WhirldWorks Farm
A small homestead and Debouillet sheep farm in Central Texas
Time travel – back to winter
Here in Central Texas, Springtime began to peek out from behind the gray clouds of winter, but we found it necessary to travel to a land where Winter still holds its strong grip. My Aunt passed away last week and her memorial service was scheduled for the following Sunday. I had missed the funeral for her husband, my Uncle several years earlier and I wanted to do everything possible to ensure I could be there this time. I can assure you though that uprooting my wife, a six year old, and an infant from their regular schedules with little warning is most certainly a challenge. Add to that the complexity of finding a sitter for the farm and quickly showing them the daily routine and I slowly began to wonder if this trip was going to be possible.
With a very busy full-time job, there really was no way for me to organize and administrate the sudden changes that would need to take place. Thankfully, God has blessed me with an incredible wife! She not only found and quickly trained a farm sitter, she packed everything all of us would need for the trip, including enough food so we would not have to eat out and bust the budget.
We set out for middle America Friday afternoon and only a few hours later realized we weren’t in Texas weather any more. By the time we had stopped for the night there was snow and ice on the ground and when we woke up the next morning, the rear doors to our SUV were frozen shut. It was an unearthly 15 degrees! The further we drove that Saturday, the worse the roads became. We were heading directly for a winter storm!
This Texan driver had no interest in learning how to drive in a snowstorm with family in tow, so I kept track of the weather system and road conditions on my phone and kept veering northward to keep from heading too far East, into the storm. It took a little over 100 extra miles and a few hours to get around the winter weather, but we kept the car on solid ground. When we arrived at our destination though, the snow on the ground was deeper than I had seen in many, many years. I wasn’t all that excited about it, but our six year old was more than ready to jump into the drifts. There was a hill behind our hotel that would have been good for sledding, had we a sled with us. He tried to take a run at the hill on the top of our cooler, but it just wasn’t big enough. No matter, he played in it with a huge smile on his face. Then…the snow began to fall.
By the time we woke up the next morning, several inches had fallen. Our SUV was covered in snow, as were the roads and everything around us. We were to meet together with family that night for dinner, but I was rather discouraged at the thought of driving. You see, in Texas, when it snows or there is any amount of ice, EVERYTHING shuts down. We simply do not have the equipment, manpower or ability to clear enough of the road hazards to make travel possible. Where we were though, it is a mightily different story. Plows were out in force clearing the roads and laying down salt to melt the snow. It was actually quite a site to see. It was as if nearly everyone in that town who owned a pickup truck had it equipped with a plow and were clearing main roads, side roads and even parking lots.
The snow continued falling throughout the night and well into evening the next day, the day of the memorial service for my Aunt. There were drifts almost as tall as our son, but the roads were travel worthy. We all made it safely to the service and celebrated the life of a woman who meant so much to all of us.
Afterwards, we were invited to a cousin’s house that evening to go sledding on real sleds. Our original plan was to start heading home right after the service, but even the Herculean effort of the local road crews found it difficult to get ahead of the falling snow. We cancelled our travel plans for the night and headed for some fun in the snow. It was a fun time for all the kids, including this big kid writing this. I had not been sledding since I was a kid myself and couldn’t resist the chance to take a few runs down the snowy slope. We wrapped up the sledding as darkness overtook us and retreated inside for warmth and big cups of hot chocolate. We then said our goodbyes and carefully ventured back to our hotel for the night.
In the very early hour of the next morning, before the sun even stretched its arms to welcome the new day, we loaded up and headed for home. There was a LOT of snow on the sides of the interstate, but the roads were clear. It was a mere 9 degrees, but somehow these locals tackled the task and we made our way Southward again. We made it safely home slightly after our regular bedtimes and were thankful for the safe journey to winter and back again.
WhirldWorks Farm 
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