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Logan and Connor in school.
Update from the field:
Connie Anderson, Researcher
It's a smoldering ninety-five degrees in Frontier
Valley and snow seems far away, but winter is the
pioneer's worst enemy and the Glenns have begun
planning their defenses. Karen Glenn has ordered
extra food at each store visit; now, supplies peek
out from under her bed, and plump sacks crowd the
corners of her small one-room home.
A few days ago, Mark began digging a root cellar in
an old river bank behind their cabin. The cellar will
be six feet deep and six feet wide when he's done
shifting away the twenty-pound boulders and tons of
compact gravel. He digs at night after he's finished
haying, he says, "because it is the only free time I
have left in the day." He began excavating three days
ago, and hopes to begin framing a secure structure
with rough-cut lumber in a week.
Once built, the cellar will be filled with root crops
from their garden: potatoes, onions, beets, turnips,
and their carefully hoarded supply of flour, oats,
salt, honey, and a few cans of fruits. Mark also cut
about three cords of wood --
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"It is the only free time I have left in the day."
-- Mark Glenn on why he has to dig at night.
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Aine Clune sewing a dress for herself.
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Aine's thoughts on frontier school. Read her profile.
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before breaking the handle
of his saw -- and says he needs to cut eight more cords
before the first snowfall. He's also cut about
three tons of hay, he says, and plans to slaughter
several sheep before the end of September.
Winter snows in this mountainous valley can begin as
early as Labor Day, and the freezing chill often lasts
deep into May. Seven months of freezing cold and deep
snow can strain even the most prudent housekeeper's
plans. In the brutal winter of 1880-81, for example, blizzards
began in December and continued nearly unbroken
until May. Temperatures were seldom warmer than 20 degrees
below zero (Fahrenheit), and for weeks at a time the mercury stayed
fixed at 40 below.
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