddaughter, Nylah, is always amusing us with the funny things she says. But on one occasion, with a few tears running down her cheeks, she said, “Nana, will you wipe away my feelings?” Jane Bjorklund FORT DODGE, IOWA Show Me the Chilly I opened the drapes one chilly morning and saw a dazzling coat of white crystals blanketing our lawn. I called to our…

MYSTERY TOOL I‘m having a problem identifying this thing I found in an old farm building. It has some writing on the middle: pat Jan 14 1908. One fellow thought maybe it was for pulling wooden fence posts. If that’s the case, I can’t figure out why the farmer had four of them! Thank you. ANNIE JOHNSTON 208 Main St. Ralston IA 51459 anniej17@windstream.net It might be a … deathbed. A reader who’s in the funeral business told Lynn this may be a deathbed, possibly from Indonesia. The inner compartment may have been used to store the loved one’s belongings. The reader is still helping Lynn research the piece’s history. After getting no answers from museums and appraisers, Lynn said, this experience has made her heart soar. Does anyone have…

Shorty was the son of a registered Australian shepherd that fell for the romantic advances of a rogue Australian cattle dog from a farm or two over. When I got this 5-week-old puppy, he weighed 2 ½ pounds and had a gap where his skull hadn’t closed. His front legs were crooked. I always did love an underdog, and if love makes a dog grow then Shorty had a chance. And grow he did! At his peak he weighed 66 pounds, most of it in his deep barrel chest and huge radar ears. He had a black mask the shape of lightning across his eyes, and the rest of him was mostly black, too. Those once-crooked legs were tan, his strong feet spotted. He looked beautiful to me. But Shorty…

Robin Sizemore is a teacher who lives in rural Indiana with her husband, daughter, son and two dogs. She’s passionate about helping children. She has read A Wrinkle in Time every fall since fourth grade. She still makes bully-proof snowmen, which you can read about on page 66. Lindsey Brackett writes about her country life from the sticky kitchen table of her home in Georgia, where she’s raising four kids to love the woods, the mountains, and her mama’s biscuits. Read about one of her special sledding memories on page 52. Socialize with us!…

Feb. 12-15 Fire and Ice Festival Warm up with live ice-sculpture carving, a chili cook-off, winter wonderland carnival, dodgeball tournament, live entertainment and more. May through October Farmers Market Every Saturday, visit the open-air market on Water Street to purchase locally grown vegetables, fruits, plants and flowers as well as homemade jellies and baked goods. Second Fridays Lovin’ Lititz Every Second The second Friday of every month, Lititz’s locally owned shops and restaurants stay open late, and musicians and entertainers perform throughout the downtown area. For more information about events in Lititiz, visit lititzpa.com.…

When my friend Melanie asked me to teach her to can, I eagerly planned a trip to her house to put up zucchini relish and beans. Melanie’s daughter-in-law Dot and friend Kenny heard about our canning plans and volunteered to help. Dot added pickled beets to the menu. After I arrived, Melanie and I puréed zucchini and onions for the relish. Then we finished loading mounds of it into pots and bowls for an overnight salt soak. The next morning Dot and Kenny came over. We set up the camp stove on the porch, as the kitchen stove was too small for both canners and bubbling relish pots. Inside, we sterilized jars in the dishwasher and heated canning water. As we got closer to filling jars, I sprinted between the…

After years of trying, our neighbors convinced my parents, Elmer and Cecelia Karas, that ice fishing would be a fun winter getaway from our Minnesota dairy farm. Before that, their idea of entertainment involved driving around the countryside after chores to see how the neighbors’ crops were doing. Ice fishing was a giant step into a new world. After a trial day of fishing and much discussion, my parents built a fish house and set it up on Wood Lake, 30 minutes away in Wisconsin. To get there, we crossed the Mississippi River and went up a large hill on the other side of the bridge. We didn’t go if the roads were slick or if it was so cold that Dad worried about our truck starting at the end…

WHAT WE NEED Include your name, daytime phone number, email address and mailing address with each submission, including emailed submissions. WHAT YOU’LL GET We pay $250 for story submissions that run a page or more when published. Contributors whose jokes and stories are published in Country Chuckles get $25. Items published in Mailbox and Little Humor earn a gift certificate for a one-year subscription to Country Extra. Most other contributors will receive a dinner triangle upon publication. SAVE YOUR STAMPS We do not return unsolicited materials. Send good-quality copies of photos (keep the original!), or email high-resolution JPEG files. Our small staff can’t acknowledge receipt of submissions, but we’ll let you know if they’re published. WHERE TO FIND US Send submissions to COUNTRY, 1610 N 2ND ST STE 102, MILWAUKEE…

