Just this week I finally drained the hoses and pulled them up on the patio for the winter. I had hesitated to finish the job for awhile, not knowing if would continue to be warm and dry, requiring water for the trees. The recent rains and colder weather caused me to change my mind, although I have continued to cover my petunias at night, hoping to enjoy my flowers a little longer.

As I watch the snowflakes flutter to the ground this morning, I realize that flower season is over.

When I think about the jobs that have to be finished to get ready for winter, I realize that a rancher’s preparation actually begins in the summer when it’s hot, indeed, but the hay has to be cut, dried and put up so the cows have food for the winter. That’s a job that went on day after day, all summer long when I was a kid.

Meanwhile, starting in summer and going into fall, Mom was putting food away for winter, too — for her family. The jars of vegetables and fruits began to fill the basement shelves. Earlier in the spring, Mom had ordered baby chicks to be raised for meat fryers and laying pullets. Later in the summer we helped her process the fryers, putting the meat in the freezer.

After the second cutting of hay was put up, Dad “buttoned up” the stackyards in preparation for the cattle coming home from summer pasture. Sometime in there, we harvested the potatoes. They were planted in a section of pasture away from the house, where the plants were irrigated. The entire family helped in the harvest. Dad dug the potatoes, and we put them in gunny sacks to be stored in the basement. Accidentally cut potatoes were set aside to be used right away.

Carrots from the garden were dug from the house garden and stored in the basement in baskets of sand. Onions left to mature were also dug. Some years Mom grew dried beans that were shelled and left to dry on tarps.

One rather unpleasant fall job was cleaning out the chicken house. I can remember the disagreeable odor and mostly the cloud of dust that arose as we shoveled chicken manure from under the roosts. The waste material was carried outside and hauled away. Fresh straw was stuffed into the  nests and fresh oyster shell (to insure hard egg shells) put out.

In October Dad and his brothers went to the high country, stayed at the cow camp cabin and hunted for elk and deer. Dad and Mom processed the meat, some canned and some frozen, for winter. Before we had a freezer, frozen meat was stored in a rented locker at Bill’s Market in Craig.

Finally, in November, the cattle were gathered and sorted for selling. Grown calves and culls were shipped to Denver by train where they sold at the stockyards. Dad went out with them. This was our paycheck of the year.

Finally we were ready for the winter where family and animals were well-fed and we got a little breather before the busy spring to come.