Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Winter Weather

We had a cold, snowy winter in Stanford.  I was advised to fit the car with a head bolt heater.  This device places an electrode in the oil pan and when plugged into 110 volts A. C. it  warmed up the oil and allow the engine to turn over easier.  These are used in Montana were it gets below minus 20 degrees in the winter,  It is the same process we used on the old ranch truck with the pan of burning ashes placed under the oil pan but a head bolt heater is a safer process.

Our plan was to go to the ranch for Thanksgiving and Saint John for Christmas.  As we left for the ranch two days before Thanksgiving we encountered a snow storm that was blowing horizontal across the highway.  It created the condition known as “white out”.  It was impossible to see where you were going and the only way to stay on the highway was to roll down the window and watch the edge of the road.  That made it very cold, so we pulled off the road as soon as possible.  As the storm subsided and evening came it improved visibility tremendously.  It made us late in arriving at mom’s home, but she was expecting us and it worked out fine.  We all went to the ranch the next day for a big thanksgiving dinner.  That was the first time Marie had met all my family.  Dorothy had started community college and was going to teach after two years.  On leaving, to return to Stanford we went out to Mary and John’s ranch to see them and Mark, and we asked about the expected baby.  Mary said all was going fine and the new baby was expected in mid December.   By driving north from there to Jordan and taking the east/west highway through the center of the state it took us directly to Stanford.  This early snow storm put white frosting on all the mountains around Stanford and stayed that way for the rest of the winter.

I had a chance to reassure grandpa while at the ranch that I would be towing the Ford back to him from Cheney in the spring.  He was relieved as he supposed it had been traded in on the new car.


Taken from "Which Road Should I Follow?, Volume 2, Roles and Responsibilities of an Educator", an autobiography by Edwin K. Hill. 

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