The scurs were sure the Weather Eye would deliver another batch of above-normal temperatures week last and the Weather Eye came through. Has our luck run out or will we just hit a bump in the road? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a modest chance of snow. Highs in the low 30’s with lows in the low 20’s. Thursday, cloudy with a good chance of snow. Highs in the upper 20’s with lows in the mid-teens. Mostly cloudy on Friday with flurries possible. Highs in the low 20’s with lows in the upper single digits. Saturday, mostly cloudy with highs in the low double digits and lows in the low single digits below zero. Partly sunny Christmas Eve Day and colder with highs in the mid-single digits above zero and lows in the upper single digits below zero. Christmas Day, partly sunny with highs in the low single digits above zero and lows in the mid-single digits below zero. Mostly cloudy Tuesday with highs in the mid-single digits above zero and lows near 10 below. On the 21st winter begins and we’re down to 8 hours and 54 minutes of daylight. The normal high for Christmas Day is 24 and the normal low is 12. The scurs are getting everyone on their list a donation in their name to The Human Fund; money for people. Yet another Festivus miracle!
Most farming in the fields has come to a screeching halt for now. With low prices, very little grain is moving and about the only people doing anything are the livestock folks who don’t have a choice. Still a far cry from the “good old days” when there was a wide variety of livestock on most farms and much less mechanization than what there is today. Those who lived through those times have a special appreciation and toughness that sometimes seems lost today. We have become soft when it comes to the hard physical labor that was a trademark of the times. If you don’t think so, jump on the scale.
Around the area it appears the geese are struggling to keep some holes open on St. Olaf Lake as of this writing. One has to wonder how much longer they’ll be able to continue that once the deep freeze arrives in earnest. The lack of snow cover at the ranch has the bird activity on the low side at the ranch. A Cooper’s hawk again hasn’t helped matters, although its attention in particular to the house sparrow population doesn’t hurt my feelings. The leaves that were still green back in October and froze on the trees continue to come off gradually, leaving fewer places for prey to hide.
I contracted my first alien of the season over the weekend. Oh to have that magic ‘CCO cough button when talking on the phone! This one, as with others, has gotten into my voice box. When Betsy’s dad stopped by the office to visit the other day he claimed I sounded like Barry White. I was thinking maybe more along the lines of Lou Rawls or Isaac Hayes myself. Can you dig it?
As promised, we’ll finish up the story we started last week about our family trip to Venezuela to visit my brother who was in the Peace Corps in the late ‘60s. When I left off I think we were somewhere over Cuba and had not landed yet in Caracas. Once on the ground, we stayed at a small hotel called Los Pinos. It seems like some of our luggage got lost so nothing new there. Luckily there was a very good bakery nearby and some Christmas displays that were interesting to see. Once the luggage showed up, we headed out in a Volkswagen micro-bus to Cata, roughly 60 miles west of Caracas. We stopped first in Maracay where we loaded up on some staples, then went over the winding road through the mountains and the rain forest. The road was narrow and there were places where crosses were placed as a result of some not living to tell about it. The rain forest was very dark with large trees and all sorts of vines. One expected Tarzan to swing through any time.
Once through the mountains we made our way to the village of Cata, which was up the valley from the ocean. At one time the area was under Spanish rule and was covered by a plantation, known as a hacienda. We ate mangos, bananas, platinos, grapefruit and coconut grown there. One of the main crops though was cacao, the raw material used to make cocoa and chocolate. It was unique in that the cocoa beans were contained inside a pod growing out of the trunk of the tree. The beans were then dried in the sun on the large courtyard area.
The people were very warm and friendly and I still remember some of their names such as Meto, Domingo, Luis, and Pio. The village of Cata itself was a few miles up the valley and had many buildings left over from the Spanish colonization. It was poor at the time with electricity only running part of the day supplied by a diesel generator. The cuisine wasn’t spicy as one might expect from Latin America, more bland than that yet very good. Arepas, a white cornmeal-type staple, and black beans were common. Of course, getting us kids to eat some of it likely took large amounts of the canned Danish butter that needed no refrigeration.
The area was absolutely beautiful and it seemed like the sun shone every day. The small lizards of several different colors were fun to try and catch. On some their tails would become detached, only to grow back later. Not everything was peaches and cream however. There were vampire bats, huge cockroaches, large colonies of ants and disease-carrying mosquitoes. We slept under mosquito nets and tucked them in under the mattress as we were told the vampire bats could crawl in with you otherwise. Oh goody. DDT was also still in use. It was used to control mosquitoes carrying yellow fever, not to mention any number of insect pests carrying their own variety of human maladies.
The most beautiful sight was Cata beach. It was a bay that was largely protected and the water was a beautiful blue. One could imagine the Spanish ships anchoring there or even pirates looking to stash their treasure. The water was like bath water and the beach was home to all kinds of sea creatures. We picked up a hermit crab and hauled it back to my brother’s home in a paper bag. The crab became active, rustling inside the bag and scaring the daylights out of us kids. I suspect we took the crab back to the beach after that. The beach has no doubt changed since our visit and the political climate in Venezuela has definitely changed.
Before we knew it, it was time to go home. When we got to the airport in Caracas, there was a problem with our visas. We were unsure whether or not there would be seats for us on the flight home. We were told to go have breakfast and they’d let us know. About the time our breakfast arrived, they wanted us to board the plane! We had breakfast on the plane, the Varig flight we’d initially been booked on, so all was well that ended well. The rest of the journey home was largely uneventful. It’s been a long time since those days and while our folks are both gone, the memories are very much alive of that unforgettable Christmas vacation 50 years ago. Can never thank them enough.
See you next week…real good then.