Ice and snow pelted the window of the office where I was working. As the wind howled, I wondered how I would get home. The 12-mile route took me up and down steep hills and around treacherous turns. I whispered a prayer for safety. My old green Blazer was doing well over the ice-crusted roadway, dodging the snowdrifts. But as I ascended one of the steepest and scariest hills, I noticed the tires were slipping, and my trusty SUV was having difficulty climbing the grade. I decided it was time to switch to four-wheel drive. I pulled the lever back, just like my husband had taught me. Slowly the tires gripped the road, and the top of the hill came within sight. But at the crest, the vehicle just stopped.…

Slow Cooker Short Ribs PREP: 30 min. • COOK: 61/4 hours • MAKES: 6 servings 3 pounds bone-in beef short ribs 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1 tablespoon canola oil 4 medium carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces 1 cup beef broth 4 fresh thyme sprigs 1 bay leaf 2 large onions, cut into 1/2-inch wedges 6 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon tomato paste 2 cups dry red wine or beef broth 4 teaspoons cornstarch 3 tablespoons cold water Salt and pepper to taste DIRECTIONS 1. Sprinkle ribs with 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. In batches, brown ribs on all sides; transfer to a 4- or 5-qt. slow cooker. Add carrots, broth, thyme and bay leaf to the ribs. 2. Add…

The forest speaks to us all the time, if we would just stop long enough to listen and to look. Animals are everywhere, and if there’s snow on the ground, it’s easier to see where they’ve been and what they’ve been up to. While most people stay inside, cozy and warm by the fire during the cold winter, it’s business as usual for animals outside. Tracking them is a fun activity anyone can enjoy, especially kids. So why not let the tracks lure the kids and you away from electronic devices and out into nature, breathing fresh air and getting some exercise? Let your curiosity take you on an adventure or into a game in which the object is to find as many clues as possible. For nearly 20 years,…

HUNGRY FOR FROZEN FISH? “Myles has been going ice fishing since he was a baby,” says Sandi Meeks-Upton of Hot Springs, Arkansas. “On this trip, at 18 months, he caught a lake trout!” HE’S “SNOW” ANGEL! “Isaiah, our grandson, really had fun making a snow angel on this historic sawmill blade here at Guthrie Tree Farm, our family’s Christmas tree farm,” writes Robin Guthrie of Foresthill, California.…

In May of 1951, I completed a one-year course that certified me to teach in a country school. That summer I was hired to teach—and live—in the Horseshoe Bend School, 9 miles northwest of Okaton, South Dakota. My cot and camping stove were in one corner of the schoolhouse and my “indoor plumbing” was under the bed. The only running water came from a hand pump in the entry. The building had no electricity or telephone, but it did have a new oil heater to keep the chill off. The students and I sat huddled around it on the coldest days of the worst winter I’ve ever seen. We had snow on the ground in December, but the weather didn’t get really bad until January, when the first big blizzard…

One sunny January day, my husband, Richard, and I took our two lap dogs to the mountains to play in the snow—a real treat here in Southern California! I wore my brand-new Christmas jeans and grabbed some big trash bags for makeshift sleds. At the top of a hill, I spread out a bag, held my dogs tight and away we flew! It worked so well we kept it up for nearly an hour, until we were so wet and cold we decided to stop. As we slid down one last time, we saw people from a tour bus watching us. Surprisingly, some of them asked to borrow our trash bag toboggans. In all the commotion, our Lhasa apso puppy romped all the way to back the top. With a…

In each issue we hide two needles like this one (though they may be a different size, black or white). If you find them, enter online at country-magazine.com by clicking the Contests link at the top of the page. Or send a postcard with the page numbers to NEEDLE CONTEST, COUNTRY, 1610 N 2ND ST STE 102, MILWAUKEE WI 53212-3906. We’ll draw 24 winners from all the correct entries. Winners receive a one-year subscription to Country Extra . In the last issue, the needles were hidden on pages 14 and 74. You’ll find a list of last issue’s winners at country-magazine.com. No purchase necessary to enter to win. Purchase will not improve your chances of winning. Sweepstakes is open to legal residents age 18 years or older of the U.S.,…